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The mind is superior to the body. It is the mind that makes the body, but not vice versa. Mind is a repository of thoughts. Negative and evil thoughts make the mind weak. Weak and uncontrolled mind always succumbs to temptations, creating havoc with a person. The habits of brooding over failures gives rise to negative thoughts. Swami Vivekananda's words will certainly help us to overcome such weaknesses. He said: 'The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength. Teach men of the strength that is already within them'.
There are a few fortunate souls who are lucky enough to attain success without pitfalls; the rest have to pass though the hurdles and difficulties. But the real hero is he who welcomes challenges in life and faces them with boldness and courage. Such a person crossing all the hurdles comes out successfully like a lion. The following incident took place during Swami Vivekananda wandering days, when he was staying at Varanasi. It conveys a profound message to the whole world. One day, while returning from the Durga temple, Swamiji was chased by some monkeys. TO save himself , Swamiji started running, but the monkeys ran still faster and grew increasingly aggressive. Meanwhile, an old monk who was witnessing the scene called out to him: 'Stop running. Face the brutes.' Swamiji heard his call and turned to 'face the brutes.; Then the monkeys stopped harassing him. Swamiji drew a great lesson from this incident. He learnt that one should not run away, when faced with danger or difficulty; and instead, one must face it boldly. In his later life, addressing a gathering in New York, he said: 'That is a lesson for all life-face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back, when we cease to flee before them. Cowards never win victories. We have to face fear and troubles and ignorance, if we expect them to flee before us.
STRONG MIND
1. A strong mind always remains calm even in adversities.
2. It never succumbs to temptations, and develops tremendous courage to say 'NO' to immoral thoughts and action.
3. It always remains free from prejudice, suspicion and jealousy.
4. Clarity of thinking makes it possible to take right decisions and come to right judgements.
5. Such a mind will never indulge in wrong action, prompted by evil emotions, such as desire, anger, greed, greed, hatred, etc., but will be always guided by serious, deep and right thinking.
6. Positive thinking, concentration, fearlessness, adventurous nature, and self-confidence are the vital qualities of a strong mind.
WEAK MIND
1. A weak mind gets irritation and loses temper over trifling matters and reacts violently.
2. Such a mind can easily succumb to temptations, like bribery, stealing, etc.
3. Due to confusion, suspicion, and prejudice, if fails to take the right decision and make impartial judgements.
4. Such a mind always compromises with and surrenders to evil forces.
5.It cannot face challenges in life, and tries to escape from them by adoption easy and cheap methods.
6. Such a mind always takes recourse to weeping and grumbling.
7. Such a mind never appreciates good qualities in others.
8. Restlessness, fear, tension, laziness, frustration, superstition, and negative thinking are the main characteristics of a weak mind.
Even a weak and uncontrolled mind can be controlled by applying strong will power and regular training. The body needs nutritious food, so does the mind need good ideas. Though t-power is a great source for strengthening the mind. Sri Ramakrishna used to say that mind is just like a laundered cloth; whatever colour you dip it in, it will take the same colour. Our actions are the concert forms of our thoughts. Once we change our way of thinking and develop a habit to think noble and positive ideas, it will bring tremendous change in our conduct and behaviour. Swami Vivekananda has give us hope, when he said: 'Whatever you think, that you will be, if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be. If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be.' Underestimating one's own capacity and constantly thinking in a negative way, such as, i am good for nothing, I am hopeless, I am worthless, I am a sinner. is the prime cause of our mental weakness. Tremendous power is hidden within us : positive thinking is the only way to bring it out.
The habits of reading good, mind-strengthening, and wholesome literature always provides healthy food for our mind. _the selection of such reading material and the company of good people will certainly enhance our mental strength. Specially for the youth, Swami Vivekananda's literature is most inspiring, and a storehouse of all positive and constructive ideas. While explaining the impact of this literature to Romain Rolland, Rabindranath Tagore said: 'If you want to understand India, study Vivekananda; in him, everything is positive nothing negative.'
So, positive thinking, the habit of reading good books, and the practice of meditation are the few means to improve our mental strength, which forms a part of our personality.
3. INTELLECTUAL DIMENSION :
Strength is of four types, i,.e. the physical, the mental, the intellectual, and the spiritual. Intellectual strength is superior to physical, and mental strength, and hence it forms an important part of our personality. Though this intellectual faculty is present in everyone, in most of the cases it remains dormant due to lack of proper training and intellectual exercise. Excessive use of modern electronic gadgets has converted man into a machine. The result is computers are keeping everything in memory, and, we, the human beings, are keeping our memory undeveloped. Originality, creativity, and deep thinking are taking leave of mankind; and artificiality, imitation, and shallow and superficial thinking ate making their presence felt every where.
To cultivate different talents, such as music, fine arts, poetry, dance, drama, etc.,creative thinking is absolutely necessary. Deep thinking brings out the hidden talents in man or woman in the form of inspiration, which is possible only though the power of concentration of . The power of concentration helps us to grasp subtle and higher things. And here comes the role of the intellect. Our senses and mind are restless. Since the intellect is superior to them, it alone can brig them under control. And, therefore, one must develop tremendous will power to control the mind and fix it on higher things, to achieve success in life.
The mind always tries to deceive us. It give us convincing arguments to lead a comfortable life by applying short cut methods. It does not want to follow any discipline in the name of freedom, and, prefers easygoing life. Sometimes it forces us , even to do wrong things deviating from the path of righteousness. Hence we need strong intellect, which will detect the evil motives of the mind and will assert its strength to follow the right path, which leads to real success. Therefore, to develop a strong, discriminative, and determinative intellect, it is necessary to cultivate intellectual faculty.
4. SPIRITUAL DIMENSION :
In this mortal body, there is something immortal, eternal, and of the nature of pure consciousness, bliss, peace, and source of tremendous power, energy, and knowledge. It is of the nature of effulgent light; never undergoes any change, Free from birth, old age, and death. From it spring all divine qualities, such as love, compassion, service, purity, truthfulness, fearlessness , etc. That is our divine nature. This spiritual dimension is superior to all other aspects of personality. Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita: 'The subtle organs are superior o the gross body, the mind is superior to the organs, but the intellect is superior to the mind. However, the one who dwells in this body is superior to intellect.' Though the divine dwell within our hearts, we are not aware of the fact. The physical body is a product of nature and made of the five element, which will go back to its source after death. But the divine within is entirely separate from the gross and subtle manifestation of nature. If that is true, then why are we not able to realize it ? Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad-Gita 'Knowledge remains covered by ignorance. Thereby the creatures become deluded.' The moment we remove this scree of ignorance, the knowledge of the Atman will shine forth, and then will manifest all the great virtues in our personality. SWami Vivekananda said: "Teach yourselves, teach everyone, his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will com, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come, when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.'
There are four different paths suited to different temperaments. They are: Bhakti yoga, Jnana yoga, Karma yoga, and Raja yoga. That is the path of devotion, the path of discrimination, the path of selfless action, and the path of meditation. Regular practice of these four yogas will help us to manifest our divine nature, removing all impurities from the mind. And, therefore, ever day, we must spare sometimes for prayer, meditation, japa, selfless service, and practice of discrimination, which will certainly help us to develop the spiritual dimension of our personality.
CONCLUSION :
A harmonious growth of the physical, the mental, the intellectual and the spiritual dimension is essential for the all-round development of personality. Struggle for perfection in all these aspects will ultimately lead us to the development of the real personality. Once we succeed in doing that, there will be a tremendous qualitative change in our lives. A great number of such people will certainly form a better society; and the y will raise this nation once again to its highest glory.