Let me first explain what is thought and what is feeling. We often speak of thought and feeling as being much the same as the other, but they are as different as fire and air, or as earth and water. It is sometimes said: "My mind is my thought and my thought is my brain."

Some scientists have said that the brain is a substance that produces thought. But the brain could never be large enough to contain the whole of thought. The brain receives the vibrations from the mind invisible, and the heart receives the vibrations from the heart invisible. If we think very much, we hold our head. The head becomes heavy. Scientists do not give the heart any importance as an organ of feeling. They say that it is simply an organ that helps in the circulation of the blood. Really the physical heart receives the impressions from the heart invisible. A feeling of joy or pleasure is not felt in the brain. It is felt in the chest, and especially in the left side, where the heart is. A feeling of fear is not felt in the brain, but in the place of the heart. A feeling of depression or sadness causes a heaviness in the chest.

A dull person will understand less of what is said to him than an intelligent person. If two people are sitting next to each other, and someone is speaking to them, one may understand much less than the other. The vibrations come to both in the same way, but one brain is better able to receive them than the other.

The brain and heart also change. We find a person moved, touched, and shedding tears at the smallest thing that has to do with love or truth, and five years later he may not show any sign of being moved by the greatest joy or sorrow. So also we may find a person very indifferent and cold, and then, three or four years later, he may show a tender and melting state of heart. This depends upon the physical condition of the brain and heart, and this has to do with the subject of physical culture. The Brain and heart may be developed. This is why the zikr and fikr and the various practices of the Sufi are done in connection with the heart. The Sufis give great importance to the cultivation of the heart.

Thought comes from feeling. In the next inversion, thought may create feeling. The thought of an enemy may produce a feeling of sadness and revengefulness. One may be feeling very joyous and a picture of a friend not seen for a long time may produce a feeling of sadness. Still, it is feeling that has creative power, and thought is responsive. A person may be sitting in a room full of people, and may be laughing. Though he may hide his laughter, and it may not be seen, the tendency to laugh will arise in others. A person who is sad or gloomy may come into our presence, and, though he may say nothing the tendency toward sadness arises in us.

If you look at the sky and watch closely, you will have solved a great problem. You will see that there is a small, white cloud somewhere. It is joined by another cloud, and its form is changed. Then another cloud meets them, and its form is again changed. Then one part is taken away, and two parts only remain. Then it grows to ten times its size, and then nine parts are taken away. So it is with thought. It changes constantly like the clouds. The mind is the sky. It is the sun that disperses the clouds, and the soul that disperses thought. In India and other countries where the sun is very strong, the clouds are quickly dispersed. When the soul's power is great, the clouds of our thoughts will be scattered.

People often say: "Hold the root of the thought, hold the feeling which creates it." If a person has the feeling, 'I want money,' the feeling will grow and grow. He will watch every cent and collect, and he may become a millionaire. If a person has a spark of anger against an enemy, it will grow in his thought and feeling, until he feels bad not only towards his enemy, but towards my friend, only to my enemy", but in time, we shall feel full of enmity towards the friend also.

Thought is much greater than all the material objects that it has made. The thought of Shakespeare is alive today, his body has disappeared. The thought of Beethoven lives on the paper, though there may not be an atom of his body remaining. The thoughts of Jelal-ud-Din Rumi, at the time when his soul was longing for its liberation, move the heart of him who reads them.

People often say: "I said it, but I did not mean it." That is never true. If you said it, you thought it, and if you thought it, you felt it. You may be in a hurry, and say 'cat', for instance, instead of 'hat', or you may not know the language very well, but to say a thing you have not thought, is not possible.

If a thought comes that: "I want some roses", and the thought repeats itself in my mind over and over again, one of two things will happen, either my thought will make me go out and buy some roses, or else it may make someone else bring them to me. If you think that you want fish for dinner, and the thought makes its circles in your mind, the cook will bring fish. It is not that the cook wished to bring fish, but your thoughts make him bring it.

It is by the power of thought that the black magicians can kill a person, or make a person go mad. I have known some so great that they make boxes in a house catch fire and burn without anyone going into the house. And yet they cannot be called saints or sages, because they do what they do without renunciation, not by the power of the soul, but by the power of the thought.

If this power can be used for a better purpose, that is more desirable, but practice it in your own affairs first. If it can be used for others, with renunciation, with love, that is most desirable. From morning till night we think how to make our house more comfortable, how to have a nice dress, a nice motor car, and we do not think of him who lives in the house, of the personality. We want incense in the house, we do not want a bad smell. Of what use is it if the motor car runs well, if the motor car of the mind does not run smoothly? First take care of him who lives in the house.

If we can say to our soul: "You are my real self. Shine in my mind. To you all this that surrounds me is a show, whether I like it, or whether I do not like it. To you it is an experience. See it, even if it be sad or unpleasant. But you are not moved or affected by any of these things. You are much too great for them to leave any stain upon you. You are always the same, always unaltered. And you are also the soul of all else. You are the light of God."

This is what is meant by, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God." The Kingdom of God is the soul. It is the light of God. If we can say this, whatever our circumstances may be, our depression and sadness will be dispersed like the clouds before the sun and we shall be in the light and peace of our soul.

Q. If all knowledge is in the Consciousness, what need is there of thought? And if thought is drawn from the external world, how could the universe be created without thought?
A. The Consciousness contains all knowledge. Thought is the activity of the consciousness impressed by the external world. Thought is needed to control the activity of the consciousness. God bless you.