Some of my friends, whom I dearly love, call my tendency to quote Vivekananda as Intellectual-Laziness. Not as a criticism of my abilities but, perhaps, to goad me to write my own blogs.  I, respectfully, accept their suggestion but differ with them on the interpretation. The fact is one has to realise that not all of us talk at the same intellectual level. The willingness to exercise power of reasoning and analysis differs although all would love to think of themselves as endowed with exceptional powers of reasoning. We all have a thinking mind and all rational people love it. Often because we can directly feel only ourselves as thinking, we assume we think the best. This can often lead one to misleading conclusions. We ought to realize that there are many who talk at a plane which could be intellectually lower than the planes we normally live and think at. Therefore, to understand them fully, we need to lower down our plane of thoughts. Great teachers do that. Similarly, one also ought to realize that the reverse is also true. The intellectual level of some others could be significantly higher than ours. Hence, in such cases we need to reason and question ourselves till we attain that state of intellectual awareness.  Good students do just that.

The problem is great (wo)men talk at a level of awareness which is significantly higher than others. We often find this truth to be disconcerting and discomforting for very often they seem to challenge the very premise on which we base our perceptions. Therefore, we often try to avoid them. That, to me, is intellectual dishonesty. Avoidance of confrontation with those better than us. That is a way of simply avoiding issues which we find difficult to confront.

Just as in other fields of search we often borrow from past experience, so do we in our understanding about Life. Don’t we read language, mathematics, science et all and borrow from the experience and knowledge of past masters of the subject? Similarly, it is for Life. What are our thoughts? Are they not conditioned by the environment we are brought up in, the education we receive and the habits and friends we inculcate? So where is this pure originality? What is that we create? Leave a child in a room alone, if possible, for twenty years. Will he come out lecturing the truths of Gita?!! So where is Intellectual-Laziness when we quote from past masters of their field? Isnt it funny that for a  subject like history  we are willing to go to classes for years, read books and accept what the teachers say but for the book of life we find it hard to listen to teachers and past masters of the field. Then again what are our thoughts? Where do they come from? How much control we have on our minds? A little bit of criticism hurts us. We easily get into arguments knowing its all in vanity. So pray, if we cant control our minds what hold do we have on our thoughts? And then, when exactly is our thought original? When we are in anger? Or when we sulk? Or when we are in love? Or when we are praised? We thought differently as kids. We think differently now. We might think differently later. So where are we? Rather what are we? When do our thoughts represent our true self? Does it all combined represent ourselves or is it the way we are at this moment? Whichever way we see, we find that we cannot find a frame of reference within our selves. Our mind cannot fix at an absolute frame of reference because none exists within the narrow confines of our individuality. So what is this originality we refer to? The moment some one points out something in us we are quick to jump and exclaim…O that was in anger, dear…or that was in a moment of indiscretion….or that was because of so-and-so’s remarks…and we quickly wash our hands from it. We wash our hands from our own original thoughts! Isn’t that intellectual dishonesty? The fact is we conjecture a goody-goody picture of ourselves and would love everyone to think of us as conforming to that picture. Any aberrations are quickly disowned under the excuse of human frailties. Why so? Are we willing to disown the frailties in others too as rapidly?

And some call it freedom. Freedom from what? Is it freedom from the rapid flux of thoughts generated by my conscious self that keep striking my mind or is it freedom from the different sources of these thoughts in the external world that keep hammering me with their influences? You allow your mind to run riot, you allow your mind to act arbitrarily, you allow your mind to react to all stimuli at the slight pretext, you allow all internal and external stimuli to control yourself through your mind and then you say you are free? Are you not slave of your mind? Then how are you free? So how can you have original thoughts? At what stage were you free?   The fact is we all are struggling to reach the state of freedom. Every particle in this world is striving for this complete freedom. That is Karma. Complete freedom must accept all. Truth must accept false too. Complete acceptance has to be the defining aspect of any truth. Truth is infinite and hence it cannot negate anything. Freedom means complete acceptance of all that is. And that includes all thoughts, all variations. To restrict it to me and mine is to limit the infinite possibilities. And that is degradation.

Then again, some say that I quote but do not practice. So, they insist, I shouldn’t quote. I ask these wonderful souls, pray tell me, if there is a painting you like, are you not going to tell about it to your friends? Or would you only tell if you could draw it yourself? Will you put on music only if you can sing? Of course, you wont. Then how do I differ when I quote? What are you doing when you write your own blog? Don’t you quote yourself? Do you know the person inside you completely? Are you aware of the infinite possibilities inside you? Are you aware of the complete gamut of thoughts, needs, emotions and feelings that comprise you, have comprised you and will comprise you? If you do then you are dead. And dead don’t write. But even without completely knowing yourself you write. Because you love yourself. Because you love your thoughts. So what is the difference if I quote my Vivekananda? I love him the way I love myself. Love can only be understood by one who has loved. The way to unity is through the heart. Not through the mind. The way to expand is through the heart. Not through the mind. That is my way of expanding. That is the only way of expanding. Love, that is. It is as simple as that.

Then again behind every word spoken or written is the personality of the mind that did so. There have been many wonderful writers, many great poets, many great philosophers. Many brilliant minds. Yet they have not been able to move masses as a Christ, or a Buddha, or a Mohammed, or a Vivekananda. They spoke no great secret. No mumbo-jumbo. No theories. No laws. Many brilliant books are written everyday. But none have been able to influence the nations as have the Bible, the Koran, the Gita etc. They too contain no magic. No secret thoughts. It’s the personality which matters, the character of the person, his/ her beliefs and the force of conviction. That is one reason why they are still quoted. For no amount of creative brilliance can match the power which they exude.

Having said all of the foregoing, I also admit that the truth has to be reasoned out by us alone. No books. No theories. No lectures. The greatest book is within me. My life. My experience. My perceptions. Nevertheless, to limit it to my ego, my thoughts, is to limit my experience and my perceptions. My ‘I’ must expand to include as much as it can. My ‘I’  must expand every day, every moment. My ‘I’ must accept all that is and all that is not me. My ‘I’ must struggle to accept all that is and all that is not me. Truth must accept me and all that is not me. I must be the unifying principle between my internal and the external worlds. The form is true, the formless too is true. All words spoken, all thoughts thought, all good done, all evil done, all happiness, all sadness, all joy, all pain must be true. Life and death both are true. They must exist together. And the beginning I make is with you. I need to accept you as you. As a complete package not selective. You need to accept me as I am. As a complete package. All this is easier said than done. I agree. But what prevents me from dreaming? My dreams may come true some day. Who knows?

The fact is that we do need some frame of reference to come to that level of thought where we can sit calmly and say, yes, that is me. That is my real  thought. That is my real self.  We need some level of reference to bring our mind to rest. We need some absolute fixed points to gauge ourselves.. There are many ways to reach such a state. Some reach it through meditation. Some reach it through faith. Some reach it through reason. There have been masters in this field who have experienced this level of calmness in their thoughts. And what they thought matched with their actions. They too provide a frame of reference to us. And that is all they do. Rest, of course is our battle. All along it’s a difficult lonely path.

And that is why I quote my Vivekananda. For he otherwise brings sanity and calmness to the monkey of a mind that resides in me. That is not Intellectual Laziness but The Way of Tao, for me.