Thought – The Architect of Your Destiny

Divine Life Society Publication: Thought Power by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda

Om Sri Sadguru Paramatmane Namah

If the mind dwells continually upon one train of thought, a groove is formed into which the thought-force runs automatically and such a habit of thought survives death and since it belongs to the ego, is carried over to the subsequent earth-life as a thought-tendency and capacity.

Every thought, it must be remembered, has got its own mental image. The essence of the various mental images formed in one particular physical life is being worked out in the mental plane. It constitutes the basis for the next physical life.

Just as a new physical body is formed in every birth, so also a new mind and a new Buddhi are formed in every birth.

Not easy is the act of explaining the detailed workings of thought and destiny. Every Karma produces twofold effect, one on the individual mind and the other on the world. Man makes the circumstances of his future life by the effect of his actions upon others.

Every action has a past which leads up to it; every action has a future which proceeds from it. An action implies a desire which prompted it and a thought which shaped it.

Each thought is a link in an endless chain of causes and effects, each effect becoming a cause and each cause having been an effect; and each link in the endless chain is welded out of three components—desire, thought and activity. A desire stimulates a thought; a thought embodies itself as an act. Act constitutes the web of destiny.

Selfish coveting of the possessions of others, though never carried out into active cheating in the present, makes one a thief in a later earth-life, while hatred and revenge secretly cherished are the seeds from which the murderer springs.

So again, unselfish loving yields as harvest the philanthropist and the saint; and every thought of compassion helps to build the tender and pitiful nature which belongs to one who is a friend to all creatures.

Sage Vasishtha asks Rama to do Purushartha, or show the prowess of self-exertion. Do not yield to fatalism. It will induce inertia and laziness. Recognize the Great Powers of Thought. Exert. By right thinking make for yourself a great destiny.

Prarabdha is Purushartha of last birth. You sow an action and reap a habit; a habit sown results in character. You sow a character and reap a destiny.

Man is the master of his own destiny. You yourself make, by the power of your thought, your destiny. You can undo it if you like. All faculties, energies and powers are latent in you. Unfold them, and become free and great.

 Note: Pitripaksha 2015 – Sept 28-Oct 12 (Mahalaya Amavasya)

Om Tat Sat Brahmaparnamastu

 Excerpts from: Thought – The Architect of Your Destiny - Thought Power by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda