Intuition (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
" intuited" |" intuition" |" intuitions" |" intuitively" |" intuitives" |" intuity" |"intuitive"

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Dr. Weir: Do you differentiate, as you would do, it's only a matter of attempting to comprehend the differences (indistinct) of things, the difference between thinking and feeling as rational functions?

Prabhupāda: That is the function of the mind, thinking, feeling and willing. Psychological activity.

Dr. Weir: Do you differentiate them separately?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Dr. Weir: And intuition as well?

Prabhupāda: Saṅkalpa, vikalpa. This is, in Sanskrit it is called saṅkalpa, vikalpa or accepting and rejecting. That is mind's function. I think something and again I reject it.

Dr. Weir: Well, you also react too.

Prabhupāda: You can say what you like but the function of the mind is flickering. Just like when Arjuna was advised by Kṛṣṇa to train the mind by meditation, by yoga system. He said that "Kṛṣṇa, it is very difficult for me." Cañcalaṁ hi manaḥ kṛṣṇa pramāthi balavad dṛḍham (BG 6.34). My mind is very, I mean to say, agitated. I think to control the mind is as impossible as controlling the wind. Cañcalaṁ hi manaḥ kṛṣṇa pramāthi ba..., vāyor iva suduṣkaram. And it is very difficult to (indistinct) high wind and if you want to control it, as it is impossible. Similarly I think the activities of the mind, thinking, feeling and willing, to control them is very difficult for me. So actually that is the position. So long we shall be on the mental platform there will be no fixity of conclusion. That is not possible. We have to accept something for the time being, then again reject it. Therefore all mental speculators differ. Nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na... A philosopher is not philosopher until he differs from other philosophers. Nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na... Unless you place a different thesis he will not be accepted as a good philosopher.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Latin Professor -- December 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Professor: For me, and I suppose, for so many others, the difficulty is getting from the intellectual willingness to accept the notion of God and even to get beyond a kind of fleeting intuition from time to time that there is something beyond the humanistic world conception to a real inner understanding of that reality. And I suppose that is what your work is all about, to...

Prabhupāda: Yes. God is... God is beyond our intellectual platform.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Professor: That means through śabda, and through other means you can have a direct intuition but you can't intact... Direct intuition of things.

Prabhupāda: Intuition is different. Direct perception. Śabda, you can (have) direct perception. It is not intuition. It is perception. Therefore the word is used, śrotriyam brahma-niṣṭham (MU 1.2.12). So our process is to receive knowledge through śabda-brahman, Vedic. Just like eko nārāyaṇa asit. Eko nārāyaṇa asit: "Before creation there was only Nārāyaṇa." Na brahmā na īśaḥ: "There was no Brahmā; there was no Śiva." So this is śabda-pramāṇa, śabda-pramāṇa, that "In the beginning there was God, nothing else." So in this way our Vedic principle is: when your knowledge is corroborated by the Vedic version then it is perfect.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Garden Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Sometimes the atheists, they say there is no soul-intuition. So we do not accept this proposal. The soul, when he is in particular situation, he remembers immediately what he has to do. Just like the small puppies, they have not even opened the eyes, but still, immediately after birth they're searching after food and goes immediately to the nipples of the mother. So how he goes there? They say it is intuition, but it is not intuition. The soul, being put into that body, immediately remembers all the activities of the body. Just like in Los Angeles. When I am in tour in other places I forget about Los Angeles, but as soon as I come here, I know where is my bedroom, where is my sitting room, where is my garden, immediately. I haven't got to be taught that "Here is your sitting room, here is your sleeping room." Immediately, I remember. Similarly, this living entity is transmigrating from time immemorial in different types of body. So as soon as he comes to a particular type of body he remembers the activities immediately. They are interpreting as intuition—that is not intuition. It is old remembrance. This is the explanation.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: In any condition, you can surrender yourself to Kṛṣṇa. Svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya.

Guest (3): Yes, but it sounds like it doesn't matter what I do as long as I dedicate my action to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Therefore you require spiritual master to guide you.

Guest (3): So I cannot know myself.

Prabhupāda: That is not possible.

Guest (3): And intuition does not help.

Prabhupāda: Intuition is wrong. It is a practice. A thief thinks "I should steal." His intuition says. He's practiced to steal and intuition says "You steal." That is not guide. Intuition means that things which you are practiced, that's all. You are accustomed, that's all.