In Thought Power, Swami Sivananda lays out the “law of thought.” I’ll have more to say about this astonishing work in the future, but for today I’d like to briefly touch upon something that is undeniably yet also wondrously true: positive thought prevails over negative thought.

This, if true, is an argument for God. For how could it be that positive thoughts are not only true but also more powerful than negative thoughts? How could that be true unless there were benevolence?

So much for the briefest possible foray into metaphysics. How about we get down to what we actually learn about how thinking works once we introspect carefully enough.

Take a negative thought like: “I am alone.” Try to really feel (a) how much energetic power there is as well as (b) its truth value. You should be able to see, as you introspect, that this negative thought is weak, scattered, not ultimately true, and capable of begetting more despondent thoughts. As Sivananda also says, “Like attracts like.” Hence, a thought about loneliness could give rise to another about despondency, a third about the coldness of the modern world, a fourth about how elderly people may die alone, and so on. This, indeed, would be a dark, dispiriting, downward, devitalizing path, one that is more bound to happen, Sivananda states, because the “grooves” are being dug in more and more.

Now once “I am alone” appears, formulate the positive thought: “I am irresistibly strong.” Feel its power! Have an inkling, perhaps, of how it points to the truth that is beyond words! And then note that, yes, the negative thought has dissolved due to the muscularity of the positive thought.

An objection might run: “But the negative thought returns, sometimes with vengeance.” This is true only for so long. With patience and diligence, and by virtue of formulating more and more positive thoughts, eventually the negative thoughts will become fewer and fewer and, in due course, there will be a thought-free state that will be more readily experienced. In other words and in a meta-philosophical way, patience and diligence–which could loosely be termed “positive, subtle thoughts”–prevail over the negative thought we call “doubt.”

Only those who fancy themselves too smart or too sophisticated overlook simple truths like this. It really is true, for instance, that love conquers all. The wrapping may sound jejune, but saints everywhere know the truth. Yes, God–the ultimate nature of being–is good. Yes, theodicy is justified, suffering in sentient life, yes, finally redeemed. Think positively, vigorously, resolutely, steadfastly, and find the whole warp and woof of life good.