To know your intentions, watch your actions || Acharya Prashant (2017)

Questioner: Yesterday we did this play on –‘What is the intention?’ So we live in more of a conscious mind. So we can figure out some conscious things. How then can we go deeper and know what the real intention is?

Acharya Prashant: From the conscious, you will know the sub-conscious, the unconscious, everything. What else is the function of the root? It shows up as the fruit. So go and look at the fruit and you will know the root. Fruit is nothing but an extension of the root. So, if you can look at the conscious, you will find that it is just an extension of the unconscious.

The conscious mind is only an expression of the unconscious mind. It is not different. If you are not careful enough, you will start saying the fruit is different from the root. They are not different. They are organically linked.

The root is becoming the fruit. Similarly, the unconscious is showing up as the conscious. So, pay attention to the conscious. Pay attention to whatever is going on and you will figure out what is hiding.

So, just keep looking at your thoughts-actions, and you will know your intention. In fact, it was a very nice revelation in the first scene of your play, you (pointing to one of the listener) were there and you come in and ask him, “What is the intention? What is intention?” After you ask him three or four times, he starts getting irritated. So, it is exposed what the intention is; the intention is self-preservation. Because you are asking him, "What is the intention?" Then he is getting irritated. Don’t you see what he is trying to do? He is trying to defend himself, to protect himself. That exposes the intention, the intention is to protect oneself. Full stop!