Positive thoughts and power of words!

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

This is one of my favorite quotes. Positive thinking always helps in life for it anticipates joy and happiness in every walk of our life. I have always been fascinated by puranas where the rishis lead a life of purity and exhibit such great concentrations and have the power to attain something just by saying that. I have wondered about the power of words that we utter in everyday life. I read the book,"Autobiography of a Yogi" longtime back. But I keep reading it again and again. In this, Paramahansa Yogananda has stressed on the power of words.

When Yogananda was small, he and his sister Uma were seated and she complained of a boil in her arm and fetched an ointment.Yogananda also applied the ointment on his forearm.When his sister asked him why he did so, he replied saying that he was going to get a boil in the same spot and was testing the ointment there. His sister accused him of lying. So he got indignant and said,"By the power of will in me, I say that tomorrow I shall have a fairly large boil in this exact same place on my arm and your boil will swell to twice its size" And the next morning found him with a boil in his arm and his sister's boil had doubled. His sister was rather frightened and ran to his mother who gravely instructed him never to use the power of words for doing harm.

The power of words is explained further in the book as follows,"The infinite potencies of sound derive from the Creative word, AUM,the cosmic vibratory power behind all atomic energies.Any word spoken with clear realization and deep concentration has a materializing value.Loud or silent repetition of inspiring words have been found effective in various systems of psychotherapy;the secret lies in the stepping up of the mind's vibrations"

I have also found that when you pray deeply or meditate and then utter something important, it always works. I think that is the reason we have all these mantras and prayers in Hinduism as also in various other religions. Mantras create a divine vibration and a positive force and when uttered with concentration make things work in our favor. A mantra is said to be even more effective when chanted in your mind.

Hence, seeing the power of words, well, I feel we would be doing ourselves and others a favor if we speak only good things.Dont you?