There was a beautiful garden with lots of fruits and flowers on top of a mount. It was very beautiful. The chief gardener would stand on top of this mount and look at the people in the garden and would call out to everybody saying that there were lots of fruits in the garden like mangoes, bananas, and papayas. He would invite them to have some. But when they went there, he would come down the hill and he would change his mind. He would ask them why they had come, and that they should go away.
Then, he would go up the hill. Sitting there, he would again call out the same invitation. Adding what he would do with all the fruit. That he was there to offer it to everybody. And, if they were happy, he would be happy, too. He would talk philosophically, but the moment he came down, it was back to square one. He would fight with the people. They thought he was little crazy. He lost all his credibility. Even he, himself, was surprised, and didn’t understand what was happening to him.
A wise man in the town suggested that the people dig below the hill and see what was there. They dug the place up and they found the throne of a very well known king called Vikramaditya. He was known for his generosity, righteousness, and his high spiritual life. When he died, they could not find anybody else fit enough to sit on his throne because it was such a powerful seat. So, people finally buried it under that mount, and it is said that the throne had the vibration of positivity and generosity and that was having an impact on the gardener when he went up the hill.
Every place you are in, has a different impact on the mind. Even in your house, you can see that you feel different in different rooms. A place where there there has been singing, chanting and meditation has a different influence on the mind.
So, there are four important factors that influence our mind are
- Place
- Time
- Past Impressions
- Company or Associations
Time is another factor – You might have noticed your mind has great influence by time. Ancient people from the vedic tradition have calculated it. Once every 12 years the jupiter is in the 8th house of your chart, your head goes crazy, not for the whole year, but few months, people will have a lot of doubts, nothing would seem to work. Wisdom will be clouded. And similarly when someone has a lot of obstacles and success does not happen to them easily, it is said that jupiter is on the 8th house. So time has these sort of influences on our mind. Anyone’s behavior cannot be taken out of context – it should be seen with the context of space and time. If your time is good your worst enemy will be friendly, if your time is bad your best friend behaves like an enemy to you. Instead of pointing fingers at anyone the wise people said – kalaya tasmai namaha – I surrender to time! I bow down to time!
There are some places where you are not affected by time and you can influence the time and that is meditation, chanting and satsang. When you meditate or chant you impact the time in a positive manner. You can reduce the negative impacts of time.
The past impressions(sanskaras) have an impact on the mind. Awareness, alertness, knowledge and meditation help erase the past impressions.
Company or Associations – The people and events you are associated with do influence your mind. In the company of some people things appear very bright and positive. In the company of some other people, the whole world seems like a nasty place and everything seems negative. One is being part of a solution and the other is magnifying the problem. So the company you keep has an impact on your mind.
