We have to admit ‘the circumstance decides what is more important - our thought or our action’.

You come across a rowdy. Immediately you bow to him. He becomes happy by your action and goes away without harming you. Here, what you thought about him is hardly important.

An investigating officer comes to your house. He does not attach much importance to the way you greet him. He means business. He observes your eyes and your facial expressions to read your mind. Here, what goes on in your mind is of great importance because it reflects in your expression.

How then can we decide as to which is more important - what we think or how we act?

There is another question which is even more nagging - ‘which is true? What we think or what we say?’

A certain person thinks that he is a great scholar. He even boasts that he is a great scholar and orator. In front of a big audience, he was unable to speak even a few words. Here we need not search for truth. That he is not a scholar is the truth. What he thinks about himself is of no validity.

But the answer is not so easy and straightforward in all situations. One person wants to study medicine. He says there is no knowledge superior to it. Another person says that there is no knowledge which is more sublime and rewarding than poetry. Another person says that he wishes to become a leader of masses. In his view, that is the most important pursuit of life.

Here are three viewpoints. They are different from and even opposite to one another. How to decide which one is true?

Some say ‘as far as values are concerned, personal decision and thinking is the yard stick. Therefore, every lover thinks that his beloved is the most beautiful woman in the world.’

Let us try to verify this opinion in the context of the person who thinks he is a scholar but could not speak in front of an audience. As far as his personal thinking is concerned, he is a scholar even though he could not speak. If this is his decision and if it is to be accepted that ‘personal thinking and decision are the only important factors’, how can we say that he is not a scholar?

To consider him a scholar can cause certain problems. Not to consider him a scholar would contradict the aforementioned opinion (of giving utmost importance to personal thinking).

Yes! There is no solution for such problems. The society accepts thinking (or attitude) to be the most important at certain times and sometimes treats the spoken word to be of absolute importance. Sometimes what is seen itself is of greatest value and at other times, what is true is of great importance. In other words, there is no consistency.

Therefore, if one wants to find out the answer to the nagging questions, one should not follow the norms of the world. One should look beyond the world.

Where else to look? Is there anything beyond the world?

Yes! There is something which is beyond the world. It’s name is ‘I’.

Only when there is ‘I’, any transaction can take place. If it is not there, there is no question of the person carrying on any activity.

Consider a person who is mentally retarded by birth. He will have no interaction with the world. So also is the case with a person who is an absolute dullard. Apart from eating and sleeping, he will have no other activity.

A person thinks that he is a man. Why? Because he has masculine characteristics like beard and moustache. Another person considers himself to be a prince. Why? Because he is the son of the king. Is there anything on his face which proves that he is the son of the king? No! Still, he is sure that he is the prince. He may have thousand reasons to consider himself to be a prince. You may not feel that those thousand reasons are not worthy of belief. Still, he does not stop thinking that he is the king’s son.

Each person in the world thinks that he is the son of such and such a person, he is so and so, his name is so and so. Because he is sure about his thinking, it is true as long as he thinks so.

So what if his thinking contradicts the norms of the world? So what if the society feels that what he thinks is not correct and enforces its decisions on him? So what if even he accepts the decision of the society out of fear? In spite of all this, what he thinks deep inside himself is the truth as far as he is concerned!

A few years passed. The prince came to know that he was in fact the son of a hunter and that the king had secretly adopted him in his infancy. Even though he believes the newly discovered fact, he will not accept it in public because he fears that his position may be lost. He behaves as though he is truly the prince. But deep inside his heart, he realises that he is the son of a hunter. Now this is the truth for him.

Previously he was sure that he was a prince because of a thousand reasons. Now he has one thousand one reasons to believe that he is not a prince, but only a son of a hunter. Then that was the truth, now this is the truth.

If one wants to find out as to which among the two is the real truth, one should think from a different angle.

Everyone in the world uses the expression ‘I’. The meaning of this varies from person to person. It might mean Smith or John or Albert. The same word is used by different people to connote their name or actions or thoughts. It therefore follows that this ‘I’ is different from the persons, actions and thoughts. Who then is this ‘I’?

Enquiry should proceed in this direction.

The most important medium to carry on this enquiry is love for the Almighty.

What can we achieve by it?

We love children. We buy chocolate for them. What can we give the Almighty?

The question of giving something to the Almighty arises only if He is an entity different from you. But the Almighty is not a being, but an experience! Experience is nothing but feelings. Therefore, the only thing you can give the Almighty is your feelings!

Feelings or thoughts keep bombarding us. They don’t come when we want them to. The feelings or thoughts which we want may not come at all! For example, however long a poet may contemplate, Newton’s Laws do not come to his mind. Similarly, Shakespeare’s sonnets may not come to the mind of a scientist, however long he may think.

When man has no control to decide as to which thought should come to his mind, where is then the question of his offering them to the Lord? How can he offer something over which he has no control?:

To allow the feelings or thoughts to take their natural course without subverting them for personal benefits, is as good as offering them to the Almighty. Observe what this sookti has to say in this regard:

Aatmaanamalpam yadi manyase tvam

paaposmi daasohamiteeraya svam

Svam ched ghanam vetsi nripaadi garvaat

maalpee kuru svam vada sohameva.

If you consider yourself to be small, then say "Lord! I am a sinner! I am a servant to all! If you consider yourself to be big, then do not boast that you are a king or a scholar, because, by doing so, you will be degrading yourself. Instead, say "Soham - I am That". (when you are the Almighty - the Lord of all the worlds, would it not be foolish to limit your lordship to a small kingdom or a country?)

Feelings or thoughts which come to us depend upon the past tendencies. Some people feel " I am a lowly person. I have committed many sins" But they do not expose their feeling because it may not be socially safe to do so. Because it is inconvenient, they tend to antagonise such feelings inside their heart also. A true seeker should not do like this. He should dominate such tendency and should encourage the feelings which have come naturally to manifest. In other words, he should allow the feeling that he is a lowly person to continue. Till when? Till the feeling of servitude (that you are the servant of each and every particle in the creation) gets firmly rooted in the heart.

If such an attitude develops in your mind, every being in the creation become more sacred than you and therefore, you will certainly revere them and love them.

There is another kind of tendency. This results in people thinking very high of themselves. But, sometimes they themselves feel that they are aggrandising themselves. They therefore find it difficult to convince others about their greatness. Therefore such persons define the boundaries of their greatness and say ‘I am the king of this kingdom’, ‘I’ am a singer, ‘I am beautiful’ and so on. Gradually the same feeling gets established in the heart also.

Here, because the person is creating boundaries to his greatness, he tends to develop ego which makes him to boast ‘I am the king’ and so on. Ego makes way to unprecedented havoc. Therefore the self created boundaries should be dismantled. One should start extending one’s thinking to assert ‘I created the world’, ‘I am the Real’ ‘ I pervade the entire creation’ and so on.

The Upanishads have used the aphorism "Aham Brahmasmi" to narrate this thinking.

If you can extend your thinking to this level, then you will not dislike or hate any being. Moreover, as the entire world is your creation, you will naturally develop love for each and every particle of the creation.

Thus, whether you consider yourself very lowly or very high, you will reach the same goal. It is nothing but Universal Love. Those who don’t realise this truth quarrel among themselves in trying to establish their superiority. The fact is that there is only one circle in the middle. Whichever path one may take, the final goal is the same circle. The name of this circle is ‘I’.

After one reaches this circle, there will be no problem of solving the question - ‘which is important? What we think or what we say?’ Such a person talks what he thinks and thinks what he talks.

By the divine grace of Lord Dattatreya, may all of you reach the goal by following any path!

Jaya Guru Datta.