Mind Over Matter

It was one of those Friday evenings when all of the city is in a hurry to get home or some lucky ones got home and are rushing to party, I had picked up my old friend Ruben ;we were meeting after a long time. Before we reached home and relaxed synchronizing on our lives over a drink and some hot dinner, we had the city traffic to tackle. A young motorcyclist with helmet slung on his arm and meandering dangerously in the heavy traffic triggered off this animated discussion on way people think, the attitude and the human mind.

Human brain could qualify to be one of the most researched but least understood part of the human anatomy. The recent research findings that our brain has a logical facet and an emotional facet , is, I believe, only describing the tip of the iceberg in the way it functions and the “Fuzzy Logic” programmed into it. Yet, we ascribe a lot of what we do and how we react to our mind. Recall having heard clichéd saying like, Apply your mind to it or Are you out of your Mind?? Or better still , I had this feeling in my gut...all of this allude to the capability of one’s mind. Mind is the most powerful but least mastered aspect of human life.

Over the ages , in fables, folklores and scriptures the power of the mind has been spoken of time and again. We have had saints who could throw a curse which would come true. Whether it be the curse of Parashurama on Karna in the Mahabharata or the curse of Sharavan’s blind parents on Dasaratha in Ramayana, these curses seemingly worked and shaped the entire story. Actually this speaks of the power of a focused mind in influencing the universe. We have heard of the miracles that Shirdi Baba performed and many have experienced the power of Reki in healing remotely, all these are manifestations of the power of mind. A miracle is nothing but , science not yet mastered by mankind.

We have seen in recent times on reality shows how people can heat water by concentrating on the glass or a devout commoner walking over live coal are these not triumphs of mind over matter? In the book titled “Autobiography of a Yogi” there are references to saints who would do the unthinkable like creating fragrance out of thin air or get into the cage of a hungry tigress and wallop it as if he were wrestling a pussy cat!!, or the Swami who did not appear in a group photograph though he sat through the photograph session, the list of examples are endless. This means that one can control the so called destiny with one’s mind, then, why is that there are but a handful of men today who seem to have this power ? What does it take for a mundane being like me to reach there…wish I knew or wish some one would tell me in a way I would understand….

As the topic was tapering off we had reached the last traffic signal before reaching home, Ruben was jovial as usual, a brand new hatch-back pulled up alongside our car, Ruben looked at it and commented aloud “ The traffic around is not going to spare this poor chap, he is bound to have his shiny new car dented sooner or later” I’m not to sure if Ruben had finished what he was saying, we heard a dull thud; the shining new hatchback was shunted by a delivery van from the rear and had a dent on its hatch.

I was speechless…was this the effect of Ruben’s words, was this a curse or was this an accidental case of Mind over Matter; I wonder about this incident even to this day.