Acharya Mahaprajna
White Drums
We are fortunate that we are human beings. We are capable of developing our powers. We possess the potential for developing sense-consciousness, mind-consciousness and pure consciousness. Every living being has sense-consciousness. It is found among the most undeveloped living beings also. Living beings having two or three or four sense organs also possess sense-consciousness but man alone is capable of developing it in an unprecedented manner. Living beings other than man do not possess this capacity. This is also true of mind-consciousness. Living beings other than man and animals also possess a mind but man alone can develop his powers. The possibility of this development is not available to other living beings. Man is engaged in developing mental powers in all directions.
Memory, thinking and imagination are the functions of the mind. All these faculties point towards the great potential of the mind. The mind is the most powerful organ. Its powers are infinite. Memory, imagination and thinking are not the only powers of the mind. It has more powers than these. We can know these powers only when they manifest themselves in the course of the development of mental processes. So far as we remain circumscribed by memory, imagination and thinking, we shall not know the further possibilities of the development of the mind and its powers.
We have drawn a circle around the mind. We do not want to cross this circle. It is not possible to assess the potential of the mind without breaking this cordon. The mind can know the thoughts of other minds also and influence them. It can send and receive messages to and from other minds also. It can act on plants. Both conscious and unconscious beings can be affected by the mind. The mind can move objects and transplant and transport them. A trained and energized mind can do all these things easily.
How to train the mind? How to energies it? Let us consider these questions. The only way to energies the mind is to change the orientation of our life. It is not possible to change the course of life without changing the breath process. Breath or prana is the most powerful instrument of our powers. Life depends on breath. We live because we breathe. Let us therefore keep the lamp of life burning. There are lights, which keep burning for centuries and centuries together. Ordinarily lamps keep burning for a limited time only. Oil lamps burn for a few hours. But men have burnt lights which will never be extinguished.
An Italian peasant was once working on his field with a spade. All of a sudden it stuck on a particular spot. When the soil of the spot was removed, it was found that there was a door beneath the soil. The peasant broke the door open. When he tried to enter into the door, he found that a light was burning within. He suspected that there might be a ghost there. But when he went near the light he saw that there was no lamp but only a flame. It was not a man made flame but an eternal flame because it was not produced by a lamp.
There is an eternal flame burning within us also. There are innumerable lights burning within all the living beings also. They will never be extinguished. Among the fuels which keep these lights burning the first is breath. The lights are the centres of energy. Those who have not practiced breath perception will never be able to reach the centres of energy. So far as memory and thought processes continue, these lights can never be perceived. It can be said with confidence that the Tirthankaras and men possessed of knowledge and those accomplished in sadhana had burnt such lights with the fuel of breath only. Such an achievement is possible even today. Breath control and the turn we give to the breathing process are the preconditions of success in sadhana.