Negative Thoughts

tasya sanjanayanharsham kuruvriddha pitaamaha |
simhanaada vinadyochchai shankamdadhamau prataapavaan || 12 ||
tataha shankashcha bheryascha panavaanakagomukhaahaa |
sahasaivaabhyahanyanta sa shabda tumulobhavat ||13 ||

Then Bhishma, the great valiant grandsire of the Kuru dynasty, the grandfather of the fighters, blew his conchshell very loudly, making a sound like the roar of a lion, giving Duryodhana joy.

The context is the great Mahabharatha war with the 2 armies facing off against each other. Duryodhana, who is driving the Kaurava forces has asked all his commanders to protect Bhishma, who is the chief of his army. Duryodhana is shaken seeing the massive army of the Pandavas standing against him. Bhishma to produce enthusiasm among the Kauravas is blowing his conch loudly and that is cheering Duryodhana.

In our study, we are concerned more with the symbolism and the spiritual meaning of these verses. As already covered earlier, Bhishma represents the Ego or our false self. Duryodhana represents material desire which is the root cause of all our miseries. Drona, the preceptor of both the Pandavas and Kauravas represents habits. Habits can be good or bad and most often in our cases, we develop bad habits aiding the development of desire and that is the symbolism of Drona being in the Kaurava camp.

If the ego were to identify and realize it is the true consciousness or Brahman, there would be no material desires or the need for habits to sustain the desires. Conversely if there were no desires or habits, ego would not exist. However the ego wants to exist and identify with the body and try to get its material desires fulfilled. When as a practising student of spirituality, we try to practise giving up desires and habits, the ego feels threatened about its existence and uses the technique of creating thoughts to keep the material desires and habits active. So, the symbolism of Bhishma blowing the conch is the ego initiating flow of thoughts automatically to curb spiritual growth and lead the individual towards material desires.

Every action that we do is driven by a desire or agitation in the mind. Every agitation of the mind is created by a thought. Thought is influenced by habit. If I am a drunkard and am trying to give it up, the habit creates thoughts of drinking automatically. These thoughts create agitation in the mind and peace temporarily is achieved only by drinking. Where do these thoughts originate from? I may get thoughts of smoking but not of drinking. Someone may get thoughts of going to a place of ill repute, but I may not. The root of all thoughts is what is called as Vasana. Vasana is the sum total of all the impressions of desires and actions  created by the ego in its journey through multiple cycles of birth and death. Have we not heard of child prodigies? Where did their amazing talent come from? It is an expression of the Vasana acquired in previous births. As we journey in our current life, we acquire more impressions of desires/desires and that drives our thoughts.

Different types of thoughts create different emotions/disturbances leading to different types of action. For example, a thought that I’m in danger and I won’t be able to cope with it creates in the mind an emotion of anxiety/fear leading us to take actions which may not necessarily be sane. Similarly, a thought that everything is hopeless – I’m totally worthless, no-one likes me, and nothing can change, creates an emotion of depression and may lead to the action of suicide or any other form of violence.

There are different patterns of negative thoughts:

1. Filtering: A sort of limited vision; looking at only one element of a situation and the exclusion of everything else.
2. Polarized thinking: Black and white thinking; insists on either choice.
3. Overgeneralizations: Broad conclusions based on limited incidents / evidences. Exaggerates the frequency of problems and use negative global labels 
4. Mind reading; Assumes what people are thinking and feeling ; and concludes why they act the way they do
5. Catastrophizing; Expects and even visualizes disaster
6. Magnifying; Exaggerates the degree and intensity of a problem
7. Personalization; Assumes that everything people do or say is some kind of reaction to us. Compares us with other people.
8. Shoulds; Frames a set of rules about how we and others should act. Experience guilt when we break it and anger when others violate the rules 

The characteristics of negative thoughts are as follows:

1. Automatic thoughts have the same believable quality as the direct sense expressions.
2. They just pop in to our mind and we hardly notice them.
3. Usually the automatic thoughts predicts catastrophe, see danger in everything and anticipate the worst.
4. Automatic thoughts often triggers a long chain of associated depressing thoughts.
5. Automatic thoughts often lightning fast and very difficult to catch

Conclusion : In every seeker's path, at the initial stage of spiritual development, the ego employs a powerful technique of creating automatic thoughts to further the material desires and related habits.  Thoughts can fall into various patterns, but the goal is the same; To prevent the seeker on his journey and let the ego continue to rule the individual.


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3 of my books

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality