Once during my frequent train sojourns, there was a little thought in my mind ... about, well, "thoughts"...what are they? How do they form? how do you know that one is forming in your mind, because, by the time you are aware of it, its already there! You sensing it is merely your brain transforming it into a verbal form. Do we think in sentences? or words acting as "keys"? or just are they visions? shapes? forms? or a shapeless, formless flash.. an enigma...
Pay a little attention and you'll realise that a thought originate as a formless entity (acknowledging thoughts as entities). You'll find that those you sense, but can not visualise , can not render into solid images that can be related to, are actually the ones you feel very intensely... we call these - "Emotions". The closer something is to your heart, more intense is the emotional response invoked, purer is the experience. More intense the emotions, more formless the imprint on the mind... tougher to bind it in words, and deeper its influence on you.
Could that be why when we are taught to concentrate, we are asked to start by picturing a still object? like a blank, unwrinkled piece of paper ... as that needs your mind to let the calmer emotions, the peaceful thoughts to come to the fore. The "omkar" chant takes this one step further. What is the Omkar? a word? a syllable? a sound? An entity..an enigma..a connecting piece... Its synonymous with you, the world pulled over your eyes, the life force that flows through this world, the comic fore that binds the universe in this form, and yet, sets it free in many more ways... IT i beyond the realm of physics, metaphysics, theology, religion, itself. A parallel may be drawn with the Hebrew symbol "Yahweh", supposed to be the name of The One True God. They say, it cannot be pronounced by us mortals. Warning bells aside, one can think of it as a manifestation of he divine, or a human attempt to bind divinity in something comprehensible. Both, this and the Omkar are attempts to capture the true meaning of everything that is, was and ever will be, That which has neither beginning nor end. Which is omnipotent, omnipresent, That which just IS.
When you focus your thought on it, you open your self to the cosmic divine. You, in your own capacity, knowingly or unknowingly are calling out to the absolute glorious truth ...It's your own purity that determines the how aware you'll become of it.
Try, for once, to follow the process of how a thought emerges in your mind...and, each time you will see that you are always just a little too slow to acknowledge when it began, but in reality, the instantaneous knowledge is there, its the translation to acknowledgement that takes time. If you pay close attention, you can feel an impulse blossoming into colors, shapes, words, and what you'd recognise as a full-fledged thought. But try to express the means of this transformation, and our means of expression sow us their extreme inadequacy, for this process is is singular, absolute, and that which is absolute cannot be bound into words. Our ability for expression is thus curbed by the limitations of what we have shackled ourselves in ... Language.
Tell me, would a child, even if it grasps all language on the first day f its birth, be able to express its very first thought? Or for that matter, can you express whats in your mind the very first waking moment of any day?
you cant. because the level of consciousness that is active at those times is beyond the consciousness we limit ourselves to when we use language. The purpose of creating language was to mould abstract thoughts into concrete words, so that one mind may relay them to another. But as any communication system has a loss factor, this one does, too, and quite a heavy one. A direct linkage of minds would be the ideal way to exchange thoughts, but indirection induces discrepancies, confusion and in due course, corruption.
But there is one medium which transcends the realms of language, that of emotion.... and the purest of which is love. Hearts given to love do not need words to understand their counterparts. They are liberated from the bounds of the lower level of consciousness the mind inhibits itself to. That is why all saints preach love, love towards the Almighty, towards all His creations. It is the only bond that does not bind the participants, but liberates them, because the bond itself is absolute, true, and omnipotent. It is God's highest creation.
