Caveat: Reader discretion advised.
He who jerks off each night thinking about knocking a nipper is no paedophile, she chomps on her breadsticks assuming they were the fingers of her best friend at school, she is no cannibal, he who plots the most torturous death of his colleague at work is not homicidal, she derives immense pleasure from the sad plight of her distraught pal but is no sadist for these people feed their dark phantasies in a world inaccessible to anyone, their minds.
The mind is a complex place, a stronghold of myriad feelings most never experienced, thoughts untaught, ideas idle, wonted whims, fantasies unfulfilled, ignis fatui incarcerated and in the midst of all this buzz is a small fraction that we actually translate into actions, the things that we say, do, proclaim, share and own responsibility for.
This post is about the major part of the matters of the mind locked in the vacuum of the self. At this mental level, I think there are no good or bad people, no right or wrong, no gentlemen and rustics, no perverts and purists for what’s inside of you is something no can figure out to be able to make a judgment about you. It is a level playing field where every individual is an equal and this fact though troublesome to many, is beautiful to me.
Our actions define us, not our thoughts. The mind is like the wild wind, the roaring river, the ceaseless cosmos it is meant to be unrestricted and unfettered, it is meant to be the harbinger of germination, the source of life and creativity, elite and eclectic, shoddy and shameful, the mind must do what it was meant to do, generate all the permutations and combinations possible and then you decide what you want to do with them by choosing the best ones to act upon, like how we select the best roses from the orchid to present to our beloved or pick the freshest fruits to take home sifting through the basket loads. I believe that a great person is not someone who has learnt to mould his mind but is someone who has an ascendance over his actions. It is not about destroying the dangerous mob - it is about choosing to shoot below the knees to disperse it, it is not about annihilating your adversary - it is about acknowledging his dominance while vowing vehemently to best him, it is not about lusting over your daughter’s classmate – it is about a life that you could positively influence being a responsible adult, it is not about the slum that you can build a castle on – it is about the countless souls you can help sustain on a piece of lifeless earth……
May be that’s why, even the great mahatma decided to adapt the adage, “See no evil, Hear no evil, Say no evil”, without adding “Think no evil”, for as long as you don’t intend to actuate it, the resident evil is actually harmless.
3 comments:
Interesting although I beg to differ. I believe thoughts have a greater role than actions. They are the brain and the ratiocinations behind the actions. True the mind needs to convince the body to act, but the very germination of a thought itself is a sequence of events that lead you to consciously think in a certain direction and therefore act in a certain way. If thoughts were not important in the first place, why would there be something like yoga and meditation and the emphasis on purity of the mind in practically every religion? If people start accepting that bad thoughts entering their heads is not too bad, then how much further are they from enacting those bad thoughts. The fact that we are 'moral' and believe they are 'bad' makes us shun these thoughts mentally and try to keep ourselves from getting convinced its ok and therefore restrain ourselves from enacting them.
Kirthi --> You say that thoughts are ratiocinations behind actions, but have you wondered how one can reason logically if one has not weighed the right thing to do with its alter side!? Yoga / meditation isn’t an aegis against bad-thoughts, it is merely a mental faculty which helps us in our volitions. Whoever said, “Thoughts are not important”, they are the very bedrock of existence. To me, there is nothing like a bad thought or amorality, they are merely options laid in front of you and your actions fueled by your mentations will make you choose what you think is right!
Overall, this blog is a bold and daring statement in this highly conservative world which asks us to control our thoughts & actions. However, I disagree with your verdict when you say:
"Our actions define us, not our thoughts.
It is only half-true; a more deeper thought process will lead to a much different verdict saying 'thoughts are as important as our actions'. For example, when you see your arch-rival, your mind immediately raises a thought 'I'll kill him' for whatever bad things he had done to you; but your sane mind keeps a tab on this thought by bringing up punitive things that might happen because of such activity: jail term, disgrace for family and friends, etc..which essentially controls your actions.
If such wild thoughts are not controlled....aren't we going back in civilization process???
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