Acharya Tulsi
Man is the product of his own thought, will-power,determination and capacity for action. External circumstances influence him so far as he accepts them. The image taking shape in his brain finds its due expression. The door he knocks at opens. If the idea formed in his mind is vague, he is condemned to a life of failure and frustration. On the other hand, if his conception is sharp and clear, he is led from darkness to light; his very difficulties are transformed into opportunities. There is no room for despair, dullness or defeat in such a man's life. It can, therefore, be safely averred that a man is the architect of his own fate. He becomes what he desires. In himself, he constitutes his own destiny.
It is the ideal he cherishes, the dream he dreams, and the ambition he fashions for himself that make up and mould a man's personality. James wait, a Scottish engineer dreamed of inventing a stream engine. It all looked ridiculous at first. But ultimately James did invent such an engine. The man who is able to divine his inner potentialities and put in the right effort, often succeeds in realising his dream.
Mains physical and psychological health is also determined by the way he thinks and acts. The increasing use of psychotherapy along with traditional ways of treatment in Modern medicine, in a conclusive proof thereof. Some psychotherapists believe that basically all disease is rooted in man's mind, the body being nothing more than a medium of its manifestation. According to some doctors, fifty per cent of man's diseases emanate from the state of his mind.
Cancer is the most deadly scourge of modern times. Its very name extinguishes hope. Only he, who suffers, can know the utter vacuity of the life of a person sunk in despair. But h0W does such a desperate state arise? The experts analysing this problem have concluded that those who cannot meet with equanimity the ups and downs of life and the mental anguish flowing therefrom, are often filled with tensions, which adversely affect the body's innate power of resistance, which in turn results in a complete loss of control over cellular growth. Consequently, some cells grow uncontrollably, resulting in cancer.
According to Dr.Yatish Aggarval, some psychiatrists have started using psycho-suggestive therapy (therapeutic thinking) in treating their patients. Through such treatment, they try to bring about a fundamental change.in the patient's attitude and to awaken self-confidence in him. Those patients, who succeed in changing their outlook and in awakening their self-confidence, find themselves almost miraculously cured. Those whose ways of thinking and feeling remain unchanged, who cannot rise above their past conditioning, gradually come to lose their power. Such people can find no freedom from disease.
The following incident well illustrates the power of a man's thought and approach in bringing about a change in him. The only daughter of a rich family lost her vision immediately after graduation. No treatment proved effective. Her father took her to a friend who was a psychotherapist. The doctor thoroughly probed the circumstances of the case and discovered the real cause of the girl's blindness: it was the girl's intimacy with a class fellow of hers who lived in the neighbourhood and whom she wanted to marry. However, the boy belonged to a different caste and the girl s parents rejected the proposal. In order to stifle the growing attraction between the boy and the girl, a wall was drawn between the two houses. This left a terrible impact upon the girl's mind. The person she wanted to see most was placed beyond her reach. She lost interest in the world and consequently became blind.
While giving the girl the much-needed assurance, the psychiatrist told her, "O daughter, you have not done well. There lies within you infinite power which you have misused." He also spoke to the girl's parents. They said, "The boy is otherwise all right, but heist not a Bahrain. The marriage, therefore, is out of question." The therapist was an intimate friend of the family. He was able to persuade the parents to allow their daughter to meet her lover and him if he would marry her in her present state of blindness.
The girl who was sitting nearby was overjoyed at her parent's approval. The gladsome prospect of future felicity filled her with peace, and when she opened her eyes, she found her vision restored.
Right attitude is an important and recurrent theme of Jain philosophy. It is the basis of all religion and spirituality. Unless one's approach is right, one cannot make any progress in the religious or spiritual field. It is in combination with right attitude that one's unique individuality manifests itself. Without the right approach, a man is lost in negativism. Passion, pride, deceit, desire, inferiority complex, mental depression, boredom, envy, restlessness and prejudice;all arise from a negative attitude. The cure from all these ills lies in the development of a positive attitude. Unless a positive attitude evolves, one fails to find one's true identity. The trinity of thought, feeling and action plays an important role in the evolution of one's unique individuality. For this one must continually discipline and strengthen one's latent powers of thinking, feeling, willing and action.
