Intellect

[Guest guest]

I just got a book called Tattwa Shuddhi by Swami Satyasangananda. My first

impulse was to open it at random. Here's where I landed:

 

Intellect, An Obstacle in Sadhana

 

It has been stated time and again in all the textbooks on tantra and yoga that

an aspirant should try to eliminate all intellectual barriers in respect to his

spiritual sadhana. As long as you approach your sadhana through an intellectual

process of logic and reasoning, your experiences will remain static. The level

of mind that you are trying to reach is beyond the entanglements of intellectual

bantering. Questions such as, " Why am I doing this sadhana? " " What do these

visions mean? " " Am I making any progress? " " Where are all these experiences

coming from? " " Where will all this lead me? " are bound to arise in every person.

However, these and other intellectual acrobatics have to be avoided.

 

Use your intellect for your worldly day to day life by all means because it is

necessary and serves a purpose. However, in sadhana, this same faculty becomes

a hindrance and is an obstacle. That is why Sri Aurobindo has said, " Intellect

was the helper, intellect is the barrier; transcend intellect. " This should be

the motto of all sadhakas. Intellect is all right up to a point; it is through

discrimination of your intellect that you began the practices of yoga. However,

in order to go higher you will now have to step over it. This may not be

possible all the time, but should be maintained at all cost during the period of

intensive sadhana.

 

Faith, love, and devotion are the mediums through which the higher experiences

begin to manifest, because these qualities absorb and nullify the cold and

calculating reasoning of the intellect. Therefore, let us approach this

sadhana, not through the itellect but through the transforming emotions of

bhakti. In the Srimad Devi Bhagavatam, Devi says that jnana and bhakti are the

two pathways that lead to her. Try not to hinder your progress through by the

process of analysis. Drop these tendencies, which exist in every ordinary

person, and try to enter the realm of pure experience by elevating the awareness

beyond the barriers of intellect through bhakti or devotion.