Noel Manuel
A train journey is perhaps the most memorable experience we tend to encounter during our lifetime. At least for me, it is an experience of sorts. We meet different people; encounter different attitudes and personalities; see different places and hear multi-ethnic languages.
Different stations give us a taste of a new culture with food and lifestyles enhancing one’s broader outlook in life.
It’s an educative experience and there is no doubt that every first timer would vividly remember his first train journey. But the real experience and learning that comes from train journeys lies in the agricultural lands that shrouds most of our outdoor sceneries.
Farmers toiling for hours together in their fields under adverse weather conditions and an unlimited time schedule. Supported by their family members and co-workers they toil for days and months to cultivate a bumper crop. It is hard work, patience and the sweat of the brow that yields a harvest like no other.
The sight of farmers working in the fields has always captivated me during my train journeys. But notably, it has been a lesson and learning experience.
A train journey is similar to life’s journey. Like a train journey, that begins and ends at a certain junction, our lives too, begin and end at a certain juncture. We meet different people; encounter different attitudes and personalities; see different places and hear multi-ethnic languages. It is our meetings, interactions and exposure to different places and people that heightens our experience and outlook in life.
However, the real experience does not come from these encounters alone.
Brazing the scorching sun, the farmer in the field is the idol of our life. It is he, who teaches us the most significant lessons. As much as he is dependent on his field and works under torrid conditions to cultivate it, we are equally dependent on our minds and need to work hard to cultivate it. The farmer toils to ensure that his crops are free from weeds, wild plants, rodents and pests. He knows that if he allows these things to exist, his crop would be miserable. Similarly, we need to toil to ensure that our minds are free from evil thoughts, bad habits, negative ideas and laziness. If we allow these things to exist, the beautiful thoughts, good habits, activeness and positive ideas would choke and finally die.
There isn’t a single day that a farmer neglects his field. Why should you allow a single day to go by without visiting your mind?
Cultivating the mind is akin to cultivating the field. We need tools for both purposes. But motorized and hand made tools alone don’t serve the purpose. Like the farmer, we need the hidden tools of patience, hard work, consistency and a strong determination to cultivate a rich mind. A mind enriched with natural fertilizers of beautiful thoughts, good habits, activeness and positive ideas would naturally help us to live a productive life – physically, spiritually, socially.
When a farmer’s field is polluted with rodents, insects and weeds, the neighboring fields suffer the onslaught. They find it difficult to keep away marauders. Similarly, when a person’s mind is corrupt with evil thoughts, bad habits, negative ideas and laziness, the neighboring minds suffer the onslaught. As in most cases, they slowly and gradually also turn polluted. But there are a few, who are prepared to work thrice as hard to keep the field free from marauders. Day and night they visit their minds to clean it from any intruders. Their minds are rich in fertilizers and any positive thought that takes root, blossoms almost spontaneously and branches out to other fields as well.
Beautiful thoughts, good habits, activeness and positive ideas, I should say, are natural fertilizers to qualitative, productive and meaningful living. These fertilizers need to be strewn across the mind at an early stage and on a regular basis to enrich it. The more they are used, the richer the mind gets. When the mind becomes richer, the body and soul respond and grow stronger and healthier.
In life, we all strive to become rich. The more we have the more we want. But being rich materially is a fool’s dream. For the true essence of richness lies in things that money cannot buy - A Rich Mind, Rich Soul and Rich Body.
A Rich Mind is the door that leads to the rooms of a Rich Soul and Rich Body. And perhaps, the only way that we can make our minds rich is by cultivating it with natural fertilizers on a regular basis.
Water, an important element and one of the most basic raw materials for agriculture has its different forms – Liquid, Gas and Solid. All the three forms of water are important for mankind. However, it is the liquid form that is vital for the farmer. Without it, a farmer suffers huge losses and droughts leave hundreds of thousands suffering. Positive thinking is one of the most basic raw materials for the mind and also has its different forms – Spiritual, Righteous and Transparent. All the three forms of positive thinking are important. However, it is the spiritual form that is vital to us.
As the liquid form of water is important for agriculture, the spiritual form of positive thinking is significant for a conscious mind.
If water is vital to agricultural lands so is positive thinking to the mind. The mind that sans positive thoughts is akin to a field without water. When our mind lacks positive thinking hundreds of thousands would suffer from the outcome of our thought process. Similar to how thousands would suffer if there were a drought. When there is plenty of water for the agricultural lands, the crops are greener, more radiant and they are in abundance. When our mind is watered with positive thoughts, people and objects look beautiful, more meaningful and they are all there for you.
Remember the thought process controls every organ in the body. If your mind tells you to watch television, your eyes will perform that action for the sake of the mind. If your mind says to purchase an ice-cream. Coordinated effort from different organs of the body will perform the act for the mind. Therefore it is important that we programme the mind with a positive outlook so that our actions could coordinate effectively, to produce positive outcomes from every situation.
Let us cultivate the mind with natural fertilizers and positive thinking to enrich ourselves spiritually, physically and of course mentally.
noelmanuel@rediffmail.com
The writer is the Coordinator of the Northeast Region (Poetry Society of India) and Life Member of the Poetry Society of India. Journalist and Correspondent Eastern Panorama (News Magazine of the Northeast) Phonetics Teacher.
