Question: When I try to think out a problem and plan a course of action, I find myself unable to make up my mind. Why is this?

Sri Chinmoy: When people use the mind, they constantly suffer from one thing: confusion. They go on thinking and thinking, and the moment they think that they have arrived at the truth, they discover that it is not truth at all, but just more confusion. The difficulty is this: when we think of someone or something, we form a positive conception which we think is absolutely true. But the next moment doubt comes and changes our mind. This moment you will think that I am a nice man. The next moment you will think that I am a bad man. Then after that you will think something else. Eventually you will see that there is no end to your questions and there is no solution.

Each time we think, we are lost. Thinking is done in the mind, but the mind is not yet liberated. Only the soul is liberated. Our problem is that we want to be liberated by thinking. But the mind itself is still in the prison cell of darkness, confusion and bondage, so how can we expect liberation from the mind?

When we plan, we very often are frustrated because we do not see the truth right from the beginning. We plan to do something because we feel that if we do it we will achieve a certain goal. But between planning and executing, different ideas and different ideals enter into us and create confusion for us. Then our planning goes on and on forever and we never enter into the world of action because our plans are never complete or certain. There is a yawning gap between our mental plan and the action itself.

But if we have an inner will, soul’s will, which has come to us from meditation, then the action is no sooner conceived of than it is done. At that time there is no difference between our inner will and our outer action. When we enter into the totally dark, obscure, unlit room of action with our mental plan, it is like carrying a candle. But when we enter the room with our soul’s light, the room is flooded with illumination.

Right now we are labouring with our mind. The mind says, “I have to achieve something. I have to think about how I can execute my plan.” But God does not do that. God sees the past, present and future at a glance. When we are one with God, when — by constant aspiration — we identify ourselves with God’s Consciousness, then whatever we do will be done spontaneously. Then we will not utilise the mind, but always act from our own inner consciousness, with our intuitive faculty. And when we develop that intuitive faculty, we can easily act without having a plan. At each moment, the possibility of the total manifestation that is going to take place will materialise right in front of us.

Now we think that within, let us say, ten or twenty days some possibility may materialise concerning our hopes and aspirations. But when we are one with God’s Consciousness, it is more than a possibility. It is an inevitability, an immediate achievement. The vision and the fulfilment go together. In the ordinary human consciousness, the vision is one thing and the fulfilment is something else. But when we are one with God’s Consciousness, the vision and the fulfilment are inseparable.