Chapter IX · Philosophy and Intuition

Chapter IX: Philosophy and Intuition

Sadhu Sundar Singh · Reality and Religion, 1924

Search this book

    1. It is admitted that for centuries Philosophy has made no advance. The same old problems and the same old solutions are repeated, though in new forms and new words. A blindfolded ox in India goes round and round an oil press all day long. When, in the evening, his eyes are opened, he finds that he has only moved round in a circle and has not travelled far, though he has produced some oil. Though philosophers have travelled for centuries, they have not yet reached their goal. Out of the material they have gathered here and there, they have produced some oil which they have left behind in their books. But this oil is not enough to remove the dryness of human needs. To go further is the work of faith and intuition, not of philosophy. However vast our knowledge may be, it has, after all, its limits.

    2. Some philosophers committed suicide when the thirst of their knowledge was not quenched. Empedocles threw himself down into the crater of Etna in order to quench his thirst for knowledge by attaining the fellowship of the gods without dying a natural death. An astronomer who failed to understand the strange movements of the tides threw himself in despair into the billows and sought a watery grave. Such men, instead of finding the Creator in His creation and being satisfied in Him, lost the Creator as well as themselves, in His creation. This shows that though philosophy sets out to understand Reality, it fails; no one can grasp Reality by the intellect. If any one thinks that he can discern Reality by his knowledge, he is mistaken. For to know one thing thoroughly would be to know the whole universe, as any one thing is related to everything else, and to know all about it, all its relations need to be known. Here we have to bow before Reality and to walk along in faith.

    3. Intuition, like the tip of a finger, is so sensitive that it at once feels the presence of Reality by its touch. It may not be able to give logical proof, but argues thus: I am fully content. Such peace can only come from Reality. Therefore I have found Reality. The heart has reasons of which the head knows nothing. It takes a long time to know much about a flower. But it takes but a moment to enjoy its fragrance. Intuition also works thus.

    ↑ Back to top ↑ Contents ← Books