In all His Creations, only human beings are endowed with the ability to communicate through speech. But sadly, more often than not, this power is not utilized the way it was meant to be. Those are the times when our speech is not aligned with our thoughts. And when this happens it impinges on our actions too. The resulting factor is all the three faculties—thoughts, speech and actions are totally askew.
What we would like to communicate is formulated in our thoughts. Recognizing that we should only speak what is formulated in our thoughts is an important realization. Be it a parent, student, teacher, preacher, leader, etc— if we wish to play our roles successfully, then we need to ensure this fact.
“What you think, you should speak; what you speak, you must put into practice. That is real humanness. Unity does not mean gathering of all people at one place. What is needed is perfect harmony between thoughts, words and deeds.” Says Sathya Sai Baba. He calls this Triple Unity.
In 1931, Gandhi was invited to speak to the British Parliament.
Those were the days when Gandhi was one of the most vocal supporters of Indian independence. His visits were always viewed with suspicion and caution by the British Parliament.
Gandhi stood up to speak. He had no notes in his hands. He spoke for two hours with eloquence and passion. The audiences were astounded. They stood and applauded.
Later, an English journalist asked one of Gandhi’s assistants how he was able to stand with no notes and speak so brilliantly for such a long time.
The assistant smiled and is quoted as saying, “You don’t understand Gandhi. You see, what he thinks is what he feels. What he feels is what he says. What he says is what he does. What Gandhi feels, what he thinks, what he says, and what he does are all the same. He does not need notes.”
What we would like to communicate is formulated in our thoughts. Recognizing that we should only speak what is formulated in our thoughts is an important realization. Be it a parent, student, teacher, preacher, leader, etc— if we wish to play our roles successfully, then we need to ensure this fact.
“What you think, you should speak; what you speak, you must put into practice. That is real humanness. Unity does not mean gathering of all people at one place. What is needed is perfect harmony between thoughts, words and deeds.” Says Sathya Sai Baba. He calls this Triple Unity.
In 1931, Gandhi was invited to speak to the British Parliament.
Those were the days when Gandhi was one of the most vocal supporters of Indian independence. His visits were always viewed with suspicion and caution by the British Parliament.
Gandhi stood up to speak. He had no notes in his hands. He spoke for two hours with eloquence and passion. The audiences were astounded. They stood and applauded.
Later, an English journalist asked one of Gandhi’s assistants how he was able to stand with no notes and speak so brilliantly for such a long time.
The assistant smiled and is quoted as saying, “You don’t understand Gandhi. You see, what he thinks is what he feels. What he feels is what he says. What he says is what he does. What Gandhi feels, what he thinks, what he says, and what he does are all the same. He does not need notes.”
This Triple Unity is not a complex issue but it does require some behavioral changes. Every night, before going to bed, self-assessing our thoughts, words and actions throughout the day and consciously working towards correcting ourselves would take us a long way.
The goal is to be aware of our thoughts before we speak, express them without any distortion and translate them into actions without any twist.
The goal is to be aware of our thoughts before we speak, express them without any distortion and translate them into actions without any twist.
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