The Strengths and Limitations of Spiritualism Powered by the Intellect…
Human beings are the most evolved of all the species on earth. We have the unique ability to think critically. Because of this, we can examine, deliberate, rationalize and even control nature’s forces. For example, we are able to create electricity from water and manufacture batteries to store this energy. Such abilities are not found in other species. Animals lack the potential to develop their cerebral capacity to the same extent. Another capacity of human beings which also distinguishes us from animals is the ability to advance spiritually. Through our intellect, we have created the concepts of God and universal consciousness. Our emotional consciousness further supports these beliefs.
Intellect is an energy field that takes on the form of whatever it is associated with. It is the same intelligence which could make a person a dacoit who kills for money or a policeman who could kill in the line of duty. By its nature, intellect is not necessarily powered by devotional energy. But, if used constructively, the intellect can help us progress along the spiritual path. This means that we should not perceive something solely on the basis of pre-conceived notions or blind faith, for example, superstitious beliefs. When we buy something in a marketplace, we examine the items on display, and accept only what appeals to us and discard the rest. Similarly, we should try to critically understand ideas from various perspectives, without accepting just about anything only because we are told to do so — this is called “intellectual honesty”. It helps us overcome our mental pre-dispositions and begin looking at things afresh.
Strive “to know” anything before believing in it — this gets manifested in pragya or knowledge in the form of wisdom which is a superior form of intellect. Buddhi or intellect can make our thought process complex while pragya or wisdom can make it simple. Spiritualism is the highest state of pragya which simple spiritual souls like Shirdi Sai Baba attained.
A belief that is unsupported by knowledge cannot last long because it rests on crutches for support, and not the strength of its limbs. Sometimes faith without knowledge may be necessary to solve a problem. It can however, become a crutch, and not a source of strength. What we believe is true today, could be proved false tomorrow, or may be replaced by other theories in the future. For example, many of us grew up as children hearing legends about the Universe, and the rabbit that lives on the moon. Now, human beings have been to the moon, and we know these ideas are invalid. Ideas can change overtime and therefore, resist the urge to believe in any concept without being open to challenging your assumptions.
Our intellect is one of our greatest strengths in the spiritual path because it helps uncover our inherent weaknesses. Equally, it unfolds our ability to discriminate between “what to do”, and “what not to do”. This becomes a vital tool in assessing what to learn, and what to disregard from anyone we meet. Or, what to assimilate, and what to overlook when we read about different religions. If our minds don’t question, the answers cannot follow.
In the spiritual realm, the power of discernment is the ability to identify the real restraints that hold us back like shackles. Chanakya in this famous quote pays tribute to those who possess this ability:
Yovanam dhana sampatihi prabutwam vivekita;
Ekaikamapyanarthaya kimu yatra chatushtayam
It means youth, money and power and lack of a sense of discernment — each could result in destroying everything in life — what to say where all four are present! Chanakya’s quote implies that spiritualism does not place a high value on youth, money or power. If a person does not have the discrimination to handle these other attributes, he stands to be ruined.
Kaka Saheb Dixit, a devotee of Baba, is an example of someone who possessed each of these four attributes. He had the power to discriminate between what in fact, keeps us in bondage, and the bonds of devotion that lead to liberation. As a result, his worldly successes did not become impediments, and he remained steadily devoted to Baba. Many people want to follow a role model but few are actually able to do so. Kaka Saheb Dixit is no more, but he remains a role model because of his qualities.
Another benefit of intellect is that it can help us materialize create the greatest happiness for the greatest number for the longest period of time — expansion of our spirit to serve society beyond our limited selves is the root of spirituality.
While the intellect can be used constructively along the spiritual path, it also has its limitations and can become a barrier to our spiritual progress. It is impossible to try to understand God through our intellect alone. While in the initial stages of spiritual development, our intelligence aids our understanding, it only helps us progress to a certain extent. After that stage, we have to find other ways to keep advancing.
In reality, regardless of our intellectual ability, our existence is limited at every level and only God has unlimited existence. Our power is limited while God has unlimited power, our knowledge is limited but God has unlimited knowledge. Our happiness or ananda is fragile and God has unlimited happiness. We try to overcome these limitations, step by step, to achieve just a little more and through this process, we slowly merge within divine consciousness. The Sanskrit term aham means “the self” and in relation to God it refers to the universal manifestation of the divine, coined in the expressions “Everything from me, and I am in everything”.
Within us, however, such thinking can become the source of egotism, especially when we feel we are the center of the Universe and everyone should follow us, whether it is a partner, child or a friend. We lose sight that in the grand scheme of things, we are as insignificant as small particles in the Universe, no matter how accomplished we consider ourselves.
Attempting to understand God through our intellect is a useless pursuit. In the initial stages, our intelligence can help us understand a few things but it can only help get you so far and then you have to find other ways to keep progressing through your prayers and devotion. For example, once you get to the third stage of spiritual evolution, you leave the second stage behind. But, I have seen people, who after reaching the third stage fall back to the first or the second stage as their intellect becomes a limitation to their spiritual growth. Whatever stage we may reach we will need to pick up and progress beyond it, either now or in a future life by leaving our intellect behind.
Certain rules govern the operation of spiritual principles, which may not be fully understood through our intellect alone. For example, in the Mahabharata, Shri Krishna influences Shri Arjuna to wage a war against his relatives during the battle of Kurukshetra because it was his dharma as a Kshatriya or member of the warrior caste. Arjuna was reluctant to fight because it was not easy to break with sanskaras acquired from previous lives and was convinced it was a grave sin to pick up arms against his own family.
Shri Krishna tried to instil in Arjuna different types of yogic knowledge to calm his mind and to overcome his mental resistance to the act of killing. Shri Krishna told Shri Arjuna, “If you cannot understand this on the basis of dharma, I will explain gyan yoga to you — which relates to the understanding of the gyanis or the knowledgeable. Else, I can explain it to you in terms of karma yoga — it is about the knowledge of karma yogis or spiritual practitioners. Or, I will explain it through bhakti yoga— which relates to what a bhakta or devotee understands as the pinnacle of bhakti”. However, even after Shri Krishna explained the three types of yogas to him, Arjuna could not submit. Unwilling as he was to abandon his logical thinking.
Even after Shri Krishna then revealed His vishwaroop, Arjuna could not believe He held the universal truth. At the heart of Arjuna’s struggle was his intellectual understanding, which overshadowed his faith in Shri Krishna. His intellect prevented him from fully surrendering to His Sadguru’s guidance.
Shri Krishna then told Shri Arjuna:
Sarva-dharman parityajya , Mam ekam sharanam vraja
Aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, Mokshayishyami ma shucah
This means that, “Give up all the dharmas, and surrender to me by seeking refuge in Me, the Lord.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is the simple-hearted devotees who progress faster spiritually due to their faith in the Sadguru rather than intellectuals, who are lost in their mental labyrinths of intellectual explanation. As an ironic footnote, we will find that in the history of the world, the intellectual segment of society has not created a single saint, yet many illiterates have risen to sainthood.
Our kutil buddhi or critical intelligence can limit us from experiencing Shirdi Sai Baba.. When we work for Baba, our devotion always comes first. Our intelligence only supports our devotion.
If you read the Sai Satcharitra you will find that the complete efforts of Baba to clean the soiled minds of those who considered themselves civilized and intellectual. The weakness associated with intellectualism is that sometimes it can make us put ourselves on a pedestal and think of others as inferior. Such thinking is detrimental to one’s spiritual growth and Baba tried to break this barrier. All the intellect in the world put together cannot understand Shirdi Sai Baba. Therefore, try to understand Baba through your heart and not through your intellect. History shows that the entire intellectual world with all its writers and civil servants was not able to create a single Sadguru. None of the saints were born into the elite class of the so-called civilized and intellectual or educated. For example, Guru Nanak, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Paltu Maharaj, Tukaram and Tajuddin Baba to name a few. Even Lord Buddha had to leave this intellectual world behind in order to realize God. In fact, many in the intellectual world called the Sadgurus insane because they were unable to understand Them.
Sadgurus, such as Shirdi Sai Baba can only be experienced through bhaav shakti or the power of devotion and not through the use of intellect. When worshipping Baba or doing His work, devotion which we feel from our heart needs to always comes first and our intelligence is a mere vehicle which should support it, and not the other way round.In Shirdi Sai Baba’s life, the greatest intellectual minds of the time visited Shirdi. Famous lawyers like Kaka Saheb Dixit and G.S. Kharpade were devotees of Baba. They represented Bal Ganga Dhar Tilak during his trial for sedition at the Privy Council in England which served as the highest court of appeal for all the British colonies, including India. Baba guided them to leave their intellect aside and surrender to the Sadguru by embracing the path of simplicity. In fact when in 1909, Baba annihilated Kaka Saheb Dixit’s ego of being a successful lawyer by making him wear tattered clothes and beg for alms on the streets of Shirdi.
Another problem with intellect is that it can sometimes make a devotee get stuck at the level of intellectual devotion which is focused on gathering facts about the Master, rather than developing bhaav or devotional emotions. Of all the limitations of the mind, excessive inquisitiveness can sometimes be detrimental if not channelized properly. It really should not matter whether Baba was a Muslim or a Hindu, where He was born or who His parents were. All that any devotee should overwhelmingly feel for the Master is a feeling of love and being with Him. Thus, recognize this limitation of the intellect so that it does not take away your focus on what is necessary to walk along with the Master by delving on unnecessary questions.
Whatever we study leaves its logic firmly embedded in the grooves of our minds. The world makes us expect material returns after making an investment but such ‘give and take’ transactional thinking is not the basis of the spiritual world. The Sadgurus make us aware of our own ignorance and helps us start anew from a state of nothingness.
There is more to the spiritual realm than our intellect, riddled with its limitations, is capable of navigating and ferrying us through. We need to be aware of how to use our intellect constructively but also to recognize when it mutates into a barrier to our spiritual growth.
The intellect can only help us evolve to a certain stage of spiritual evolution, but beyond that faith prevails. The Master knows that in life, there are times, when you will come close to Him, and times when you will drift away. There will be moments when you will think the Master is divine, and moments when you will resent Him. It is an internal struggle with opposing forces and our intellect can influence our thought process at different times. But before the day turns into night, there is a period of twilight, a point of equipoise between night and day. Remain grounded in this metaphorical moment of twilight and hold on to the Master and don’t be set adrift by conflicting emotions.
Spiritualism is more than a purely intellectual pursuit. This is why many unlettered devotees found God easily while the highly educated ones spent their entire life searching for God without experiencing even a small measure of spirituality. In the end, we cannot evolve spiritually beyond a certain level on the strength of our intellect alone. But, we can do it by slowly giving more of ourselves to the Master and with the gentle strength of bhaav or devotion which fills us through His grace.
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