It is through intuition that God can be realized in all His aspects. We have no sense that can reveal knowledge of Him. The senses give knowledge only of His manifestations. No thought or inference can enable us to know Him as He truly is. For thought cannot go beyond the data of the senses. It can only arrange and interpret the impressions of the senses.
When the senses are unable, thought, as depending upon them, is also unable to bring us to God. So it is to intuition that we shall have to turn for knowledge of God in His blissful and other aspects.
However, there are many bars to this intuitional point of view--to the realization of truth. These are some of them: disease, mental incapacity, doubt, indolence, worldly-mindedness, false ideas, and instability.
These are either inherent or engendered and aggravated through association with others. Our inherent tendencies (samskaras) to certain faults may be overcome by stong-minded effort (purushakara) . By exercise of will power we can remove all our shortcomings. It is by right effort and by ASSOCIATION WITH GOOD PEOPLE, devotees of God, that we can eradicate bad habits and form good ones.
Unitil we associate with those who have seen, felt, and realized true religion in their lives we may not fully know waht it is, and in what its univerality and necessity lie.
The spirit of inquiry is in all. Everyone in the world is a seeker after truth. It is his immortal heritage, and he seeks it, blindly or wisely, until he has fully reclaimed it. It is nver too late to mend. "Seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you."
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Esclarmonde: That was a very brilliant post, absolutely astounding!