The influence of thoughts on man’s personality
Shri Prakash Ji Satsang. 20.12.2008

In outward appearance people look very similar: everybody has two arms, two legs, two eyes. Why then are the circumstances of life, the achievements and the destiny not similar for all people? What does it depend on?

Much depends on one’s personality how the life of a man and his destiny are taking shape. Man’s personality defines how long and what mode of life he will live; what and how he will do so that to achieve a success, how he will get along with other people. It is the personality of a man, that defines all this.

What is the basis of forming up the personality of a man? How is it built?

The root has its dwelling in vichara – the thoughts. Each one thinks in his own way. One cannot find in this world even a pair of persons who will think similarly at all. First, a man produces thoughts, then thoughts pass to the words, and the words turn into actions. And multiple repeating of the thoughts, words and actions form sanskara, i.e. a habit. Further, the personality is being built from the aggregate of sanskaras.

You build your future by yourself and none besides you; that is why you must cleanse your thoughts, work over them. In all spheres of life, whether you build your career, make a family, or strives for spiritual achievements, your sanskaras display themselves thus defining what you are, i.e. what you are now and what you will become.

Why couldn’t one person watch the order in his family, while another is capable to supervise the order in a big city, in the whole country? The first and the second are quite alike – they are men, God equally endowed them both with strength. These capabilities depend on the quality of man’s personality. But the quality of personality starts from the thought.

What is the source of the thoughts after all?

One should learn of it, so that to work over them. If the thoughts are the root of the success of the whole my life, then how to work on them in order to think correctly?

Why do not all think similarly?

It happens so, because one part of your present thoughts (something about one half) depends on past karma – your own thoughts, words and actions which reveal themselves in this life. This part is hard to be changed in a short time. Anyway, you may also work on it, cleanse it, only the result will not bee seen very soon; these thoughts had struck already. The second part of thoughts depends of what the source of information for your mind is just now, in this life.

From his very birth a child is being imbueed with information. For instance, it is rather important how his parents are talking between themselves; the place of birth has got its significance as well; the mode of relations between grandfather and grandmother, among brothers and sisters; how he chum up with schoolmates and neighbours – all this matters much. These life circumstances are the source of information for a child. Everything that a child sees and hears is the source for his thoughts and further on mould his thinking. And the childhood is just the best period in order to sow the seeds of such kind as you wish. Later it will be much harder to do this… If in his childhood a kid saw kind people, heard good things; if the atmosphere of harmony and mutual respect surrounded him, then the sanskaras of the same kind will take shape in him. But the elder the child gets, the more difficult is to cultivate good sanskara, especially after 14 – 16 years of age.

Where does the mind get his information at present? Internet, TV, papers, books…It became too many such sources of information nowadays. Getting up in the morning a man immediately looks through Internet, papers, switch on TV set. It is necessary to some extent for those who works, who lives in a society, so that to know and to sort out the things that are going on around. But we talk now about other things. We speak about where from the thoughts come, what imprints on a man’s mentality.

At present the former karma is going on to exert influence, and every day some new is added. You may work over a new one. It depends on your surroundings and the information which you are touching: these may be the relations of people at your work, their communications among themselves, their mode of life. Besides, the things you are watching on TV, for example. A man spends much time on it now.

You may not understand, or it may matter nothing for you, but as a matter of fact the entire information heard and seen by you goes deep inside your consciousness. There is one center in man’s brain, which secretly, whether you want it or not, imbibe all the data about what you are doing, with whom you communicate, what surrounds you – just all this is the information for your mind. Later, because of the information received, there might appear negative thoughts in man’s mind.

For example, a man learned that there were an accident at some place, many people were injured. Someone of this man’s family is away now. It is quite late now, but they haven’t come back yet. And at once the negative thoughts appear at a man, ”What if something happened to them?” He has no reason to think so, but the information obtained before gives rise to transfer that situation to his family.

The remarkable source of positive thoughts is the satsang. They will not give rise to developing negative thoughts, they will neutralize negative. When you remember of a satsang, contemplate over it, there occurs cleansing of your thoughts. Satsang as a spiritual intercourse is very important for the inner state – for clear contemplations, for the state of balance, calmness and joy. It does not allow rising the negative.

But staying in the world, whether you like it or not, you will anyway hear and see the things that carry not only spiritual and positive. But you have to live and work in society and perform your duties there.

The fact is that until the positive became stronger, the man is very much undergone the influence of what he saw former before the meeting with the Teacher, before his spiritual way. It is not seldom that a man proceed thinking as before. With time there become more positive things. At some stage negative and positive take their presence in thoughts simultaneously. And further on the stronger positive thoughts and energies begin prevailing.

Never allow negative to dwell inside you. Any thoughts which constantly whirling in your head will form sanskara with time. There is one type of thoughts that are coming and going. We may say that it is normal. But there are thoughts of another quality: they came and do not want to go – these are dangerous thoughts – it is from them that sanskars will be built.

Why do I say at satsangs that much depends on those around, on those with whom a man spends more time and communicate with? Because dependently on those around the personality is gradually taking shape.

Why do children not obey their parents?

If you want that a man understood and accepted good things, there must be such an example before his eyes. If from her childhood a daughter sees how much patience there had her Mom in her life; that she devoted all her life to her family, then just this very sanskara will be formed in her daughter. And if her Mother tells her, “My dear, you should live this way,” I think, the daughter will understand it straight away. And probably, her Mom even did not have to tell her; she herself will built her life just this way.

Sometimes parents make complaints that their children do not obey them. Why does it happen? It’s because they themselves formed such sanskara in kids from childhood. The child sees you and is already learning very much, it’s of no need to explain him a lot. The childhood is such a period, when children are looking and learning the things which they see. No need in many words.

Only later you have to reproach the kids, to tell them that they are bad, do not take your advice. Aren’t only they bad?! How can only children be bad and their parents be very good at this?

Now the child is of such kind of which he saw you, and accepted this from you. What is the use to say to him that he is bad. It has become his personality now. In his childhood when you ought to cultivate in them good sanskaras, you did not do it. But now you want him to change quickly. It sometimes happens that after starting to correctly understand some positive things a man considers that all around him for one day can learn everything which he himself comprehended within several years. How can the thing that had got its shape and became sanskara change quickly?

If we want to create good future; if we want our world to become kind and light, we absolutely need to work with our children.

Childhood in man’s life is important just because the sanskaras are taking shape at this time. For instance, a child was born in one family, but was given for upbringing to another, more spiritual family. If in fifteen years his parents see him, they will not recognize him: he will have other sanskaras.

The child of one my disciple once told me that up to five in the morning he played in the Internet. I felt very bad on hearing it. I asked his mother how she could allow to her child not to sleep until five, but play in computer. I do not say that Internet or the News are bad. I suppose, you understand what namely I want to say. You may allow him playing when he wants, but at a normal time. If instead one hour he will sit in Internet all night through, it will be incorrect. There is much information in it which a child absolutely do not need. You are not with him all the time, so that to control this. Anyway, the adults must control the child when he still do not understand so much.

Very much depends on what you impart in the childhood to your kids. We all wants our children to grow up good children, so that at any place wherever they are, their clear light, positive energy and good qualities were perceived by anybody nearby. When a man grows adult, it will be very hard to change something.

Half of karma circumstances comes from past all the same, but nevertheless a mature period of life is also very important for the spiritual development. But one should work very much if he want to move to better.

For the adult person morning, brahma-muhurt is the very important period. Morning is the childhood every day. Your past will influence your life, but brahma-muhurt is you childhood. The time brahma-muhurt lasts approximately from three-four to seven in the morning. What you will devote this time for, of that kind will be your thoughts in the course of a day, and you will be mostly in that state. So, brahma-muhurt is a very important period. All rishi and muni said, “Don’t waste this time.”

Time of the morning is very important. If a man does not sleep up to three-five in the morning, of what brahma –muhurt can we talk then? The best time for obtaining good, positive energies from this Universe will be spent for sleep. Get use from morning time and it will help you to sow positive thoughts, words and sanskaras and to form as a result good personality. Much will depend on what you will do during an hour and a half or two hours after you wake up. Just for this reason I always say that in the morning one should pray, remember God and chant mantra; and you should learn to concentrate and meditate. To pray and remember God is useful at any time, but in the morning it is especially important.

In a contemporary world people waste their morning time, because they don’t understand its value. As soon as they got up, at once they start reading papers, watching TV, sit down at the computer. You may do all this, but later. It is because the thoughts that will come after will not be so strong. As soon as a man wakes up, his first morning thoughts are very strong for the head is fresh at this time and the things that will get there will be sitting there firmly and will create sanskara once more. And as much good positive energies a man gets in the morning, to such an extent good he will become with time. That is why morning is very important time and one should make good use of this time.

About horoscopes and other predictions.

One more topic is popular nowadays with people. In the morning a man opens a paper and reads his horoscope, “I am a Taurus. What kind of a day will I have today, what kind of a week? What is written about Taurus?” And he reads in horoscope, “The Taurus will have bad relations in wedlock.” And at once a man starts thinking about it. In the morning many people read such predictions.

In the morning you had better pray, remember God and contemplate on good. Wake up with the name of God. The first that you should do when you woke up is to shut your eyes plunder inside yourself and recollect God.

What will horoscope give you? The way you think of it may come true. I believe in God most of all and I teach you the same. I know that a man himself can form his life correctly; none of zodiac signs can do anything. There is a million of such Tauruses, and all have different destinies. How can one and the same horoscope fit for everybody? You need not spend much time for this.

Besides the horoscope still many similar things are popular today. Those who start doing it think that this refers to spirituality. Anyway, this is not spirituality at all.

For example, a man is walking along the street and someone passing him by says to him, “You will be bad.” So, the thoughts of this immediately fill the head. You should at once start working over them and think that you will be well in any case. If a man who told you this is stronger than you inwardly, even a bit stronger, you may start thinking,
“I will be bad now, I will be bad.”
“You should put on this talisman and all will be OK,” he will say.
And you will think that when you put on this talisman, you will feel well. And you will put on it, and you really may become well.

Now think well, why does it occur this way? It is caused by the lack of inner strength.

Some people come to personal meeting with me and say that someone did them something bad. How is it called, evil eye? I tell them that I do not believe that it can be so.

I believe and pray God. And I only know that when God protects, when He loves, when a man always remember him, then who has got so much strength to send any negative to you? Nobody and nothing has got such strength. Even the planets do not possess the power which might ruin you: neither Saturn, nor Jupiter or Venus. They all are under God’s power, all are his servants. The whole Universe is serving him: the stars, the Sun, the planets are bowing to this great power – to God’s power. And when He is my dear friend, when I always remember of him, then who can do any negative to me?

Don’t even think that some planet is able to do any harm to you. You may change all influences on you by your inner strength. But for this your thoughts must be good, positive. But if you at this think that now Saturn ‘comes’ into your destiny, be sure that this very day it will ‘come’ right up to the door of your house. Always regard such thoughts as inconceivable. The best way is to think that it is God, who comes to you. And God is such an enormous strength, that when you think of him, you should not bother of all the rest. God will always take care of you. But any persuasion, which is firmly sit inside you, with time will hamper you very much. And you will always live in the state of fright and fear.

Sometimes a man works much and achieves good result in life. Then some his karma wakes up and he meets some man who tells him, “There comes the streak of bad luck to your life.” Such words can influence this man so strongly that he will believe in them and in some years just all this “bad luck” starts coming to his life.

You should not accept negative predictions, better think, “There will be lucky streak. It will always be.” It is better to pray God, then think of it.

“My grandmother told that it will be just this way in my life. She looked on my palm.” What can this granny see on the palm? The lines on it are changing every day. They are changing according to your thoughts. Someone is worrying “I have got a short line of life.” I saw people who had a short line of life, but they live very long; and those who had a long one had passed away already. Is it possible to say that man’s life depends on lines? It is very secret knowledge and an ordinary man cannot understand it. God does not reveal his secrets so simply for everybody to understand them.

Sometimes a spiritual man is caught at this when he connects horoscopes and different predictions with spirituality. But in fact it is but another kind if TV or the News.

When I speak of Mass Media I mean that you can listen and watch everything you need, but at its time. If you want to listen to the news, then choose the suitable time for this, only do not waste that important period of a day when you must remember God, do spiritual practice and contemplate over something good. All the rest you may do later. Start your day from prayer.

Who can change a person? Only he himself can.

Once more I’d like to repeat: the morning time is extremely important for you. Nevertheless the majority of people sleep long in the morning. If you cannot wake up at three-four, never mind, wake up at six-seven. But only start doing practice at once. For those living in society an hour and a half of practice daily is very good. When you regularly perform your practice, you build very much good, you create much. Those practicing in the morning not long ago may notice that their thinking changed to better if they watch their reflections in a day.

Morning, the time of wakening is the first period of a day on its importance. Like early childhood is the most important for a child, the same importance for adults has the morning.

The second such period of a day is the evening, when you are setting off for a rest. Here is also very important to remember God and to pray. When a man remembers God, he imagines something good, light. Even if he cannot stop his thoughts and get calm completely, he anyway has got more pure thoughts, and thus evening time is also very important. Only when you are going to rest , never think, “Oh, this man told me such a thing today, tomorrow I will answer to him for this.” You should have your rest in a state of complete calmness.

At this time the contemplations about satsang, practice, prayer are very useful. When a man is reflecting over the word of the Teacher, he understands much and obtains knowledge. The Teacher can change many sanskaras, he is able to cleanse in a moment – it only will depend on how the disciple accepts the word of a Teacher

It is very big labour now to struggle with what had already become sanskaras, with the personality that had taken its final shape. But everybody ought to do it, because in this process you get rid of negative. Some day you must start. If you do not work, you will have to come to the Earth, to take the rebirth again with all these “savings”.

If now you sow good seed and start creating good sanskaras, then the Universe, the energy of God will give you in future life such family conditions, which you lack in your childhood. Even in this life you will have got good circumstances and it may happen just as you want, because your thoughts will be of another kind, of more purity. God will give you such circumstances which will help you even more in your spiritual growth, your further movement.

Only never think or say about some your circumstances that if you did not have them everything would have been just another way. Accept your past as a lesson, only then you may benefit from it. And work over yourself constantly, learn to think positively, surely they create your future. What you think today, what you will think tomorrow, what you will think in some years – all this forms your future.

There are a lot of different sanskaras inside a man. Sometimes a man has got many good sanskaras, but alongside he has some of such kind that they bring to naught all good ones. At times even one bad habit ruin much in life. If a man is drunkard, what good he can think about. Or there are bad thoughts about others in a man. And if he thinks this way about others, these bad qualities will appear in him with time. Or there at times happens such sanskara – to talk dishonestly, insincerely about trifles and quite unimportant things.

Much depends on what surrounds a man. Shastras read about the importance of a satsang, because the positive energy enveloping a man at that time imbue him and then the negative has no room left. These energies direct man’s mind into positive stream. With time his thoughts become clearer and the changes to better occur in his life.

Constant deliberations on satsang, on mantra and God will bring good, will help you to move further and to spiritually develop.

Have you ever seen how the cow is eating; it chews the grass, then swallows it. In some time partly digested food it brings back to its mouth and is chewing it once more for the food to be digested very well. You should also learn to digest and assimilate very well only not like cow in her stomach, but in your mind. If you learned something good and are deliberating over it, it means that you are ”digesting” in spiritual sense. Then you will understand correctly and assimilate the knowledge you are given; then will have advantage for your development. And if you do not have pure deliberations there will always be of another kind: “She is such and he is the same.” A man is always submerged into thoughts of other people who are still not so perfect as well.

Morning time devote to perfection: for sadhana, jap. For those only starting I say: Begin your practice from 15, 20 or 30 minutes. For those practicing some more period it would be better to practice for an hour or an hour and a half. Those who work can also find time for this. After this you may watch your news if need be, Internet – all you need for your job and life. But the time from which you can benefit do not waste.

The same is in the evening: befire going to sleep – sadhana, jap, prayer. If you see film before going to bed then the items from film will be spinning in your head; your thoughts all by themselves will show you different “films.” If these are films or program on spiritual topics, you may watch a bit, nothing bad. But the information offered mainly nowadays will not direct his contemplations into right side. Most likely vice versa: it may bring anxiety and fear.

If a man has good surroundings, if he listens the talks about God and spirituality, then his mode of thinking will change with time. If he has got a family, then the awareness that he should correctly bring up his children will come to him as well.

Bing in some different surroundings, a man feels difficulty while thinking correctly and positively. If you got your food for your brain from film, then the fantasies on the topic start emerging. If a man watched the News about catastrophes and accidents, a man begins imagining that something alike can happen in his life. So, it’s much better to pray before sleep, and to devote morning time to the things that will bring good in future.

If you have night job, your regime will of course be another; you do your karma duties and with this provide your family and yourself. But not everybody has the night work and duty. That is why you should go to bed in normal time and in the day time to think of useful and positive as much as possible. Most fears appears at a man in connection with different situations, but it is thoughts, that fix the fears in man’s consciousness.

Much depends on those around: all that you see and hear exert influence on you. But once you get strong inside, those around will not influence you any more. Moreover, they themselves will start changing and gradually will become the same as you. That is why even one inwardly strong person is capable to change many. Anyway you will need very big inner strength and spiritual qualities.

If you store more of good and positive, then in any place, wherever you are, people will always have quite good impression from you.

The more you work over yourself, the more you will change. Who if not yourself is able to bring up and discipline you? Only you yourself. Even if you did not get in your childhood what you needed, you are independent now, you have every possibility to evolve, to perfect yourself. But if you do not work now, it means only one – you do not understand the value of your life and waste the time given to you. So always work over yourself.

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