Wednesday 22 January 2014

The Power of Intuition

Intuition



There are three type of knowledge or information you get.

One is through the five senses. You see and you get some knowledge, you listen and you get knowledge, you smell and you get information, through taste you get information, and through touch. The five senses bring you some knowledge. Most of our knowledge is gained by these five senses. Now this is one type of knowledge.

The second is through the intellect. The knowledge gained through intellect is superior to knowledge gained through the senses. Science is knowledge gained through intellect. See, what all you see from your eyes is the sun is setting, but what you learn through science is sun doesn’t set. It is the earth which revolves. You have not seen the earth revolving through any of the five senses, but through intellect you understand that the earth is revolving and that it is revolving around the sun. This is the intellectual knowledge through intellect which is superior to the senses. Like in a beaker of water you keep a pen, what do you see? The pen is bent. That is the perception, but the intellect says “No!” It is not bent it is an optical illusion. This is the knowledge through the intellect.

Now these two levels of knowledge are much more inferior to a third level of knowledge. That is intuitive knowledge. That is knowledge from the spirit that comes from silence. It cannot be verified by the senses or the intellect. Knowledge which comes beyond these two is another level of knowledge. So life begins when you tap into that level of knowledge. Till that time it is existence.

Now, how would you tap into this level of knowledge? The level of knowledge which is not through the senses, nor through the intellect, is the question. For that you have to let go of the knowledge of the senses and the intellect and relax. The moment you let go then what you gain through senses, cravings and aversions they stop. All your cravings and aversions are about the five sensory perceptions. It cannot be anything beyond that.

For some time you say, ‘Now I don’t want to see anything, I don’t want to hear anything, I don’t want to smell anything, I don’t want to taste anything, I don’t want to touch or know anything; I’m just going To Be.’ Then intellectual concepts, judgments, decisions, to all that you say, ‘I don’t even need to know anything, I don’t care for anything.’

Letting go of concepts is the second step. How should this be? How that should not be? Things should be like this and things should be like that... all these intellectual perceptions. Or,”Am I doing the right thing? Am I on the right path? Am I on the right track? Should I go on?”... All these things, drop them and only then silence begins. And when silence begins then the knowledge from the third level dawns and that knowledge is called Ritambhara knowledge. The true knowledge that comes from beyond the intellect is the intuitive knowledge.

Everyone has got this ability and you have experienced in your life this gut feeling, knowledge from somewhere, which you cannot really make out what it is. Somewhere, you feel this is the right thing to do and something happens in your tummy. And that knowledge comes up at that time but then you don’t honor it. Many times we stick onto the intellect or sensory perceptions.

Sometimes, your intellect says, “This is wrong, what I am doing?” But, you don’t listen to the intellect you keep doing the wrong things. How many of you have this experience? What you do? You stick on to the sensory and ignore the intellectual knowledge. And then what happens? You sometimes go beyond your intellect. Your intellect is saying something but your inner gut feeling is saying something else. And you’re feeling says, No!, there is something different, something more”. We ignore that and we stick onto the intellect. That’s how many times your judgments have found to be a failure.

How many of you feel your judgments have been wrong? But sometimes, beyond your judgments you have seen and you have taken a step and have been happy about it. In spite of your intellect saying ‘No’, something says ‘Yes’. Something else triggers and that is what happens when there is faith and that’s when the faith comes up. Sometimes, your mind says, “No!, I want to quit doing all this spiritual practices, I don’t care for that, I don’t care for hopes”. Many people do this, try to quit but something deep inside, the impressions, samskaras, some good karmas just make you keep going and then you are back on track. And then you are happy. You feel, ‘Good thing I didn’t do it, I didn’t walk on my impulse.’ How many of you have had this experience? Those are the moments when something beyond your intellect has taken over and worked.

When we started Art of Living, in the very beginning I could see that there are millions of people who were going to come on this path. I was just 22 or 23, something like that; just out of my teens. I said, ‘No I don’t want to start’. My intellect would say ‘No, so what? Someone else will come and do all this and take care of everybody’. I had no ambition, no desire to start any movement at all. I was happy, I’m happy now also, but I thought why would I take on some headache, I don’t want to. I was a little shy also but my intellect was always saying ‘Oh, no!’. But then everything kept happening because when the TM movement was there and they wanted me to be there. They were all very friendly with me. So it was difficult for me to say ‘No’ to my friends, and then all the elders were there and I was sort of attached. I said, ‘No!’, I don’t want to start the Art of Living; I fought and fought.

had everything, I didn’t need anything. I had no lack. I was flying around in helicopters even in those days. I had seen all the wealth I could see those days. And, if I have to start something from scratch, the intellect was saying ‘no’. But something beyond that was saying ‘yes’.