BY UNIVERSAL RULES

There is a vague thought in my head, barely noticeable, and I want to say something but cannot express it because the feelings which overwhelm my soul and fill my head are too complex.  Although these thoughts are as light as the philosophy of Novruz Bayrami, mankind has simply not yet learned to live by the tenets of the festival, so deeply rooted in antiquity, Zoroastrianism and wisdom accumulated over the centuries.  There is a theory that negation always perpetuates negation, and the more you try to avoid something, the more unwished for events occur in life.

Everyone knows that there are universal laws on Earth, which we all obey, regardless of borders, race or ethnicity. We all obey the same natural laws of the Universe, and they are so exact that we can build spacecraft, send people to outer space and calculate an astronaut's landing to the second.  Wherever we are, for example, we all obey the universal law of gravity.  Whatever happens in our lives, we create ourselves - either by using the power of images we form in our head, or the power of thoughts which are so difficult to escape.  Our life is what we think. We create everything that happens in our minds.

And we should have learned by now that we must think about good things, have positive thoughts and act on them, to bring more peace and quiet into being.  But people are remarkably unsuccessful at this because they focus too much on the negative. We struggle against war, drugs, AIDS, prostitution; we create various committees to struggle against certain problems and against the undesirable, failing to understand that resistance and struggle only give impetus and strength to the things we do not like. And the more things enrage us, the stronger they become because we think about them constantly and thereby exacerbate them.  Such is the universal law.

The Secret by Australian writer and producer Rhonda Byrne offers some quite interesting thoughts here.  The author argues that antiwar organizations give rise to more wars, antidrugs activism produces even more drugs because people focus on what they do not want.  Mother Teresa once uttered a phrase which epitomized her genius:  "I will never go to an antiwar rally.  Invite me when you stage a rally for peace."  Mother Teresa understood the universal law, and this small, fragile woman did many great things for peace because she focused on peace and goodness rather than negation.  We too can sense this, we too can lead simpler lives, but waves of negation and negativism have overwhelmed our lives to the extent that it is very difficult to channel our thoughts in a positive direction.  Such thoughts please people, although despondency is one of man's gravest sins, and it is mentioned and condemned by all religions sent by God to the Earth.  The energy of aggression, evil and intolerance, amplified by people's negative thoughts, the thousands and millions of individuals who fight 'against' and not 'for', is too great on the Earth at present.

It is better to think about good things, to attract them.  Even one person can change the world - if he or she begins to change, people around her will change, too.  Do you remember the great cartoon about travelling around the world in a balloon in 80 days?  "Life is a chain, and trifling things are its links!  You must attach importance to the links!"  Jules Verne, the author of the book on which the cartoon was based, predicted in his science fiction novels that men would build submarines and spacecraft - science in the early 20th century was very far from that.  But Jules Verne, like many other sci-fi writers, literally insisted on their appearance in our lives with his thoughts.

It is better to think about peace and to stop complicating things.  We have only to transform our thoughts.  This is quite simple, as simple as the philosophy of the spring festival which marks the revival of all living things, Novruz Bayrami.  Before Novruz, people tidy their homes and courtyards.  Tidying up the thoughts in our heads and the feelings in our souls would do mankind a lot of good.  People pledge friendship, loyalty and love on the eve of Novruz.  People rejoice during Novruz, they do not get sad, they reconcile with one another, they do not quarrel, they visit each other and share good words, wishes, peace and quiet, and they chat about pleasant things, they do not gossip, criticise or cheat anyone.  During Novruz, people do not struggle against anything, they give sweets to their neighbours, relatives, friends, the poor, the lonely and they give one another presents.  During Novruz, people do not cry for their dead, instead, they share good memories of those who have passed away and remember the good that they did in life.  Novruz is a festival of peace, harmony, quiet, unity with nature and with oneself, and it can easily be identified with universal law - for it attracts all the best things that can happen to people:  it attracts kindness and love of God.  After all, we own nothing in this world but our souls.

If someone is against war - better be for peace.  If someone is against hunger - they would better advocate food for all. Everything in this world begins with thought.  A momentous event becomes important because many people think about it at the time it happens; their thoughts and emotions keep that event in people's focus and make it important. The mass media help to a great extent. But if mankind is distracted from a negative event to focus on love, the event will not live on - it will vanish, disappear, because people will bring love into their lives.  We need only learn to calm down and switch our attention and emotions from what we do not want to what we wish to see.  Energy flows to the focus of our attention - is this not what the traditions of Novruz teach us?  We can do this if we maintain those traditions beyond the festival.

Peace, goodness and more positive thoughts in life.  Everything that happens is the result of universal law.