Can the law of attraction work without any physical effort?
Question. Does the law of attraction really work? Doesn't it require some physical action also? When speakers talk about this, they say that just by the mental effort, we will, if our mind vibrates at particular frequencies, we will get whatever is desired.
Answer. Certainly, physical effort is required. Ideas like the law of attraction, they do point to a certain reality, but only a small fragment of that reality.
The Bhagavad Gita explains that reality is three level, physical, mental, and spiritual. And such ideas like the law of attraction make the mental reality to be the not just the supreme reality, but even the soul reality in terms of its causative potency. That means they believe or it proponents of such a law.
And actually, there is no such law. Just by using the word law, a greater authenticity is bestowed on it. It's a self-bestowed authenticity.
And the idea is that such such claims reduce reality to the mental level and say that the mental level can fix everything. Now, certainly, the mental affects the physical in the sense that if our frame of mind is negative, that will diminish the enthusiasm in our efforts. That will decrease the clarity of our analysis.
And we will either not tap opportunities wholeheartedly or we may not even notice opportunities. So having a positive, purposeful frame of mind is definitely helpful. And it could be said even essential at a particular level.
Having said that, there are certain non-negotiable and unchangeable truths of life which cannot be changed no matter how strong our mind's desire or even intention may be. For example, nobody can stave off old age and attain immortality just by thinking I will never grow old, I will stay young forever. Certainly, a person who tries to maintain a youthful spirit may be more functional even when they get old than a person who is constantly lamenting that they have become old and is thereby in a negative frame of mind.
In the Bhagavad Gita 18th chapter, cheshta endeavor is considered to be one of the factors of action and an integral part of endeavor is also mental endeavor. Mental endeavor is the endeavor needed to focus our mind not just on the external object that is being sought but also to direct the mind's emotions positively and purposefully while focusing its attention in the desired direction or object. So, not making that endeavor can certainly undermine one's efforts and can decrease the chances of success but just having the right frame of mind does not in itself guarantee success.
So, the physical effort is needed and of course, somebody could say the fundamental physical will follow if somebody is determined then they will do the physical effort also but even the physical effort itself is not enough. There are higher forces that need to align favorably for our endeavors to be translated into results and this is where what we call as destiny comes into picture. Two people may work equally hard both may have a very similar frame of mind and yet one may succeed and the other may not.
While it's difficult to quantify people's endeavors and people's frame of minds but even if there were a hypothetical case where the two were equal still that does not necessarily mean that both will get equal results because beyond our mental endeavor and our physical endeavor whether we get something desired or not also depends on destiny which is formed by the kind of actions that we have done in the past combined with the kind of actions that we are doing at present. So, to the extent ideas like the law of interaction inspire people to pay attention toward improving their mind and to the extent that attempts to improve their mind encourage them to explore what the mind actually is and to become open to a higher non-physical understanding of reality and higher non-physical methods of self-transformation and personal growth such as meditation become more acceptable and even popular to that extent ideas like law of attraction can serve a constructive purpose in raising human consciousness but if these ideas become the sole basis for claims for an understanding of the complete truth and for total transformation of oneself then they can mislead they can not only disappoint people who find that just thinking about something doesn't make it happen in their lives but it can also create unhealthy even toxic guilt when people who try their best to think positive and desire in a focused way and still don't get the desirable object may start thinking that it is they who didn't think positively enough and thus the very call for positive thinking and strong desiring may end up causing negative thinking and self beating when such disappointment or self-loathing starts happening then certainly the ideas like law of attraction are having a seriously counterproductive effect and they need to be countered and the bhagavad-gita's holistic worldview contextualizes such ideas explaining both their specific validity in a particular domain and their overall inadequacy in the total scheme of things.