Page 61 - Wisdom Unfurled

The true philosophy according to the Master is to be based upon intuition rather than upon reason. This has been uniformly the conclusion reached by all mystic seers on the path of Reality, ‘reason has been the helper reason is the bar’ as pronounced by Sri Aurobindo. We will have occasion to deal with this aspect in more detail when we consider Master’s thoughts on Means- Tarka, Sruti and Anubhava in a subsequent section. The western philosophers have always believed in the powers of human reason for arriving at knowledge which has been defined by them as justified true belief. The belief must be grounded in fact or truth and one should be able to give a rational account of it. The reason is not far to seek as they have been inspired by the Greek philosophers who could not go beyond reason which according to them is the highest aspect of the tripartite human soul consisting of the three energies viz., Appetite (needs for food, sex, money etc or the lower passions), Emotions (reactions like hunger, fear) and Reason (thinking, persuasion, argument). For a person to be happy reason must rule both the emotions and appetite and this is productive of psychic harmony, a quality of the soul, which expresses itself through the cardinal virtues viz., wisdom, courage, temperance and justice. In the language of the kosas or sheaths it covers mainly the first three namely, the first governed by and of food, the second, vital governed by desires, emotions and feelings and the third ruled by thinking and reasoning.
Western Philosophers vs Eastern Sages
Another observation made by the Master on the approach of the western philosophers is that they developed their systems of philosophy based merely on speculation and not through practical experiences on the spiritual path and if only they could have done so their vision would not have been corrupted. The comment made by the Master that we should always attempt to give expression to things connected with spirituality and Reality in general only after our spiritual practice comes to an end or in other words, is very relevant and quite the appropriate thing to do as it happens to be the case even in the mundane fields of enquiry. In contrast with the western philosophers, the sages of this country, the home of spirituality and where the pursuit of the Real has been active in all ages, have attempted philosophy only after entering a life of practicality. The six schools of Indian philosophy are the result and they are called significantly enough, darshanas or visions- direct intuitive perceptions of Reality. It will be seen however that each school has presented a particular hue of Reality of its own giving rise to much animated debate among the schools themselves as to the ultimate determination of the nature of Reality.
The great teachers of the three major schools of vedanta, have attempted