It is thought that is responsible for our birth and rebirth. It is thought that is responsible for pleasure and pain, and ultimately responsible for loss and gain. But to begin with, it is the initial thought that is responsible for the rest of the life that is to follow. Thoughts can be either powerless or powerful. When there is no thought, there is no life at all. Life is full of thoughts, a bundle of thoughts. When this thought becomes strong and firm, when it gets strongly established and deep rooted, it becomes will. The thought that is firmly established gets transformed into will.
The human mind is a bundle of thoughts– one thought leads to another, and there is a never-ending chain. But it is the deeply rooted thought, which transforms into will. That will has power, which a lone thought lacks. Thought is powerless. That is why one thought is replaced by another thought. Some are meaningful and some others are meaningless. But if one thought is established, kept in mind and made strong, it is called will. The will is powerful–what we call will power. In Sanskrit it is called Ichha Sakti or will power. It has nothing to do with thought power. Ichha Sakti is the thought, strong thought and firmly established thought, which is born out of conviction. Therefore, it is necessary to keep our thoughts clean and pure.
The need to keep our thoughts clean and pure is for the action to follow. As is the thought, so is the action. Thus, our whole life is based on thought. The scriptures tell us that our thoughts, at times, come from our previous lives, having remained latent. They are what we call samskaras or vasanas. Samskaras or vasanas are of a previous life, earlier lives, and are still affecting our thought process in this life. There are some people who are spiritual right from the beginning, without any formal coaching, instruction or training. They are religious from childhood. We also find people who, from childhood, are vicious, even though people around them are good.
Why does this happen? It can happen because they are affected by their samskaras or vasanas, which are always present at the unconscious level. They are expressing a thought from their backlog of thoughts from previous lives, expressing thoughts surfacing from past lives, which now manifest during this lifetime. Thoughts are the manifestations of one's own vasana or samskara of an earlier life. It is a person's thought that decides his destiny. It is his thought that sets his goals. That is why Sathya Sai Baba insists to be mindful and aware of our thoughts.
Submitted by the Sri Sathya Sai Baba Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago.
