MIND : ITS MYSTERIES AND CONTROL :22-1

22. THE FOUR SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE : 1.



Inspiration, revelation, insight, intuition, ecstasy, divine sight and Paramananda state  are the seven planes of knowledge.

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



1. Instinct -


When an ant crawls in your right arm, the left arm automatically moves towards the right arm to drive away the ant.

The mind does not reason there.

When you see a scorpion in front of your leg, you withdraw your leg automatically.

This is termed instinctive or automatic movement.

As you cross a street, how instinctively you move your body to save yourself from the cars!

There is no Vritti in such mechanical movement.



Instinct is found in animals and birds.

In birds, 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 you not noticed the excellent work done by birds in their building of wonderful nests?


Swami Sivananda

To be continued  ...