AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

        In analysing the mind's influence over the body, Hindu philosophy speaks of the independent status of mind which is a blessing of God.

        That status is capable of being used in a negative as well as a positive manner. Melancholia is caused in the former case and its opposite in the case of the latter.

        Life is like rose with its inevitable thorns. The poet speaks of his having fallen on thorns and bleeding. Mind can terminate the bleeding.

        The Gita extols the one with a mind that is unaffected by joy or sorrow. Such a state of the mind may be a gift of God or is cultivable through a positive attitude to what life offers.

        The initial need is to avoid going to pieces over any thing adverse that has occurred. Which means that the mind's door to gloom and despondency should be snapped shut.

        To say that not to grieve is asking for the impossible is defeatism pure and simple. The prime need is therefore to defeat defeatism.

        The effort here has to be towards distancing pessimists and cynical astrologers who could only make a dark picture seem darker and discourage every one.

        Only belief in God and in his capacity for unbounded compassion can generate in the mind the fortitude that triggers mental equanimity.