[Advaita-l] Re: Self-knowledge

[Sanjay Srivastava]

Satyan:

I am fine with your conclusion about self knowledge being intellectual
however I have doubts about the reasoning in the link provided by you:

http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/teachers/intellect_chidambaran.htm

You write:

"What is the locus of any understanding? Is it not the intellect? We
only require to add an adjective to a noun in order to qualify it
further. Are there other possible loci for Understanding that demand
that the adjective 'intellectual' should be prefixed to
'understanding'? Are there other forms of understanding that are
different from 'intellectual understanding'? Is there 'dental
understanding' or 'cranial understanding' that is different from
'spinal understanding' or 'understanding in the intellect'?"

My comments:

Fine. There is no faculty in human species other than intellect where
understanding can occur. However when adjective "intellectual" is
added before "understanding" , it is not implying that there are other
organs where "understanding" could occur. It is only qualifying the
quality and nature of understanding.

Take for example my understanding of the taste of a mango. I can
understand that mango is sweet and musk scented etc. and this is one
level of understanding. I can then taste it and get another level of
understanding which is much deeper than earlier. Usually this second
level of understanding is not called "intellectual understanding" even
though this also occurs in intellect only.

Take another example-- I am interacting with someone for some help and
all of a sudden I realize that he will not help regardless of what he
says. Now, this type of understandings is also not called
"intellectual understanding" even though this also occurs in intellect
only.

Therefore when an adjective like "intellectual" is added before
"understanding", it is not to distinguish it from "dental" or "spinal"
understanding but other levels of understanding such as  "experiential
understanding" or "intuitive understanding". For that matter even our
feelings like "hatred", "jealousy" or emotions like "love" etc. all
occur in "mind"  since that is the only faculty capable of having a
thought. However it does not mean that "love", jealousy", "hatred"
etc. are all "intellectual" since they occur in mind.

If I am not mistaken this is the idea Amuthan is trying to convey.

praNAm