We are living in an age of science and modern science is rediscovering some of the truths of ancient wisdom. We are, as it were, treading the road which the ancients trod in the unrecorded history of the world. Then there must be another method of investigation of which the ancient wisdom is the result. This method of investigation is known as the Yogic method or the occult method which is not contradictory but complementary to the scientific method. Still the Yogic method is superior to the scientific method since it is more comprehensive, having a wider range of data from which to draw inferences. For Yoga reveals the existence of other subtler worlds or planes of consciousness besides the physical world of the scientists. The method of investigating these subtler planes is known as intuitive method which is other than but not contrary to the inductive method of science.
There is no hard and fast line of demarcation between science and Yoga. Science rationalizes the material furnished by the common sense; Yoga rationalizes the material furnished by science. The rationality of either is not the coinage of our brain but a part of the nature of things. It is really as absurd for science to rail at Yoga, because Yoga in a sense transforms its conclusions and supersedes its categories, as it would be for common senses to rail at science, because science transforms the notions which common sense is accustomed to employ. The categories of science are real not withstanding that they may conflict with the cruder notions of common-sense, but viewed from the stand point of common sense they are nevertheless ideal. The same is the case with the Yoga. Its categories are also real but from the view point of scientific intellect they are ideal. The method employed by science in obtaining knowledge is inductive while the method employed by Yoga is intuitive and these two methods supplement each other.
There are instances where a flash of intuition has revealed a scientific truth which no amount of mere intellectual cognition can give. The need of the inductive method as applied to the ascertained facts of nature has been demonstrated as inadequate. The quantum theory, the relativity theory, the principle of indeterminacy , etc., accepted by physics are not completely based upon strictly ascertained facts of nature. The are largely based upon the necessities of mathematical laws required to explain the facts. This new method which seems a reversal of the strictly scientific method has been criticized by some thinkers. As a matter of fact science has already launched out to discover truth by a new technique, still it is fighting shy to recognize intuition as a method of investigation. All that has been achieved by science today is only a fragment of achievement awaiting it; when it adds its technique of induction to the next technique of intuition, its achievements will be marvelous. For intuition reveals the higher aspect of nature; nature exists in dual aspect; it exists here below as the vast categories of facts and events which the above in its essential characteristics, apart from time and space and the flux of events. Intuition puts man in tune with this higher aspect of nature and reveals the universe not as a dull mechanism but as a full organism; reveals truth not as a mere abstraction but as a creative energy and recognize evolution not as a theory but as an action.
If we trace the historical development of science, we find that the inductive method shades off in the gradual unfoldment of the intuitive method. The atomic theory developed into the electronic theory, the electronic theory into the quantum theory, the quantum theory into the wave theory and this last is a mere abstraction arrived at by mathematical intuition. Science, philosophy, art and religion – each is a flower of unique beauty representing one facet of truth. But if all these are brought together and tied with the golden thread of Yoga to make a bouquet, it will present a beauty and splendour which will far excel any single flower. Humanity will then develop and use the latent powers focused in the intuitive faculty in ways that the world is at present not capable of understanding. Many of our present scientific methods will become obsolete because direct knowledge will be the order of the day. The distant future will provide many new keys that will open doors where science and Yoga meet.
Science and Yoga are two disciplines of thought equally important for the edification of human nature and the evaluation of our civilization. Science relies upon objective facts, that is, on events perceived by the mind through the senses with or without the extensions of the latter called scientific instruments – the microscope, the spectroscope etc. To these it applies the most rigorous inductive reasoning. It makes no claim to studying reality but frankly admits that its subject of study is primarily our observations of nature and not nature itself. It seeks to reduce these observables to the simple order or scheme of concepts which it can conceive. It surmises behind the observables a number of unobservables which it names protons, electrons, photons etc., but it acknowledges the hypothetical nature of the unobservables. Its strength lies in discovering the fewer and simple unobservables which give rise to the observables. But its weakness is that in the anxiety to explain a multitude of phenomena by a few hypotheses, it is led to mistake the fact for the truth and to refuse to consider any other hypothesis which may be nearer to reality. And in some cases it has led to the willful exclusion of facts from the field of scientific observation as in the case of psychic phenomena.
Yoga or occultism is a vision of reality and those who have visualized it are known as Yogis. Fragments of this vision are presented in Yoga manuals which are later interpreted and put into some sort of order by their disciples. Intuition is the chief instrument of a Yogi to visualize reality. Scientists also do use intuition but distrust it until justified by observation or preferably by experiments. But the Yogi on the other hand, develops intuition into a real faculty of knowledge, for the whole system of occult training is designed to that end when intuitive knowledge develops or the sixth sense opens, it extends its range of observation far beyond that of science. It is this expanded vision which the Yogi uses intelligently.
Science which relies on the method of observation and Yoga which trusts the method of intuition are the two disciplines of thought which supplement each other. The Yogic method is merely an extension of the scientific method. Take for example, the flash of intuition which came to Kekule when he was day-dreaming, he saw a serpent devouring its tail and hit upon the theory of a closed chain or ring structure to explain benzene and its derivatives. This has a far reaching effect in the development of organic chemistry. The illumination may come to the scientist as the outcome of month’s or years mental research but the moment when it comes the intellect is passive and the mind is at rest. Jagadish Chandra Bose, himself a famous scientist, made the following remark, “This I know that no vision of truth can come except in the absence of all sources of distraction and when the mind has reached the point of rest.”
Science cannot get at the truth of this higher nature. It views life in compartments and tends towards specialization. This is an age of specialization and such an age has its place in the intellectual evolution of man and should by no means be underrated. But it has a tendency to narrow and cramp the mind. This tendency to narrow to be corrected and counter-balanced by the illumined mind or intuition of which Yoga is an embodiment. That science is limited or restricted in its vision and perspective, that there are limitations of science is now recognized by many a thinker. Man cannot hope to grasp and under or formal mind; it needs a development of intuitive faculties and these can be fostered by suitable training and Yogic discipline.
Life is an urge and it has to make its way through matter by moulding it, shaping and controlling it. It mounts from the material to the vital, from the vital to the mental, from the metal to the moral, from the moral to the spiritual; but its criterion is not changed, it remains what it is – the creative force. This creative force is Shakti. Energy and matter are the bipolar expression of this Shakti. Energy is constantly shaping matter and it expresses a finer form when it is more graceful and integrative. This accounts for the different kinds of energies set in a hierarchy – physical, vital, mental, supra-mental. In the physical realm inertia or the tamas aspect of energy is more active, in the vital and mental the Rajas aspect is more predominant, but in the supra-mental realm the Sattva aspect is more active. The super-mind is busy in evolving the deific forms which are necessary for deific expression. They are as real as anything of the physical and mental forms, in a sense they are more real since they represent the higher forces which move in the spiritual sphere. Intuition puts us in touch with this spiritual sphere.
There are grades of intuition. In each stage of matter, in each stage of life intuition assumes a working proper to that stage and acts from behind the veil. “There is an intuition in matter which holds the action of the material world; there is an intuition in life which supports and guides the play and development of life. There is an intuition in the precise intellect of the scientist which enables him to take a step forward or to divine what has to be done. But intuition takes its proper form only when it passes from the mental into the supra-mental domain, for there only it comes fully forward from behind the veil and reveals its true and complete nature.” Hence we are justified in speaking of the grades of intuition as physical, vital, mental and supra-mental or as sensuous, aesthetic, intellectual and mystic. Yoga takes its firm stand on spiritual intuition which is immediate, absolute and synthetic – immediate, because it is the direct affirmation of our inmost self; absolute, because it expresses the present totality of our being; synthetic, because it is universal in space and time.
Now, intuition is being eagerly adopted by philosophy, science and art. Its psychological reality is recognized even by those who oppose its metaphysics. Most schools of psychology, from the new idealist to the old positivist, now concur in considering consciousness as a dynamic urge immanent in all its function, and they regard intuition as the self-assertion of that central consciousness. If intuition is the self awareness of the unit of consciousness, then the psychology of intuition is the psychology of the self. To find this self or Atman the psychologist has to rise above sensation, action, feeling and thought. Then in that transcendence he finds his true self, the creator of all activities, the unit of consciousness which is neither thought nor action nor perception, but the originator of thought through mind, of emotion through heart, of activity through vital energy and of perception through the organs of sense.
We cannot understand intuition, unless we view the elementary act of consciousness in its totality and the psychology of Yoga alone will enable us to do this, because it knows that the true ruler in our lives is neither the body nor the mind but the inner self, and that all conscious activity proceeds from that spiritual center.
Yoga is psychology, not a mere psychology but an introspective psychology. The acceptance of introspective psychology where the person is both the observer and object of observation, clearly takes one away from the two dimensional view of science. Moreover it introduces a new aspect to time consciousness. Western science observes longitudinally in time, it considers the sequence of events looking for the causes leading to certain effects. In studying consciousness, however, this results in a lack of solidity and true perspective. It is Jung who argues that the science of causality is not the only science but that there is another science for which he has coined the word synchronicity which represents a cross-section of time. In his fundamental psychological conceptions he clearly argues in favour of Yoga or introspective psychology.: “We Europeans are not the only people on the earth. We are just a peninsula of Asia, and on that continent there are old civilizations where people have trained their minds in introspection and psychology for thousands for years; whereas we began with our psychology not even yesterday insight that is simply fabulous and I have to study Eastern things to understand certain facts of the unconscious.”
Pitrim A. Sorokin, in his ‘Three Basic Trends of our Times’ has proved authenticity of the supra rational aspect of cognition or intuitive knowledge with a wealth of illustrations. His masterly treatment of the integral theory of knowledge is both instructive and illuminating.
According to the integral theory of knowledge, we have not one but three different channels of cognition – sensory, rational and supra-rational. The empirical aspects of reality is perceived by us through our sense organs. The rational aspect of reality is comprehended by us mainly through our reason – mathematical and logical thought in all its forms. Finally glimpses of supra-rational forms of reality are given to us by intuition, inspiration or the flash of enlightenment of all creative geniuses in all fields of life. All the discoveries have been inspired by intuition and then are developed and tested through the sensory and rational methods of cognition.
Since the super-conscious mode of cognition is still questioned by sensate thinkers who confuse it with the unconscious or sub-conscious, it is proper to outline this problem briefly. The super-conscious seems to be the fountain head of the great achievements and discoveries in all fields of human creative activity. A man may know all the rational rules and technique entering into the composition of literary or musical masterpiece, and yet if he is devoid of the super-conscious, he never can come to the rank of Shakespeare and Beethoven.
The super-conscious creates and discovers through intuition; this is quite different from sensory perception or observation and from logical, mathematical and syllogistic reasoning. Intuitive perception comes as a momentary flash in contrast to patient sensory observation or logical analysis. The time and circumstances of this flash can hardly be foreseen, predicted or voluntarily produced. The flash illumines the most essential nature of the intuited phenomenon. The super-conscious intuition lies at the base of the whole sensory and logical knowledge. The super-conscious is egoless, transcends ego entirely and unconditionally. Dominated by the super-conscious, when the individual becomes its instrument, he is lifted far above personal limitations. The super-conscious has been long noted under different terms such as the Self, Atman, Purusha, nous, grace of God, mystic revelation etc.
The arithmetical prodigies give an example of the operation of the super-conscious quite different from conscious mathematical calculation. The persons, often of low intelligence, have been able to make instantaneously a complex calculation. In the main mathematical discoveries the role of super-conscious intuition has been indispensable. Poincare, Birkhoff, Arego and the whole intuitional school in mathematics asserts that intuition and faith serve as the foundations for the rational super structure erected by means of deductive and inductive reasoning.
The super-conscious has played an equally important part in stimulating most of the important discoveries in science. Newton’s discoveries of the law of gravitation and of the composition of light are classical examples of the work of intuition. The same is true of those of Galileo, Haller, Ampere, Humphreys, Farade and others. In biology, the role of intuition was well stressed by C. Barnard.
Philosophy also recognizes intuition beginning with Upanishads in India and Taoism in China and passing through the mystic philosophers of the East and West -- through Plato, the Neo-platonists, the Neo-pythogorians and Gnostics. Moderns like Bergson, N. Losskey, Husserl and other phenomenologist recognize some sort of intuitional axioms, forms of mind or intuited truths as the basis of the sensory and rational cognition.
Lo! For the benefit of mankind as a whole comes the promise of an age of new synthesis, where a new and large rationalism although aware of its limitations, will be united to a new science of intuition established on surer basis. The combined efforts of the East and the West will create a new order of freer and more universal thought. As always the way in times of plenty, the immediate results of this inner order will be an afflux of power and audacious confidence, a flame of action inspiring and nourishing the spirit, a renewal of individual and social life.