Thinking too much is not good

Thinking too much is not good
(Vinod Anand)

Imagine a one-year-old child who is still not able to stand on her feet. This child could think about her future and could well believe that she won’t be able to walk. Although she may be seeing adults walking, she could think that they are so big and she is so small; she cannot even stand up, then how can she hope to walk?

Although her parents may tell her that she will grow up naturally and will definitely be able to stand and walk and run, she could harbour all kinds of doubts and refuse to believe them. Such a “thinking child” could also find comfort in lying around and being taken care of by family members.

Besides, she may not see any need to make the effort to stand up and take the consequent risk of frilling. In essence, she could ask, “Why should I stand up when I don’t see any reason to give up lying down?”

Fortunately, children at the age of one year hardly think, and certainly do not think along the lines as above! We know that the child grows in a natural y and develops over a period of time the ability to stand up, walk and run. Of course, the child is prompted by her own biological nature to keep trying.

Though she falls often in the beginning, she succeeds in due course of time. During this growing up phase, she also gets help from her family members who encourage her, give her Support, leave her without support off and n, letting her fail and then rise again. But, when it comes to us adults in the context of spiritual progress, we unnecessarily think too much, like the imaginary child described in the first two paragraphs above!

We find a comfort zone in the worldly life and see no need to bother about spirituality. Even when some of us start seeing some need for spirituality and develop interest in it, we tend to peep too far into the future and harbour all kinds of doubts about the chances of attaining the spiritual goals. We ask all kinds of questions based on our conditioned thinking and generally find it very difficult to accept spirituality as a worthwhile pursuit.

We do have help available from scriptures and other spiritual literature, as also affirmations by those who have attained and experienced the spiritual goals. But our thinking mind remains in disbelief. That is the reason why we find it impossible to accept that desires can be controlled, that vairagya bhav can be established, that ego can be overcome, that bodily identity can be discarded, that living in the moment is possible, that it is possible to engage in action without bothering about its outcome, etc.

Only a few, who are under the divine grace, get the gift of faith from the divine. Like a child who has no prior conditioning, such a blessed seeker starts with a clean slate, not allowing his past worldly conditioning to interfere in his spiritual contemplation and pursuit. Ho keeps himself open to wherever his spiritual pursuit will lead to. Faith in the divine is his guide.

Then, at the appropriate time, he meets his sadhguru who takes charge of his spiritual pursuits and guides him further till he attains the ultimate spiritual goal. This may even take more than one lifetime. But the sadhguru does not abandon his disciple until the latter attains liberation.