चिन्तनैनैधते चिन्ता त्विन्धनेनैव पावकः

चिन्तनैनैधते चिन्ता त्विन्धनेनैव पावकः।

नश्यत्यचिन्तनैनेव विनेन्धनमिवानलः॥

योगवासिष्ठे॥

cintanainaidhate cintā tvindhanenaiva pāvakaḥ|

naśyatyacintanaineva vinendhanamivānalaḥ||

yogavāsiṣṭhe||

The thoughts get intensified, they get more and more serious, as further thoughts in the same line are added. This is just like the fire getting stronger and stronger as more and more fuel is added.

Control of thoughts, stabilizing the mind to a state where there is virtual stoppage of thought process can take one to a state where all thoughts are destroyed. This process is akin to stoppage of adding fuel to the fire.

When the supply of fuel is run out, the fire cannot burn any more.

It is a very introspective statement from the philosophical treatise Yogavaasishtam. There the idea is canvassed with reference to a person’s journey in the path of spirituality, cleansing himself from vagrant, purposeless but often toxic thoughts and fine-tuning the mechanism of thinking itself.

However, the idea is relevant even in the backdrop of our normal life too. Here, most of the thoughts we generate usually graduate into worries when more and more thoughts of similarly disturbing nature are bundled together. There may be genunine reason for worry in some cases, but most of the worries and anxieties are just products of accumulation of negative thoughts. In such cases a lot of worries could be avoided or checked just by refusing entry for the worrisome thoughts into our minds.