Our Mind is the Root of all the Problems

The root problem of all problems is mind itself. The first thing to be understood is what this mind is, of what stuff it is made; whether it is an entity or just a process; whether it is substantial, or just dreamlike. And unless you know the nature of the mind, you will not be able to solve any problems of your life.

The root problem of all problems is mind itself. The first thing to be understood is what this mind is, of what stuff it is made; whether it is an entity or just a process; whether it is substantial, or just dreamlike. And unless you know the nature of the mind, you will not be able to solve any problems of your life.

You may try hard, but if you try to solve single, individual problems, you are bound to be a failure -- that is absolutely certain -- because in fact no individual problem exists: mind is the problem. If you solve this problem or that, it won't help because the root remains untouched.

It is just like cutting branches of a tree, pruning the leaves, and not uprooting it. New leaves will come, new branches will sprout -- even more than before; pruning helps a tree to become thicker. Unless you know how to uproot it, your fight is baseless, it is foolish. You will destroy yourself, not the tree.

In fighting you will waste your energy, time, life, and the tree will go on becoming more and more strong, far thicker and dense. And you will be surprised what is happening: you are doing so much hard work, trying to solve this problem and that, and they go on growing, increasing. Even if one problem is solved, suddenly ten problems take its place.

Don't try to solve individual, single problems -- there are none: mind itself is the problem. But mind is hidden underground; that's why I call it the root, it is not apparent. Whenever you come across a problem the problem is above ground, you can see it -- that's why you are deceived by it.

Always remember, the visible is never the root; the root always remains invisible, the root is always hidden. Never fight with the visible; otherwise you will fight with shadows. You may waste yourself, but there cannot be any transformation in your life, the same problems will crop up again and again and again. You can observe your own life and you will see what I mean. I am not talking about any theory about the mind, just the "facticity" of it. This is the fact: mind has to be solved.

People come to me and they ask: "How to attain a peaceful mind?" I say to them: "There exists nothing like that: a peaceful mind. Never heard of it."

Mind is never peaceful -- no-mind is peace. Mind itself can never be peaceful, silent. The very nature of the mind is to be tense, to be in confusion. Mind can never be clear; it cannot have clarity, because mind is by nature confusion, cloudiness. Clarity is possible without mind, peace is possible without mind, silence is possible without mind -- so never try to attain a silent mind. If you do, from the very beginning you are moving in an impossible dimension.

Is Rebirth Fact or Fiction?

A well-known professor in an Indian university who is conducting research on rebirth came to meet me. At the very start of his conversation, he asserted that he was going to prove the theory of rebirth scientifically. It was apparent that his mind was already made up in favour of rebirth and he was looking for scientific evidence to support it. But it was utterly unscientific to accept something before fully investigating it from all sides. If someone wants to be scientific, he should say that he wants to enquire whether the theory of reincarnation is true or not.

Impotence of Logic

If you want to prove the theory of rebirth, you can find any number of arguments in its favour. Philosophy has been debating this question for 5,000 years and nothing has been solved yet. There are people who believe in rebirth and there are equal numbers who don’t believe in it. And no side has been able to convince the other side of the validity of its standpoint.

It is ironical that you can convince only one who is already convinced; you cannot convince the unconvinced. This is impotence of logic, which it fails to see. You can easily convince a Hindu of the truth of rebirth, because it is part of his belief system. But you will know how impotent logic is when you try to convince a Muslim of the truth of this theory.

Logic is a skill which works well for those who use it to prove something which they believe to be true. Therefore, it is not a right question to ask if rebirth can be proved philosophically.

The right question is, “Is there a way to approach the question of rebirth scientifically?” Science is pure enquiry; it is objective and impartial. While philosophy and logic have their standpoints for or against a belief, a proposition, science has none. A scientific mind means that it is open and impartial; it wants to find the truth, it is open to both the alternatives, both sides of a thing; it is not closed. Science does not depend on belief. It wants to investigate into the truth or otherwise of a hypothesis.

Objective Enquiry

Science is the only discipline prepared to re-examine its own findings and conclusions. Science is prepared for any possibility that an objective enquiry and investigation can lead to. Science has only recently begun to take interest in matters like reincarnation.

It is only 50 years since psychic societies came into being in America and Europe, and they have done some good work in this direction. A handful of intelligent people with a scientific bent, like Oliver Lodge, Broad, and Rhine have explored new frontiers of the human mind. They are all men of scientific persuasion; they don’t have any beliefs and prejudices of their own. They have done some real work on life-after-death and incarnation. Their findings are authentic and they go a long way in support of reincarnation. Now there are scientific techniques to contact bodiless souls, and they have been contacted, and every care has been taken to eliminate the chances of deception and fraud in the use of these techniques.

In the past, there have been many cases of fraudulent séances to communicate with the dead. But if even a single case of authentic necromancy succeeds, it is enough. And many such experiments to contact bodiless spirits have been successful in establishing that souls change their bodies; that they are born again and again.

Contacting Spirits

A number of people, who had devoted their lives to necromancy before leaving their bodies, had promised to their psychic societies that they would communicate with them after death, in a specific manner. And some of them did succeed in their efforts. They communicated some very valuable information regarding the life-after-death phenomenon to their societies, and this information goes a long way in the support of rebirth.

Everyone has a Story in Life

 

A 24 year old boy seeing out from the train’s window shouted…

Dad, look the trees are going behind!

Dad smiled and a young couple sitting nearby, looked at the 24 year old childish behavior with pity, suddenly he again exclaimed…

Dad, look the clouds are running with us!

The couple couldn’t resist and said to the old man…

Why don’t you take your son to a good doctor?

The old man smiled and said…

I did and we are just coming from the hospital, my son was blind from birth, he just got his eyes today.