something, since it is not based on reason, but when I get a confirmation from you in support of the truth of my feeling, then he accepts it, must I not say that his reason is a less sure guide than my feeling?Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 1. 1935
Letter ID: 1262
Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar
February 8, 1935
If you want seriously to write more on the subject as you hinted, may I point out to you that now is the golden opportunity? After the 21st, you will be again crushed and we shall have to rescue you with difficulty, from the heap of correspondence.
Yes, but I cannot spend these days in elaborate literary production – I have taken this respite1 (though I find that letters still come) for more serious work that has been badly impeded since November. So it is only marginals and short comments that I can indulge in.
A.D.2 has questioned your placing of Intuition above Reason. My question is whether genuine yogic feelings are not some form of Intuition?
The heart has its intuitions as well as the mind and these are as true as any mental perceptions. But neither all feelings nor all mental perceptions nor all rational conclusions can be true.
Some would, like A.D., perhaps consider Reason to be the sole arbiter. But if the question be the quest of Truth, I should say that feeling or intuition should be more reliable than reason, especially where instances are not lacking that reason is not infallible and feelings have as much claim to certitude as reason...
How can Reason be the sole arbiter? Whose reason? The reason in different men comes to different, opposite or incompatible conclusions. We cannot say that Reason is infallible, any more than feeling is infallible or the senses are infallible.
If someone refuses to accept my feeling as a proof of something, since it is not based on reason, but when I get a confirmation from you in support of the truth of my feeling, then he accepts it, must I not say that his reason is a less sure guide than my feeling?
Your feeling is a guide for you until it leads you towards the Truth – but it is difficult for another to accept your feeling as a guide – he must find out things for himself.
1 During the time of Darshan, Sri Aurobindo suspended all correspondence.
2 An Indian philosopher.