Here I should like to draw your attention to the Reserve Power existing
in your body. Of course there are soul-powers existing potentially
within YOU which leap into brilliant expression as you succeed in
developing and expanding your brain to a state of perfect responsiveness
to the touch of your will. For really and truly your will, forming as it
does the divine part of yourself, is always strong and must unfold "as a
rose" by exercising itself, in the field of matter, force and mind;--all
of which are subordinate to YOU and the real aim of human evolution is
actually to place in your hands the wand of power.
What is within your body is sure to find its correspondent outside in
Nature. Control nature inside and you will move as a master out in this
universe.
Now without going into details let me tell you--if you do not know it
already--that mind is the finest form of matter, and matter the grossest
form of mind, and there is a constant interaction between the two poles.
But since mind represents the positive end and matter the negative, the
former can dominate the latter. You can evoke states of consciousness by
applying stimulus to the periphery and again mental states evoke
corresponding vibrations in the cellular life of body and brain.
Hence you see your mind controls and forms your body. Also your body
reacts upon your brain and affects that part of your mind which has to
operate through the brain, which is matter pure and simple. So to keep
aright the polarities of your brain and body a constant adjustment of
forces is needed and thus you can establish POISE.
In order always to be in a state of perfect health two things are
necessary. Deny the power of disease over yourself. In the unyielding
will is health. In the weak, vacillating, fearful mind is disease and
death. At the same time always be in perfect magnetic trim with the
physical laws of health. A knowledge of the latter and the ascension of a
fearless mental attitude will open up hitherto unrecognised channels of
physical and mental expression. Physiological researches have led sincere
investigators to the inevitable conclusion that there is subtle, refined,
dynamic substance, a reality that binds up the reorganization, causes
growth, vitality and motion; repairs injuries; makes up losses; overcomes
and cures diseases. Von Helment called it "Archeus"; Stahl called it
"Anima;" Whytt called it the "sentiment principle;" Dr. Cullen called it
"Caloric;" Dr. Darwin called it "Sensorial energy"; Rush called it
"Occult cause;" and many other names such as "Vital Principle," "Living
power," "Conservative Power," "Odic Force," etc., etc., have been given
to it. We of India have recognised it and devised Yoga methods for
controlling it; we call it Prana and only in India do you come across men
who possess pranic control or control over universal energy.
There exists in your physical organism reserve stores of vital energy
stored away for your use, particularly in that central ganglion of your
vital battery known as the Solar Plexus and generally in the chain of
ganglia or storage batteries along and up your spine and elsewhere in
other nerve-centres. The solar plexus is also known as the Abdominal
Brain and your brain depends and draws upon this vital centre for its
energies. You will find after the prolonged concentration and brain-work
that this part of your body--at the back of pit of stomach--becomes
warm. Now when you engage in physical exercise, for instance, you must
have noticed how at first you soon get tired and all done up. But if you
wait a little and then start again, you will find how the sense of
fatigue has quite passed away and you can run your body under full
pressure for a very long time, and the more you exert yourself the
greater and more powerful the surging up of your vital energy. With each
new exertion you seem to acquire a fresh start. This has puzzled
physiologists. You will find a parallel phenomenon in mental work. You
may experience a sense of weariness and fatigue in some brain-work which
demands close thinking and attention, but if you attack your work a
little later after the first effort you will do your work a surprising
degree of freshness, vigour, and enthusiasm far surpassing the original
attempt. Again everyone can and does put forth universal energy under
pressure of some urgent necessity, which will startle even himself. No
matter who you are and what your physical condition, there is an enormous
amount of power in your body that has never been drawn upon at all
and impatiently waiting for up-call. We go on in ordinary dog trot pace,
resting, limping, "taking care of our health," and then we think we are
doing our best. Do not permit your mind to be self-hypnotised into a
false sense of being "exhausted" and "old." Neither of them is a fact
except in your thought of yourself. All your powers are lying dormant.
All your latent energies are lying unused. Back of your conscious
mentality are tremendous energies awaiting the pull of your will. When
your brain conceives of being something unusually great, at least so it
may appear from your view-point, do not question your strength but go
ahead unhesitatingly, fearlessly and steadily. Assert your life-force.
Feel that you are young, strong and healthy and fit. Live in mental
consciousness of power and never think of weakness. Keep your grip and
run right along. Nature is sure to honor your draft. Nature is sure to
give you strength, energy and vim, in boundless measure. Just try this
my friends, you, who write me of "there being a serious lack of vitality"
in your system and hence your inability to grapple with the occult. No
such thing. Fact is you lack courage and initiative, pluck and "go" and
you are labouring under the hypnotism of weakening thoughts. Just change
your thoughts, and your reserve forces will rush out into activity
and you will be a changed man in no time.