Having opened the theme of thoughts as living beings, Hazrat Inayat Khan now considers the implicates for us of our often undirected thoughts.

If a little pebble thrown into the sea puts the water into action, then one hardly stops to think to what extent this vibration acts upon the sea. What one can see is the little waves and circles that the pebble produces before one. One sees these, but the vibration that has been produced in the sea reaches much farther than man can ever imagine. What we call space is a much finer world. If we call it sea, it is a sea with the finest fluid. If we call it land, it is a land which is incomparably more fertile than the land we know. This land takes everything in it and brings it up, it rears it, it allows it to grow; our eyes do not see it, our ears do not hear it.

Does this idea not make us responsible for every movement we make, for every thought we think, for every feeling that passes through our mind or heart? There is not one moment of our life wasted, if we only know how to utilize our activity here, how to direct our thought, how to express it in words, how to further it with our movement, how to feel it, so that it may make its own atmosphere. What responsibility! The responsibility that every man has is greater than a king’s responsibility. It seems as if every man has a kingdom of his own for which he is responsible – a kingdom which is in no way smaller than any kingdom known to us, but incomparably larger than the kingdoms of the earth. This teaches us to be thoughtful and conscientious and to feel our responsibility at every move we make. When a man does not feel this, he is unaware of himself, he is unaware of the secret of life. He goes on as a drunken man walking in a city. He does not know what he is doing, either for himself, or against himself.

Now one might ask, ‘How can a thought live? In what way does it live? Has it a body to live in, has it a mind, has it a breath?’ Yes. The first thing we should know is that a breath that comes directly from the source seeks a body, an accommodation in which to function. A thought is as a body. The breath that runs from the source – as a ray of the spirit that may be likened to the sun – makes the thought an entity; it lives as an entity.

It is these entities that are called in Sufi terms, Muwakkals, which means elementals. They live, they have a certain purpose to accomplish. They are given birth by man, and behind them there is a purpose to direct their life. Imagine how terrible it is if, in a moment’s absorption, a person expresses his wrath, his passion, his hatred! A word expressed at such a moment must live and carry out its purpose. It is like creating an army of enemies around oneself. Perhaps one thought has a longer life than another; it depends on what body has been given to it. If the body is stronger, then it lives longer. On the energy of the mind, the strength of the body of that thought depends.

To be continued…