Thought is hardly a problem, the quality of thought is

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: I need some clarification on the statement by Shankar. He says, “Thought is the only means to knowledge.” Is there not a difference between thought and realization? What I mean is that is it not true that realization comes first and thought picks up the realization as an object for its movement. Do you think my reasoning is flawed?

Acharya Prashant: Do not underestimate the mind.

Every realization, every thought, is in the domain of the mind.

Will any of these realizations come to one who is sleeping, or to one who is physically dead? One requires a body and a mind for all such realizations.

The mind keeps on getting subtler and subtler, the thought keeps getting finer and finer. So fine that it starts requiring very little time for its processes. The time may start tending to zero, yet there is that nanosecond involved.

Ultimately thought and time become ‘almost zero’, but that’s it. Almost! Just like in calculus, ‘tending to zero’.

If you say realization comes first, who realizes? The senses? Say you look at a snake; what is the whole process like? The senses feed a few visual and other inputs to the…