Our Minds Are Conditioned And Fixed
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
25 October 2025
It's said that when the Great Library of Alexandria was burnt down, only one book survived. It was a very ordinary book, dull and uninteresting, so it was sold for a few pennies to a poor man who barely knew how to read.
Now that book, dull and insipid as it seemed, was probably the most valuable book in the world for, on the inside of the back cover, were scrawled in large, round letters, a few sentences that contained the secret of the Touchstone-a tiny pebble that could turn anything, it touched, into pure gold.
The writing declared that this precious pebble was lying somewhere on the shore of the Black Sea among thousands of other pebbles that were exactly like it, except in this one particular that, whereas all the other pebbles were cold to the touch, this one was warm as if it were alive. The man rejoiced at his good luck. He sold everything he had, borrowed a large sum of money that would last him a year and made for the Black Sea, where he set up a tent and began the painstaking task of searching for the Touchstone.
This was the way he went about it: He'd lift a pebble; if it was cold to the touch, he'd not throw it back on the shore because if he did that, he might be lifting and feeling the same stone dozens of times; no, he'd throw it into the sea. So, each day for hours on end he persevered in his patient endeavour: Lift a pebble, if it felt cold, throw it into the sea; lift another...and so on, endlessly.
He spent a week, a month, ten months, a whole year at this tedious task. Then he borrowed some more money and kept at it for another two years. On and on he went: Lift a pebble, feel it...it was cold, throw it into the sea. Hour after hour; day after day; week after week...still no touchstone.
One evening he picked up a pebble and it was warm to the touch-and, through force of habit, he threw it into the Black Sea!!
We, like that old man, are pathologically conditioned and habituated to doing a particular task. Despite our volition, all our actions are mechanical like those of robots. We're so heavily conditioned that we forget that we're endowed with a free will. "Religiously" visiting temples, unfailingly observing fasts in specific months or incessantly chanting mantras without comprehending their import are nothing but conditioned behaviour. A conditioned mind is robotic in whatever it does. With the passage of time, we get so obsessed with our mechanical actions that even if we bump into god on the way, we still will go to a shrine to search for him!
Our conditioning is our enemy. It's the greatest foe. Conditioning leads to organizational and collective obsessive behaviour and sets structured patterns even in one's spiritual quest.
Try to break conditioning, within yourself or others. It is the toughest task.
Human beings wallow in their conditioning. Schools, colleges, politicians all love conditioning. Politicians, priests, clergy, clerics and even religious apologists want the hoi-polloi to remain perpetually conditioned for, only those who're conditioned can be enslaved and they can act as grovelling slaves without questioning.
Without conditioning would anyone obey rules? Can anyone be controlled? Can fear be spread?
What is media advertising, but artful conditioning. You don't own a big car, then you are miserable.
Only a Faqeer or mendicant understands the value of touchstones; all others are lost in the jungle of commercialization.
Commerce is necessary but conditioned commerce is dangerous. That is the bane of today's society.
We stymie the natural flow of spirit in everything. God, if at all it does exist, wants some 'wantonness in worship.' He's bored with the draconian discipline of his prostrating devotees. So, get rid of all conditioning and worship him like a mystic with no preconceptions. "Teri Namaazein Ab Aadat Ban Chuki Hain / Kabhi Bina Namaaz Ke Bhi Khuda Se Mukhatib Ho" (Your Namaz have now become habits / Try communicating with the Almighty sans any Namaz). Every act that becomes a habit, must be avoided like a heap of shit.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/minds-conditioned-fixed/d/137375
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