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We are civilized beings, and we are taught to develop our thinking process. Our thinking develops day by day, just as a small child, once born, begins thinking and developing the mind. The beginning is only thinking about eating and sleeping. We think to do, but we often act without thinking. Then problems arise. It is important that we give ourselves the chance, through the help of our mind, to find out properly through the thinking process. Water must flow to remain clear. Similarly, thoughts should flow to remain clear. You gain wisdom. What it means to control thoughts is only for a particular time. For example, you are driving a car on the highway and immediately you think of sleeping. That’s not advisable. So you should be aware of the thing you are doing. Your thoughts should be occupied with that subject. While thinking, we put ourselves in a particular condition. And after creating the condition, the mind should not run away. Because then that condition, without mind, without intention, without thinking, could be dangerous. Therefore, we should train our thinking. We should think sharply and very clearly, and we shall give the arguments. In our thinking, what I am thinking may be wrong. Then, what is right? Find out the right, the truth. So if not this, then you should think another way, but thinking you have to do, and that will make life easier. However, don’t mix too many thinkings. Then it creates stress. So we shall pray, and while praying, we are thinking for what we are praying. Today we are praying for someone who died. And tomorrow we will pray, perhaps for someone who is born. We cannot say every day we should pray only for the one who died. So someone’s death and someone’s birth both have created a thinking process in us. Both need help from us, or we would like to help both. Similarly, day by day, such things are increasing, and therefore, we are thinking also. Our thinking becomes more and more. But we should have some time to rest from this. So God gave one system, and that’s sleeping. When we sleep, our mind is active, but not so much. After sleep, you feel relaxed. What is relaxed? You don’t feel any more tired. Which part of the body is it? It is in the brain center, and so it’s good to give the brain rest. As much as the brain has rest, it must either develop or regenerate. So little children are sleeping and sleeping because they are developing their brain. For children, sleep is very important. So God gave them the first step of life: drinking and sleeping. In other creatures, it is different; they don’t need that kind of thinking process, or they don’t have that kind of thinking process which we have. So God gave the mind definitely with good intention. Otherwise, one will say this person doesn’t have a mind; he’s stupid. So, mind—mind is a mystery. To understand the mind, you read the book The Hidden Powers in Humans; there is a little subject about mind. In one way, the explanation of the mind is that the mind is a process to bring the message in the form of different impressions to the subconsciousness. From the conscious to the subconscious, and work out and bring again from the subconscious to the conscious. We gain information through the five senses: smelling, tasting, listening, seeing, and touching. These are only five senses which give us information from the outer world. And that goes through the help of the mind to the subconscious. In subconsciousness, the seeds of the impressions begin to sprout, and that’s what we call the vāsanās. And these vāsanās, the desires, they are still not clear. So the mind brings these vāsanās to the conscious mind, to consciousness, and consciousness is dharma to give the judgment. So mind is collecting, making saṅkalpa and dissolving the saṅkalpa. But the consciousness gives the result. You have some desires and some consciousness, but you don’t know what it is. So the mind brings up those desires, and it delivers the raw material to the consciousness, to the intellect, buddhi. And buddhi tells, formulates the form of, kind of desire. For example, it’s the desire to go for a walk. When the intellect gives this judgment, then it becomes kriyāvant, it means you put it into action. You become creative. You are active, mind is active. You can say the mind is active and consciousness is creative. So consciousness and the mind, they are standing very close together. In different cultures, it is very hard to explain what the mind is in different languages. In the German language, mind is different than the thinking process. We are thinking too much selfishly. We are receiving and receiving. Now, we should also think to give. We should think to give, so learn to think. Learn to think with multiculturalism. There was one frog. In this small hole, there was water inside. A frog was swimming happily, jumping here and there. A kind of pond, you can say. And the frog was saying, "My world is the biggest world." And the frog said, "My world is the biggest. There is no such big world anywhere. It is here, comfortable, clear, beautiful, very deep." And there was one house nearby. The children liked to play with the frog. So they went on holidays, and the children took water in a bucket and took the frog with them, and they arrived at a big lake, a very big lake, a sweet lake. And so they were playing, and they put him in the lake. Now, a very happy frog was swimming, swimming, and swimming, and there’s no end. He turns back, no end, so big. Then the frog said to himself, "I thought my world is the biggest one, but this is really endless." So we have to think universally. Narrow thinking is the biggest problem in the world. "My pond is the best and biggest," because you have not seen another. But now, this media technology has widened the human consciousness. You can see the moon now, very near. You can touch the stones of the moon, and before 50 years, or in the last century, all of it was a dream, a miracle. So technique is developing. You are sitting here and talking to Japan. That time to talk in Japan, you had to go, I think, one and a half years from Czechoslovakia. And it was not sure that you would arrive there. Now we press the button and we say hello. So that has also widened our consciousness, and that has also created more of our thoughts, many kinds of thinking which we have, that our grandparents didn’t have. Our grandparents, the grandparents of our father, did not know what e-mail is. So this thought was not existing in human consciousness. But we have created new. So every day, by day, new thought is born. And that’s good. It makes humans comfortable. It gives the human a space to move, to understand, to accept. So we should think wide, not narrow. We shall think universally, not selfishly. We should not think with the complexes. So we cannot stop the mind, and we should not stop the mind. It should flow freely and clearly. And when you want to relax, well, I will now relax. That makes life happy. Otherwise, if you want to minimize your thoughts, that wouldn’t do good to your health, physical as well as mental health. So, develop the wisdom in the thoughts. If someone asks you how China looks, you should know how China looks. You can tell him immediately, but unnecessarily, while sitting, why should you think how China looks? Then America will say, "Why don’t you think about us?" How does America look? How does China look? And how did the Soviet Union look? So we should have information, and we should be able to select, collect, and order our thoughts. So, what we are trying to learn, or what Patañjali says, is to order your thoughts. Make them in order, like you tidy your room; then life is beautiful and comfortable. So, to order the thoughts, we need the wisdom. And the way to order the thought is meditation. Meditation means making your life in order. Make clear decisions and don’t do too many stupid things. That tells us mind, meditation. And we are human, and we have human weakness. We have made many mistakes. Though our mind or our consciousness doesn’t allow our intellect, and though we don’t want it, some things can happen, and they do. So, as we humans are taught to do, if there is a mistake, pray to God for forgiveness. In this mortal world, if we make a mistake, we also tell the people, "Please excuse me." That makes a better situation then. So when the humans are able to excuse us, definitely God will excuse us. So, with this kind of confidence, belief, and hope, we pray that God will forgive us. Therefore, the mind is a most important instrument. It is that mind which makes the human. It’s the mind which works. It’s the mind which makes beautiful things. And it’s the mind which makes ugly things. It’s the mind which makes the peace, and it’s the mind which creates the wars. This is a mighty power which humans got from God. Now, it depends how you will use it. Use it well or misuse it. There is a knife. You can use it for cutting your fruits and vegetables, or butter on your bread, or you can use it to kill someone. Life will not say no. Similarly, the mind is like that. So you should know in which direction you will utilize your mental powers. So develop and utilize your mental powers, the hidden powers in humans, mental power. So let thoughts flow and cleanse them. If you think negative, you can say to yourself, "Instead of negative, I can think positive. If this person made a mistake, still the person is good. It has happened, a mistake. Instead of thinking negative about this person, I can think positive also, because it has happened." And that could have happened through you too. And in this way, sometimes our own thinking makes us unhappy, depressed, and like this. And many times we don’t understand. We gaze only. And when you gaze only, that can be a mistake. I tell you to bring me a drink. Now you have to gaze at what he wants to drink. So you bring me cold water, but I’ve caught a cold and I want to have warm water. So your gazing is wrong because you brought cold water and I need warm water. So you are mistaken, and I’m also mistaken. Why didn’t I say clearly, "Bring me warm drinking"? So, gazing makes problems sometimes. Someone gives you some sign, and you think differently.