βThe heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing“
This statement besides being one of the most famous quotes of Blaise Pascal, a great philosopher of the 17th century, this one line exhibits the biggest confusion of the human psyche- whether to govern actions by the firmness of mind or the tenderness of heart.and as the statement above makes it quite clear. The reasoning of the heart is so dominant at times that it becomes ignorant of the rationality of the world.
The heart is symbolic of emotions, feelings, attachments. It has its own reasoning which the mind may not approve of, probably because it lacks the evidence or arguments that prove it to be right. But has an understanding that assures it of not being wrong. At times the high EQ(emotional quotient) may overshadow the strong IQ.
The reason for it is simple when faced with a situation, our heart pulls us to one direction and the mind to the other. We don’t know which way to go this gives rise to a conflict that interferes with our ability to think rationally. There is no direction, just a dead point. We feel lost and .our mind stops working, stops thinking, and then we become totally dependent on what our heart tells us after all it’s our last resort.
Some people often refer to it as their inner voice. We commonly come across people saying “I don’t know why but I feel its wrong, I don’t have a reason for it but my heart tells me it is not right”.There are no pros and cons, no proof. It is just a feeling and we go by it and more often than not it proves to be right.
It may sound quite convenient but let’s face it, it’s not all that easy, because most people listening to their hearts are categorically labeled as emotional fools by the world. They are often considered as sentimental or mindless, but what accounts for consideration here is that is it easy to go against the rationality that is acceptable to all. Is it easy to convince others on the basis of just a faith, belief, or feeling that what we are saying is probably right when you have to work against all odds? Well the answer to it is simple.
No, then what enables us to still follow what our heart says. It is our righteousness, the purity of our soul, and the character that tells us to go ahead take a chance. I’m not saying we can never go wrong when we are governed by our heart but then even our mind doesn’t provide us with that kind of security and more than anything else listening to the heart leaves us with fewer regrets. Very often we come across people who complain
“I wish I had listened to my heart..,” rather than those who say”I wish I had applied logic..”.
There are no rules to live, but what we know is that life is a sum of all our choices. The difference lies in how those choices are made, on the basis of the mind or the heart. The heart makes us do things that are far from logical thinking and isolated from the visible outcomes.But the pleasure that is derived from following the heart is immeasurable and as said by Henry Amiel “Man becomes man only by the intelligence, but he is man only by the heart”
