ABOUT: AS A MAN THINKETH - JAMES ALLEN // by Anoushka Bahadur//

“SELF-CONTROL IS STRENGTH;  RIGHT THOUGHT 

IS MASTERY; CALMNESS IS POWER”

In the words of James Allen(the author), ‘A book that will help you to help yourself’ – is the best possible way to define this small yet a large book which is bound to make the readers delve into deep introspection. The title of the book, ‘As a Man Thinketh’, is contracted from the famous lines – “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”. This is precisely the rudimentary message of the book. The book lays down a very simplified version of its message – and that is what makes it a book which can be read by anyone and everyone! Simplified in its approach, deep in its meaning – the book could be summed up with the help of a metaphor –

The mind is a garden and the Man, its master-gardener. If no useful seeds are put into the garden, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind. (Vice-versa of course). “You will be what you will to be!”

Now, the question that occurred to me (and I’m sure will come up to you too), was – a lot of people want to do a lot many things and life confronts them with everything, except what they actually wanted to do. If I am unable to control my ‘garden’ by my wants, why am I then the so-called ‘master-gardener’?

Allen answers this question in a very thought-reflective way. In his own words, “The soul attracts what it secretly harbours; that which it loves, and also that which it fears.” This brings us to our answer – We, as humans, have wrongly construed that wanting (only) gives way to achieving. No! Our thoughts are not just our wants, it is who we are beyond our physical body.

We attract what we ‘are’, and not what we ‘want’. This is because ‘nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles.’ We make or break ourselves, by our own thoughts. Thoughts are the very pawns of our chess-board called life. Our rise or fall has nothing to do with our wants, but has everything to do with our fundamental thoughts.

When you alter your thoughts towards things and other people, things and other people will alter towards you. In a generation where most of us spend ample time complaining and pointing fingers at everybody but ourselves, this book gives us a chance to understand the ‘why(s)’ of any situation or problem which we quite often challenge as being ‘not fair’ on us.

Discover your hidden powers. “He who has conquered doubt and fear, has conquered failure!” We must understand that circumstances never make the Man, they simply reveal him to himself. We must also give thought to the fact that the whole and sole purpose of suffering is to purify one.

The book has a lot to offer and we have a lot to glean. It is suitable for all age groups, so go ahead and give it a read. Remember – you are the maker of yourself, you are the master of your fate.

Happy Reading :)

Fun fact: James Allen was employed as a factory knitter earlier. Retired at the age of 38,  James Allen was inspired by the writings of Leo Tolstoy. His most famous work of 1903, ‘As a Man Thinketh’ made him the ‘prophet of motivation’ inspiring people around the globe including Napoleon