The Nature of Intuition

Intuition is the direct apprehending act of consciousness. It is that power in the higher regions of the mind which perceives the truth of things immediately, independent of sensation, reasoning, induction and deduction.

Intuition is the apprehension of its own essence, of the reality of its conscious states, of other minds, of other objects in the world, or of abstract universals. Intuition is super-sensory. It transcends sense, intellect and reason and constitutes the full blossoming of these lower faculties into perfection.

Intuition is different from inspiration. The former is knowledge by entering into the very existence of the object that is known, however remote it may be, while the latter is a mental experience caused by the transmission of the qualities of a higher consciousness to the mind.

“Intuition is an active inner awareness of the immortal and blissful Self within. It is the eye of wisdom through which the sage senses in everything the unseen presence.

 Intuition, intuitive discernment, is the touchstone of philosophy. The method of intuition is the only one of ultimately discerning the truth. Intuition is the method. Realisation of the Self is the goal. Without developing intuition the intellectual man remains imperfect and blind to the truth behind appearance.

Intuition is the ultimate source of all proofs of knowledge. Other ways of knowing, like sense-perception, inference and verbal testimony give us only an indirect knowledge.

The highest revelation comes to the self by itself alone, independent of external instruments and other accessories needed in empirical knowledge.

 The highest truth can be given only in intuition. The deepest secrets of Nature are not matters of sensory or intellectual perception. Truths which are related to the innermost being of the universe can be known only in intuition in which there is no process of knowledge, but the being of the object known becomes the existence of consciousness.

The immediacy of intuitive perception is different from the apparent non-immediacy of sense-perception. Knowledge in the waking and the dreaming states is knowledge by process, requiring a relation between the knower and the known. But in intuition the object of knowledge does not stand outside as something alien to it. It gets assimilated into the constitution of knowledge itself.

By intuition we are assured of the inner meaning and significance of things, of a supernatural import in the structure of the universe. The highest form of intuition is the recognition of the Self by itself in all things.

It is, in the words of Plato, a conversation of the soul with itself. The object of knowledge in intuition does not present itself as a not-self which requires to be known by any process of perceptive knowledge, but is in sympathy with the permanent nature of knowledge itself.

Certain experiences are often called intuition, though they are rather inspirations than true intuition. The creative power of the unconscious mind is such that sometimes the rational activity of the mind goes on below the subliminal level. It can continue far below the threshold of consciousness, in sleep and dream.

This activity of the higher mind is an unconscious functioning of the expression of the soul at the background of every mental function. The workings of the mind do not permit conscious willing, except in the limited form in which they manifest. But intuition as developed in the spiritual field widens the scope of reason and makes conscious willing possible in the highest degree, and in every direction.

In the lower forms of intuition a super-sensory process of perception may make a superficial distinction between the knower and the known. But this distinction is without much difference, for this knowledge-distinction is really something like the difference observed between the different parts or stages of a current of flowing water.

There is a flow of knowledge and a practical distinction between the knower and the known, but the fact of the assimilation of the existence of the object into knowledge abolishes in intuition all real distinction, in kind or characteristic.

In the higher forms of intuition even this flow of knowledge towards an object ceases, for here the object is known in its true nature, as ultimately one with the consciousness. This is what happens in the intuition of the Absolute.

Intellect and Intuition

In intellectual analysis truth is distorted and falsified to some extent, for here existence gets separated into the subject and the object.

Without duality there is no intellectual function, and with duality there is no knowledge of reality. The intellect breaks up the unity of being into a system of isolated terms and relations. The predicate is differentiated from the subject and then dovetailed into the subject itself by being made an adjective of the latter.

The unitary existence is thus divided into a primary and a secondary aspect, which occasions false perception. Whatever be the extent of the predicate of a logical proposition, it cannot be more than empirical knowledge, for it is knowledge by division and not union of the subject and the object.

An aggregate of an infinite number of particulars cannot give us the Absolute; sense, feeling, thought and understanding, together with volition, are below the level of intuition.

In all physical processes knowledge takes the form of an artificial relation of the predicate to the subject. In intuition there is no adjectival predicate required to qualify the subject, for it is knowledge of existence in essence.

Logical knowledge takes one away from insight into the truth of things; it gives us a superficial glimpse of the manner in which objects appear to us in the world. Man’s powers of knowledge are not adapted to comprehend reality. “His consciousness has adapted itself to understanding the world in terms of time and space.

If it were freed from keeping busy with the perception of the outer world and focussed upon a world of noumenon, it would transcend time and space and adapt itself to perceiving the noumenon in a special way. It is intuition alone that is capable of bringing the various particulars together to form a harmonious whole and enable the self to enter the portals of Reality.

Intellect and intuition are not really opposed to each other. Intellect is lifted up and universalised in the purified state of intuition. Intuition does not negative intellectual perception but transfigures it in a higher perception. The purpose of the intellect is fulfilled in the illumination of intuition.

While intellect gives us a shadow, intuition takes us to the substance. Intellect functions on the belief in the partitioning of things, but intuition enters directly into the whole object, right up to the essence.

What intellect achieves is understanding, while that which is gained in intuition is practical wisdom. The intellect functions on the wrong basis of the assumption that the results achieved by the process of the distinction between the knower and the known are fully trustworthy.

Without belief in this difference there is no logic, and with this difference there is no truth. The complete synthesis of knowledge would be a union of principles where the intellect is overcome, where reason rises above itself and where differences are obliterated. This achievement is not possible as long as the seeker rests contented in the human consciousness.

 The moral urge within man to reach perfection, points to the existence of a knowledge which is unlimited in every way.

In matters transcendental, such as the existence of God, the unity of the world and the immortality of the soul, the pronouncements of the intellect can never be free from the defects of wrong notion and doubt.

Reason in its search after truth has always to be guided by the deliverances of intuition. Unaided reason often moves along the edge of a dangerous precipice through which it may easily fall into an error which would prove its own ruin.

Intuition does not contradict the pure reason, and since reason has nothing better to say, it has to accept the trustworthy character of what is heard from those who have a direct insight into truth.

Logic may scrutinise, reason may verify the validity of the facts of intuition, but as they are found to be agreeable with logic as well as reason, they ratify the moral urge within man; they have to be taken as a guiding torch in one’s quest after truth.

Reason always bases itself on sense-perception. The test of truth is not verifiability by sense, but non-contradiction and agreement with the revelations of the deepest source of knowledge.

Discursive (aimless) reason concerns itself only with objects that remain outside the self and are externally related to knowledge.

Intuition in its highest reaches is not knowledge of being but knowledge as being.

Self-knowledge is the summit of intuitive perception, and it is inseparable from self-existence. It is the only true and direct knowledge. All else is relational, mediate, inferential and presupposes the characteristics of knowledge as attained in intuition.

It is the light of the Self that flashes forth and overshadows all knowledge which man is acquainted with in the world. The possibility of an intuitive knowledge is demonstrated in the metaphysical acceptance of the absoluteness of the Self.

There is, ultimately, only one ‘I,’ the universal Self asserting itself everywhere in creation. This Self is at the back of all thought-processes, all rational knowledge, and all psychical operations. Strictly speaking, we should not equate Self-realisation with intuition in the sense of any kind of perception, even if it be the highest perception, for Self-experience is being itself.

Knowledge through the functioning of the causal body is intuition. Atma-Jnana (knowledge of the Self) is above intuition; it is the highest form of knowledge. It is the only reality.

Intuition gives an entire and concrete insight into reality, while intellect gives partial knowledge abstracted from reality. Intuition reveals the cosmic interrelatedness of things, while intellect gives a static picture of isolated objects. Intuition gives a synthetic view of reality, while intellect provides us with analytic concepts of falsely divided entities.

The universe is presented as a collection of fragments due to the dividing activity of the intellect.

An intuitive knowledge of an object bestows supreme power on one over that object. The intuition of Reality is, verily, omniscience, and omniscience is at once omnipotence. This is to attain to existence, knowledge, power and freedom in their completeness.

Knowledge relating to truth is the only normal knowledge in a person, error being an exception to the rule. The essence of man is truth, and not error. Error is an aberration from one’s own being.

Wrong is action done against oneself. The law of perfection, in general, is in relation to and in consonance with the inner perfection of the individual.

The individual and the universe are not two realities but one in their substratum. To get at the inner essence of thought is, in fact, to possess in it a true characterisation of reality. Truth is not a concept but true existence, universal, general and necessary.

“Inspiration, revelation, insight, intuition, ecstasy, divine sight and supreme bliss are the seven planes of knowledge. The vast majority of people will always want something concrete to hold on to, something around which, as it were, to place their ideas, something which will be the centre of all thought-forms in their minds. This is the very nature of the mind.

There are four sources of knowledge, instinct, reason, intuition and super-intuition or Brahma-Jnana.

Instinct is found in animals, birds, etc. In birds (for example) the ego does not interfere with the free divine flow and divine play. Hence the work done by them through their instincts is more perfect than that done by human beings. Have we not noticed the excellent work done by birds in their building of wonderful nests?

Reason is higher than instinct, and is found only in human beings. It collects facts, generalises, reasons out from cause to effect, from effect to cause, from premises to conclusions, from propositions to proofs. It concludes, decides and comes to judgment. It takes one safely to the door of intuition and leaves him there.

In intuition there is no reasoning. There is direct perception of truth. We know things by a flash. Intuition transcends reason, but does not contradict it. Intuition is the voice of the inner person, the faculty by which the individual tries to apprehend itself in eternity.

Empirical knowledge is an image cast in the mind by the imperishable wisdom that shines in intuition. Reason itself discovers, in the end, a realm lying beyond its operational field. The knowledge of the limitations of reason is an acceptance of there being a knowledge transcending reason.

Knowledge of a boundary implies the knowledge of what extends outside the boundary. The aspiration for infinite knowledge, the urge for perfection, points to an experience which speaks, in the language of silence, of its supremacy over all things known to man.

Intuition is, as it were, the antenna by which the Absolute feels its own self in the objects of the universe. Intuition heralds the coming of the experience of Brahman.

It establishes in the universe a divine family, and fulfils the promise of a universal brotherhood of all created beings. A feeling of kinship with all things is possible only on the foundation of the perception of oneness.

Perfect knowledge has the characteristic mark of uniformity, for it depends on self-accomplished and truly existing objects. Whatever is permanently of one and the same nature and endures without undergoing change in the history of time is acknowledged to be true. The knowledge of truth is perfected knowledge. In it a mutual conflict of opinions is not possible, for it is rooted in what is equally true to all persons and things, everywhere and at all times. Intuition is the golden key to blessedness.