It is said that one of the things which distinguishes the human being from the animal is his capacity for speech. In fact, words and speech are our most important means of communication. And yet our communication is far from perfect. The question arises:
Question : Why is it that sometimes when we speak to certain people they understand very little or even misunderstand.On the other hand, to some others we may speak just a few words and everything is conveyed.What is it behind the words that creates this difference?
Here is the Mother explaining to the children why this happens and what is it that lies behind the words and conveys the meaning.
“Words are words. After all, they mean nothing, unless there is something behind. Have you never noticed that when you speak to certain people, you may express yourself quite clearly and yet they understand nothing; and to others you say just two words and they understand immediately? You have not had this experience?…
Therefore, it does not depend upon the external form, the words one speaks, but on the force of the thought one puts into them; and the greater, stronger, more precise and clear the thought-force, the more the chance of what you say being understood by people who are able to receive that force. But if one speaks without thinking, usually it is impossible to understand what he says. It makes a kind of noise, that is all.
For example, when you have the habit of speaking with someone, exchanging ideas with him, when between the two of you there is a certain mental adjustment, that is, when you have taken the precaution of saying, “When I use this word, I mean this”, and the other person has said, “When I use that word, I mean that”, and so on; when you are used to an interchange, when you have established a kind of contact between brain and brain —even if it be only that —you understand each other quite easily. But with people who come altogether from elsewhere, with whom you have never spoken, you need a little time to adjust and adapt yourself to understand what they mean by the words they use….
What is it that makes you understand? It is just the kind of mental sense that is behind the words. When the thought is strongly thought out, there is a powerful vibration and it is that which is sensed; the word is only an intermediary means. You can develop this sense to the point of having a direct mental contact with a minimum of words or even without any words at all; but then you must have a very great force of thought-concentration.
And for everything one does, it is like that. When there is a developed consciousness behind, when one has the power to concentrate it, one can do anything at all —this consciousness will act. Certainly it is not the bodily mechanism that makes you act; the mechanism is simply an instrument, nothing more. The day you catch that (it is invisible, but you can catch it), and when you catch it and put it into your movement, this movement becomes conscious and you do well whatever you do. The day you do not catch it, it slips from you like water through your fingers; and then you are clumsy, you do not understand, you do not know what to do. Hence, it is not the physical mechanism that counts, it is what is behind.”
The Mother
