Dogma and Human Intellect
Today’s subject is “Dogma and
Human Intellect.” What is the human intellect for? A human body has
three functions: its crude physical movement and physical progress, its
intellectual progress, and its spiritual progress. So far as intellect
is concerned, it has two duties: to think and to remember.
What do we mean by “thinking”?
What is thinking? The human mind is a collection of ectoplasmic stuff.
And whenever we create any figure [in the mind] with the help of that
ectoplasmic stuff, we say it is a thought – that we are thinking. To
think means, then, to speak internally, and according to what we speak,
we create a figure.
Although different inferences
have got different implications for the human mind, the more important,
rather, the two most important, inferences are visuality and audibility.
What we create in the mind, we speak mentally and at the same time we
hear mentally. “I’ll go to Delhi.” – when you think like this, you utter
this sentence mentally: “I – will – go – to – Delhi.” And you hear
mentally the sound “I – will – go – to – Delhi.” And at that time
mentally you see the picture of Delhi, either a projection of the actual
external Delhi or an imaginary figure of Delhi that you created.
Now, what we think, sometimes we
think from the extro-internal projections and sometimes from the memory.
When we see an elephant [externally], at that same moment we see it
mentally; and when we see it mentally, then we feel that we are actually
seeing the elephant. And sometimes without seeing an elephant you can
remember an elephant. That is, in your memory you can create an
elephant. It is an act of re-creation.
Now, human knowledge or knowing
is divided into two portions; that is, the compartmentalized object may
be of two types – one direct and the other taken from memory.
It is said that knowledge or the
knowing faculty is infinite. Then, if the knowing faculty is infinite,
is the human brain or human cranium infinite? No, certainly not. The
cranium is something finite, something very little. And the human brain,
although it has immense potentialities, is finite. Its qualities are
very big, but not infinite.
Human thought-waves and human
knowledge may be directed towards two objects. One is the objective
psychic stance, and the other is the objecto-subjective spiritual
stance. When it is the objective psychic stance, then as a result of
that objective movement on the psychic level, what happens? The mind
becomes bigger and bigger. And in order to serve the purpose of the
mind, both the nerve-cells and the nerve-fibres of the human brain also
become stronger and bigger. As a result of this enlargement of the
nerve-cells, what will happen? In the future, the human cranium will
become bigger, and limbs and other parts of the body will become lean
and thin. But it is also a desired future for humanity, because when the
mind will be developed, what will happen? Spiritual progress will be
easier.
And the other psychic approach is
objecto-subjective, or you may say, the subjecto-objective spiritual
stance. In that case, you withdraw different mental faculties or
propensities and make them pinnacled. And when those mental faculties
are apexed, then what do you do? You offer that pinnacled human mind at
the altar of the supreme spirituality. This is the spiritual approach.
Now, if anyone says that in human
life knowledge has little value or no value, that person will not be
cent percent correct. In spiritual progress, if the knowledge, or the
course of knowledge, or the avenue of knowledge, is subjective
physicality, then in that case the progress may be delayed, but it will
not be blocked forever. For intellectuals, spiritual progress is always
delayed, and the reason is this – that their intellectual body goes on
increasing, but for want of the apexed mentality, the goal remains far
away. But when the intellectual body is highly enlarged, it is sure to
become one with the Macrocosm. And when this enlarged ectoplasmic
structure becomes one with the Cosmic ectoplasmic structure, certainly a
person will feel his oneness with the Supreme.
For spiritual aspirants, this
type of intellectual progress may be meaningless, may be treated as
superfluous; but for the all-round progress of human society, for human
society as a whole, this type of intellectual progress cannot be
discouraged, must not be discouraged; rather it should be encouraged.
I want that our boys and girls
who are intellectually developed, or who want intellectual development,
should encourage this intellectual progress of human society, which will
finally help human society in all types of progress. I hope you boys
and you girls will feel, will realize, the utility of intellectual
progress, and start your RU [Renaissance Universal] clubs in all towns
and even in all big villages of the world.
22 September 1979 RU, Kingston
