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		<b><font face="Times New Roman"><i>Mind and the Mental World</i></font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">THE world of the mind is a vast field, even vaster it seems than
the physical world. The physical world extends, science tells us,
to millions of light-years. We may say practically, it is an
infinite extension and mind is a thing which surrounds, envelops
this measureless extension. Mind surpasses the physical on
another count, that is to say, in respect of speed. A material
body at its best travels at the speed of light, that is to say, in a
second it goes about 200,000 miles (a little less). But thought
does not meet any obstruction in respect of distance; whatever
the distance, it reaches its goal immediately, it does not take
account of time.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Perhaps because of its expansiveness and its speed, a Vedic
Rishi sends up a prayer to it not to be so elusive, not to go away
too far but to return and dwell in its home. Evidently the
Rishi speaks of gathering and collecting together the dispersed
uncontrolled thoughts and settling them in an ordered way in
his consciousness. We must note, however, that mind and
matter are two different categories and have different dimensions. Material space is not the same as mental space and the
speed of light and the speed of thought are not commensurable.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The mental world, the world of thoughts, is a world in itself.
It is autonomous. It moves in its own way with its own laws.
We human beings, we believe that it is we who think, that is,
produce or create our thoughts. We are the makers of our
notions and ideas. But in reality it is not so. Thoughts, ideas,
notions, all movements of the mind are self-existent realities.
They go about or flow on like the waves of a vast sea. Human
beings are mere instruments, receptacles that capture or seize
some undulations of this vast ocean. Man is man, that is to say,</font>
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Page 186<hr>

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<font face="Times New Roman">a mental being, because in him the brain has developed to
such an extent and in such a manner that it serves as antennae
or as an aerial to receive vibrations from the mental world.
Indeed the ordinary human mind is a sort of crossroads where
all kinds of thoughts from all places meet, cross one another
and make an ideal market place. In fact, an individual does
not possess any thought-movement which can be called his
own. He only catches a contagion. And like a contagion
thought-movements pass from one person to another although
one may think or feel that the movement is one's own.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In order to have one's own thought, in order to think by
oneself, a long process of education and training is necessary.
A growing personal individual consciousness is the first requisite
and for that one must do what the Vedic Rishi I spoke of
sought to do, gather the thoughts that one has, collect them,
sift them and try to have a control over them. One must
develop the habit of admitting certain thoughts and rejecting others. Thoughts 
that are useful, that carry light and peacefulness and happiness, are naturally those that are worth
accepting. Those that are of a contrary nature should be
pushed out. This is an exercise that develops the individual
consciousness and the individual will.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Furthermore, one may try to recognise thoughts that are of
a different category, that do not seem to belong to the accustomed level of consciousness but carry a vibration that is of
elsewhere, in other words, thought-movements that filter
through and come down from higher ranges of consciousness.
It means an elevation of consciousness, your being rises into</font>&nbsp;
<font face="Times New Roman">higher realities.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The true individual, the being who is capable of living and
creating independently, is formed of a stuff that lies in these
higher regions.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is only when one has found one's individual self seated
in the Divine centre secret behind, organised around the centre
all lesser movements, marshalled them according to an inner
law, that one becomes master of one's environment and creative
in the true sense of the word.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mind is a force, thought and energy but that can be truly
and fully effective when it is organised, directed, that is to say,
it becomes then a guided missile. In an ordinary mind the</font>
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Page 187<hr>

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<font face="Times New Roman">thoughts are, as I have said, dispersed, they go about in all
directions, to all objectives and therefore their efficacy is at
its minimum. It is like light. Light-energy becomes immensely,
incredibly powerful when it is concentrated, gathered towards
one point. It is in this way the light-ray nowadays is trying to
replace the surgeon's knife.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Usually when we think of a person or a thing, our thought-vibration reaches its object but because the vibration is diffuse
—not polarised—it touches or just brushes its object very
faintly without almost any reaction from it. An organised,
truly individualised consciousness has its thought-movements
too, so organised and controlled and directed that it moves
with a clear and forceful momentum. A mental vibration, a
thought-movement becomes fully dynamic, totally effective,
however, when it gets its support from the vital. The vital too
in an organised and individualised personality loses its capriciousness and lends its support to the directing consciousness.</font>
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Page 188<hr>

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