In preparing a thing, one not only puts one's magnetism into it, but also the voice of one's soul is produced in the thing one prepares. For instance, it is not difficult for an intuitive person to feel in the food that comes before him the thoughts of the cook. It is not only the grade of evolution of the cook that is produced in it, but also what the cook was thinking at that particular time. If the cook is irritated while cooking, if he or she is grumbling or sighing, if he or she is miserable and wretched – then all that is prepared in the food that comes before you.

It is the knowledge of this fact that made the Hindus accept a high-caste Brahmin as a cook. That person, whose evolution was great, was taken as a cook. That person's life was pure, their thoughts were elevated. It is not a custom of the past, it is a custom even of today. The Brahmin who is sometimes the Guru, the teacher of other castes, may also be the cook.

Besides this, in ancient times when human psychology was keenly observed in all one did, every person, whatever his rank or position in life, was equipped for cooking and preparing dishes for himself and for his friends. A great mark of appreciation and affection was shown by people who invited some relations or friends to their house by placing before them dishes that they themselves had prepared. It was not the dish, it was the thought that was put into it.

Life these days seems to have taken away many considerations of psychological character. There was a time when, whether in the East or in the West, knitting or weaving clothes was known to every little girl. To give to one's brother, sister, beloved or relation some little thing made by one's own hand was a custom. Now, a thing is easily bought at a shop, and no one knows who made it or whether it was made grudgingly or without grumbling, or how! Especially at this time when the working man is in revolt, what the workman has put into the objects he has made for you is open to question. In sewing for the person one loves, a thought has gone naturally with every stitch that one has made. If it is done with love and affection, then every stitch produces a new thought and completes that living thought of love, thus giving inwardly that great help that every soul is in need of.

Also, the wagons, carriages and ships that are used at the risk of man's life, by whom are they made? Who knows what the condition of the mind of the builders of the Titanic was. Was there a peacemaker teaching them to keep a certain rhythm of mind while making her? Everything that is made has a magical influence upon it. If it is made with a thought quite contrary to what is needed, then it only means dangers awaiting the ship, the train, the wagon, the car. Often, without apparent cause, you will find a boat in danger, something breaking without substantial reason. This is because in its make-up, the thought of destruction has been given. It is working through it; it is something more living than the object, itself. So it is when a house is built. The thoughts given to it by the one who was building it, or by those who worked on it, all count. In short, we understand by this that there is a thought attached to all things prepared either by an individual or by a multitude, and that thought must give results accordingly.

In all things there is God; but the object is the instrument, and the person is life, itself. Into the object the person puts life. When a certain thing is being made, it is at that time that a life is put into it, which goes on and on as a breath in a body. This also gives us a hint that, when we take flowers to a patient and we have a healing thought with them, the flowers convey the thought of healing. As the patient looks at the flowers, he will receive from them the healing that was put there. Any eatable or sweet, anything that we take to a friend with a thought of love – its use must create a harmonious, happy result for him. Therefore, every little thing given and taken in love, with a harmonious and good thought, has a greater value than the object, itself; for it is not the object, but what is behind the object. Does this not teach us that it is not always doing or preparing things in our everyday life that counts, but that it is giving these things a life with a harmonious, constructive thought so that our work may become a thousand times greater in effect and real value?

This also teaches us that while doing a small thing we should be accomplishing something very great, and doing it with this attitude, with this idea at the back of it: that we are not only making a thing, but we are making it living. Does this not open before us a vast field of work that we could do easily without much cost or effort? In its result, that work could be of a much greater importance than anyone could think of or imagine. Is it not, at the same time, a great blessing to be able to do a thing of great importance without any outward pretense?

Even while writing a letter, a person sometimes puts in it what words cannot explain – and yet the letter conveys it. There may be one word written with a living thought behind it; that word will have a greater effect than a thousand pages. Do we not almost hear a letter speaking? It is not always what is written in it; the letter brings the one who wrote it to us, what mood he was in, his evolution, his pleasure, his displeasure, his joy and his sorrow. The letter conveys more than what was written in it.

Consider the great souls who have come on earth at different times. Conditions opposed them, and they found difficulties at every move in accomplishing what they wanted to. Yet they have produced the voice, a living voice. That living voice continued long after they had left; and in time, it spread throughout the whole universe, accomplishing what they had once wished. The effect of their one moment of thought took perhaps centuries to build something, but it was something worthwhile, something beyond man's comprehension.

If we could only understand what spirit is, we would esteem the human being much more than we do now. We trust man so little, we believe in man so little, we respect man so little, we esteem the possibilities he has so little. If we only knew what was at the back of every strong and weak soul, we should know that there is every possibility, and we should never underestimate anyone, or fail to respect people in spite of all they may lack. We should recognize that it is the Creator who creates through all the different forms. But it is one Creator; and all that is built, prepared, made and composed is all made by that one Being working through this world of variety.

Question: Does the life and influence put into things decrease with the passing of time?

Answer: Its life is according to the intensity of the feeling. A note resounds according to the intensity with which you strike it. You may strike a note on the piano and it will continue to resound for so long. If you strike it with less intensity, it resounds for a shorter time. But it is, at the same time, according to the strength with which you strike it and according to the instrument on which you strike. There may be one instrument, the string of which will continue to vibrate for a very long time, and there may be another instrument whose string will vibrate for not very long and then will quiet down. So it is also according to the medium that you take in striking vibrations that the effect is created.

Question: Is the thought attached to things a vibratory power?

Answer: It is a life power, but in order to define it I would call it a vibratory power. From a mystical conception, vibrations may be considered to have three aspects: audible, visible and perceptible. Now the vibrations put into an object are neither audible nor visible, they are only perceptible. Perceptible to what? To the intuitive faculty of man. But it is not meant by this that the one who lacks intuitive faculty does not perceive it. He perceives it, too, but unconsciously.
 

checked 25-Oct-2005