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……… Thought
is ‘the’ most potent, important and also the most beautiful creation of
this universe. Rest is all its play. Thought is our capacity to be aware of
something – subjective or objective. Awareness of any thing is thought. The
physical organ which facilitates the manifestation of these thoughts is our
brain, while the constant ‘flow of thoughts’ is called - mind. Man is what
his or her mind is. All our interests, knowledge or experiences are
different facets of this mind alone. The Upanishads thunder that bondage
& liberation too are caused only by an ignorant & an enlightened
mind respectively, and not by anything else whatsoever.
……… To
understand thought is to understand the secret of this entire creation, and
even that which lies beyond all manifestations. To understand thought is to
understand our self – because our present identity is nothing but a product
of our minds – a mere thought, and so is this big creation too. It is also
a product of our minds – like the dream world, but with some slight difference. Creation is available for
experience only when mind is and fades away into oblivion when the mind
goes into unmanifest state. It will thus not be an understatement to say
that to understand thought is to understand life.
……… Before
the birth of any thought exists only the potential thinker. To be more
precise let us say that before the thought of an ‘object’, exists the thought or awareness of ‘I’ the subject.
All the ‘objective thoughts’ are created & sustained by this thinker.
The moment this ‘thinker’ is not around all thoughts disappear. This is
what we experience in our deep sleep state. Once the thinker manifests all
thoughts are possible. The thinker out of its free will or conditionings
turns its attention on any object, and then we have ‘thought’ of those
objects. Every thought is thus awareness exuded by the thinker plus the
info about the object of knowledge. Awareness conditioned by the info (like
its name, form etc) of any object is a thought.
……… Every
thought, thus, has two inherent components : the ‘awareness’ component
& the ‘info of object’ component. Out of these the awareness aspect is
constant in every thought, while the data aspect keeps changing. Awareness
is the very nature of thinker, and like a focus light it just has to turn
it on to any object and a thought is thus born. When we maintain awareness
of an object for some time then we have the flow-effect, and this flow of
thoughts is what is commonly called the mind. If the flow of thoughts is
steady then we have a steady mind, and if the thoughts pertain to different
objects then we have an unsteady mind. When the thinker exercises its
freedom to decide between any options, then the mind is steady, but if it
cannot decide then we have a vacillating condition. Along with our capacity
to be conscious of any object we also have the great capacity to feel. This
is not an independent thought as such but an added component in any thought. Feelings provide impetus to
every thought, and are also the heart of any cherished experience.
……… As
every thought depends on us, the thinker, therefore we are their masters.
We sustain them, and in principle have freedom to subside them as &
when we wish. However this freedom may not be experienced by most of us. This
is because while going through our various experiences of life, we
unconsciously bring about lot of conditionings, which are encapsulated
feelings about various things - in our memory bank, and these have the
power to bring about related thoughts. Depending upon the type &
intensity of conditionings we have the whole gamut of thoughts flooding our
minds. Whoever knows the secret of the process of conditionings knows that
we are still the master, but those who are not aware of this remain a
helpless spectator of flooding thoughts, thus bringing about a vacillating
& disturbed state of mind. To be free of our own conditionings is what
the real freedom is all about.
……… The
thinker also is a thought. Here also there is the constant component of
‘awareness’, plus the variable component of ‘our perceptions’ about ‘I’
the thinker. These perceptions
aspect constitute the so called ‘identity’ of a person, and it plays a very important
role in the whole scheme of things. The awareness aspect both in the subject
& the thoughts of the objects are one, and if we look at the world from
this aspect there is just one all-pervasive timeless self-effulgent
existence. The second component is the one of change. Whoever directly
perceives both these inherent components of a thought shakes up the very
basis of his or life. Not only the world around is seen with the constant
component, but the ‘I’ too is seen as the eternal, all-pervasive awareness,
which keeps changing its various roles. The changed roles does not effect the
basic me, and thus it really doesn’t make any difference. I see myself as
the self of all. I see myself as the very substratum on which this entire
world of change (the transient component) is dancing. This is what
self-realization is all about. This is what moksha is all about. Freedom
from all limitations, awakening to a timeless state of Brahman.
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