A Traffic of Thoughts in the Mind….

        Traffic of thoughts in the mind….

               Ways to control it…..

My house is exactly at the ‘T’ point of three wide rodes. So naturally there is a huge traffic there all the time.

I spend most of my leisure time in watching the traffic below from the balcony at 3rd floor.

Since last two years, traffic has been same;  heavy and noisy  as before but not me… a drastic transformation has occurred in my vision regarding this traffic.

Previously I used to watch the traffic below – The people, different cars, two wheelers, bicycles, autoreckshaws, cabs, etc, but with a habit of getting involved in it.
I used to think about the people  and guess the different purposes the people might be traveling for.  I used to judge their clothes, bags, behavior,  gait, looks, etc. My thoughts would enter in to their future also….just by imagination. I used to react and get affected by every happenings on the roads—
“This person is foolish….that girl doesn’t know the traffic rules…the driver of the school van has no common sense…that woman is skillfully walking among the traffic jam, so she must be clever…why these people blow the horn continuously, why these boys drive with high speed, their parents are at fault….and so on….” My mind used to get filled with such a stuff of innumerable thoughts.

Had I not given much attention to the minute details of all these happenings in the traffic below, I would not have recalled it for now.

I noticed that same traffic jam used to happen in my mind too. Just like different types of vehicles and people continuously come and go and some times get stucked creating noise and disturbance,  different types of thoughts of past events and future plans, thoughts of family, friends, relatives,  thoughts of career, etc continuously come and go and sometimes get stucked like a traffic jam, creating noise and disturbance in my mind.

One day I got up early in the morning and sat in the balcony looking at the traffic below as usual. Only few cars and people for morning walk were there. But as per my habit I started involving in them by reacting and judging-
” She is wearing sport shoes…that man has no chappal. Why do women go for morning walk with full make up…that lady doesn’t have common sense as she comes in night gown…that dog is cute…this dog is rude and aggressive, and so on…”

Same thing i noticed in mind…..there is the time when there are less thoughts.  Fewer thoughts make less noise and disturbance…..just like on the road……..less traffic…less noise and disturbance…

Have you practiced any guided meditation?
The most important instruction they give to the  meditators is –
” Let any number and quality of thoughts come….don’t pay attention to them. They will start fading automatically..”

For so many months I have tried this technique, not to give importance to the thoughts but couldn’t succeed. I used to swim along with every thought wave.

There is a wonderful trick ; we apply in our day to day life , which I think , is very helpful in our task of – ‘How not to give attention to the thoughts.’

We all have a family, friends and relatives. Among these people, you will notice that few are evil minded. Our well wishers and elders also warn us to be away from them. We ourselves also can guess that some people are always there to create negativity in our life, who are obstacles to our growth. We want to keep them away.

How does we handle such people?

We don’t ask or force them to go away directly.  We start ignoring them. Every time they come, we stop paying attention to them. When we stop giving importance to them, they start disappearing from our life automatically. 

This encouraged me to practice the same to clear the  heavy traffic….yes, traffic on the road as well as traffic in my mind. .

I continued watching the same traffic but stopped paying attention to its details.  I started watching the people as people , vehicles as vehicles without following them with my thoughts of why, how and where about them. I Started watching every happening in non-judgmental mode. I stopped thinking about their looks, gait, behavior etc.

By this practice, I found that the same mad, noisy, crowdy traffic which was disturbing me previously,  is no more affecting me.

I practiced same in the sit of meditation. Huge crowd of thoughts came. But I payed no attention to it. That means I observed thought as just a thought without identifying with it, without giving importance to it, just like I saw a car as a car but didn’t follow it with my thoughts while watching the traffic. 
I started watching the wave of thoughts without swimming along with it.

There is a railway station.  Many trains come and go. But station remains as it is. It doesn’t follow the trains. So I have to be like a railway station not to follow any train of thoughts.

Thus this technique of ignoring the thoughts as we ignore the unwanted people helped me to reduce the traffic of unnecessary and unwanted thoughts in my mind.

Thus we can make our mind free of disturbance by ignoring unwanted thoughts and entertaining elevating thoughts.

One of the Swamijis told in his discourse that, ‘ Keep the mind clean just as we keep our room clean. We keep only those things in our room which are needed and beneficial. If too much garbage is there in the room, we sweep it with  a broom.
If your mind is dirty with too much garbage I.e too much unwanted thoughts,  you sweep it with a broom of namasmarana.  जब भी मन कचरेसे माने गलत /नकारात्मक विचारोंसे भरता है तो, रामनाम या हरी ओम का झाडू लगाओ। That means if you are disturbed by the chain of excessive and unwanted thoughts,  you break it with ‘Ramanama.’ And it does work for sure. Chanting Ramanama ( or any deity) clears the garbage of thoughts. This works as a traffic police….when He comes, traffic gets cleared.
    Hari Om !