The Limitations of the Reasoning Intelligence and the Need to Maintain It During the Spiritual Practice

The mental knowledge we acquire is mostly a form of ignorance reaching out to try to acquire knowledge. In The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo describes the various forms of knowledge. With one exception, they are set up in the paradigm of subject, object and the process of knowing, and treats the object as something separate and external to oneself. We acquire facts, make inferences, and draw logical conclusions to try to ascertain the truth of whatever we are trying to know. This implies that we cannot really every ‘know’ everything about the separated object using these methods, and in fact, we find that knowledge in this world is never stable, as we are always finding out new aspects and expanding our knowledge and experiencing the ‘unintended consequences’ when we try to act on that partial knowledge that we have obtained.

The one form of knowledge which goes beyond this ‘ignorance seeking for knowledge’ is what Sri Aurobindo terms ‘knowledge by identity’. This form of knowledge is gained through unification of the consciousness between ‘subject’ and ‘object’.

Many who take up spiritual practices conclude that since external knowledge is flawed and the Reason is a limited instrument of knowing, that the correct method is to abandon it and move on to something else. This idea, however, has its flaws and drawbacks, particularly with respect to the control of the vital nature, which is one of the essential functions of the reasoning intelligence when it is awake and active.

The Mother notes: “As for the knowledge of which Sri Aurobindo speaks here, it is ordinary knowledge, it is not Knowledge by identity; it is knowledge that can be acquired by the intellect through thought, through ordinary means. … But once again — and in any case we shall have occasion to return to this when we study the next aphorism — do not be in a hurry to abandon reason in the conviction that you will immediately attain to Wisdom, because you must be ready for Wisdom; otherwise, by abandoning reason, you run a great risk of falling into unreason, which is rather dangerous. … Many times in his writings, particularly in The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo warns us against the imaginings of those who believe they can do sadhana without rigorous self-control and who heed all sorts of inspirations, which lead them to a dangerous imbalance where all their repressed, hidden, secret desires come out into the open under the pretence of liberation from ordinary conventions and ordinary reason.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 2, Planes and Parts of the Being, pg. 44