Acharya Prashant: The quote says - “Every thought I have imprisoned in an expression I must free by my deeds.”
What are the deeds? What is honest doing?
In honest doing realization guides thoughts, determination, and in that, determination instantaneously turns into action. The doer is realization. The real doer is a certain clarity. And because there is clarity so there is a smooth flow. One doesn’t have to stumble and ponder and consider and re-consider. What begins quickly reaches the end like a forceful stream. Streams with lesser force get lost in deserts, quagmires and have to face all kinds of anger, bends, distributions.
Realization and action must go together, realization being the beginning and action being the end. And in between realization and action, there is the possibility of much. There is the possibility of many happenings, much consuming away the momentum. All that happens between realization and action is nothing but an internal ploy to prevent the circle from gaining completion to prevent the stream from reaching the sea. And obviously, all that in-between-ness is possible only if realization is not complete.
Khalil Gibran is saying - “Every thought I have imprisoned in an expression I must free by my deeds." No expression can be a substitute to action. Even the most beautiful kind of expression is no substitute to the right action. You could say that the right action is the only right expression. Understanding expresses itself through action. And understanding knows no other expression. Words are a very poor substitute for the right action and that is what Gibran is talking of here. He says that which is understood claim for its final expression as action in life. The poet often lets his understanding become his words. To that extent, there is a flow but if the words remain mere words and do not turn into life then there is no freedom yet. The imprisonment continues. It is not at all sufficient to talk of the Truth, one has to live the Truth. The Truth must sit not merely on your tongue but in all parts of your body. Your hands must express it, your legs, your eyes, your ears. Not merely your tongue or your pen.
