CWTVKS Volume 2

3) Mind—Knowledge

Spiritual experience and knowledge from books are totally different things. Sri Ramakrishna used to say that though it is recorded in almanacs when rain is going to pour and in what quantities, however much one might press the pages of the almanac one cannot squeeze out of it a single drop of water. Similar is the case of book-knowledge and inner experience.

15 February 1950

Philosophies are there because man, being a thinking animal, cannot but think, cannot but intellectualise. But philosophy as such plays no essential part in spiritual life. If one has the central sincerity, feels the pressing necessity to live the inner life and drive towards its consummation, any teaching will do for him. He won't wait to weigh the pros and cons of each system of philosophy before plunging into the life of the spirit. It is the personality and power of the Guru that decides the choice of the disciple for the particular way. The aspirant finds his being attracted and attached to the Guru, not so much by virtue of his teaching as by his personal force of magnetism. Philosophy comes in only afterwards and that too for those who are intellectually developed—unlike those whose main forte is the emotional part and hence have little pull towards intellectual presentations of Truth as perceived—these, whose mind is well sharpened intellectually, find further support (to the choice of the soul) and enlightenment from the philosophical aspect of the Teaching. All told, the role of philosophy in spiritual life is very secondary. The nature of the need in the aspiring soul is the decisive factor.

Philosophy unless backed up with realisation in actual life carries little conviction. That is why philosophies of western thinkers like Kant, Bergson, have failed to influence the lives of men in a practical sense. It has not been so in the case of Acharyas like Shankara or Madhya. One felt that here was one who was speaking from the heights of personal experience. Their appeal was irresistible; it was a spell.

11 March 1949

Most of our brain activity is the working of the vital mind i.e., desires, sensations etc. as working on the mental level. Even among thinkers or philosophers it is only a few who have the real thought-mind working through the brain; the rest have some preference, some definite choice or line of ideas and the brain works correspondingly.

28 December 1948

What we call ‘mind’ is really the threshold of the Mind. The Mind is many-layered, many-chambered. From the surface mind, the threshold, lie openings to the chambers below, chambers above, chambers in the interior. Thus what we are conscious of as our mind is in fact a very small part of the external mind. When men say, particularly when young people contend that they ‘know their mind’, it is really amusing. Swept as these youngsters are by forces of passion, desire and impulses, what indeed could they know of what passes in the whole of their mind? It is for this reason that youngsters are asked to look up to elders for guidance and counsel. For, the latter by sheer experience and age stand better fitted to gauge men and things; they are more conscious of the limitations of the human mind, the extent to which men are liable to be influenced by things beyond the usual mind etc.

23 June 1949

Our normal conception of Space is not the only one that is real. It may be so to the state of consciousness in which we are awake. In other states of living or consciousness Space as we conceive it does not exist. For instance, in dreams, we see whole towns and cities within our little rooms. Here we glimpse the possibility of feeling and acting in space in quite another way than ours if only we could shift our centre to a deeper and different consciousness.

25 May 1949

One cannot easily get a correct and full view of the course that the Divine Work takes. It is like a potter working on, say, an idol of Ganapati. Now he moulds this part, now that; hands, legs, ears—all lie scattered about; if you look at his work at this stage, you are bewildered, you find things ugly, silly and even meaningless. But the potter knows what he has in mind, how all these diverse bits are to be fitted into a whole of beauty and harmony: The Divine Architect, likewise, knows what he is building up. All loose ends and apparently waste bits will be picked up in time and formed into a specimen of Perfection. Then will all admire, then will all understand the process that led to the outcome.

23 September 1948

Bhakti and Yukti (mental intelligence) are of course both necessary. But where yukti might fail, bhakti never does. My own preference between Jnana and Bhakti has always been for the former; yet Jnana is bound to find its culmination in Bhakti, Love. Jnanino mam prapadyante.

13 November 1950