How do we tell the difference between what is genuine intuition and what is not? Gurudeva's and Yogaswami's high spiritual attainments are also our potential, the spiritual destiny of each soul to be reached at some point in this or a future life. Intuition is always functioning, we're just not always aware of it. The power of intuition, which runs cold and is direct, like a bolt of lightning in the inner sky or the subtle rainbow of an etheric aura which bypasses the processes of current thinking, giving answers before the question and solving problems before they have accrued.

Master Course, Merging with Siva, The Clear White Light. Gurudeva's Spiritual Visions.

Unedited Transcript:

Good morning everyone.

Continuing to develop the idea of intuition, we started on last time. We drew from the Gurudeva's story book and the one on driving around phoenix. Now this one is making reference to the story of Gurudeva meeting his Guru, Yogaswami.

"There are many groups of Yogaswami devotees in Western countries, particularly in Canada and Australia. When I talk to them about Yogaswami and Gurudeva part of the talk always made reference to Yogaswami being a great yogi who would sit for hours, even days in deepest meditation. I noticed a common response in the different groups which was to readily recognize Yogaswami's greatness and put him on a tall pedestal, so to speak, without any thought that Yogaswami's high spiritual attainments are also our potential, the spiritual destiny of each soul to be reached at some point in this or a future life."

Gurudeva makes this point in the Clear White Light chapter of Merging with Siva:

"Occasionally, in a cross-section of the inner mind, when light merges into transcendental form, the young aspirant may view the golden actinic face of a master peering into his, kindly and all-knowing. He is looking at his own great potential."

So Gurudeva is encouraging us to not put the rishi up on the pedestal and us simply prostrating but recognize that eventually that's a state that we will ourselves experience.

Therefore, in reading the fourteen stories in 'Gurudeva's Spiritual Visions,' keep in mind this idea that the visions, intuitions and other mystical experiences of Gurudeva are what you can eventually experience in this or a future life. In holding this perspective, reading about Gurudeva's experiences gives added motivation to your own spiritual practices.

In the story about driving, Gurudeva talks about receiving instructions from his inner Self. This idea is also referred to in Gurudeva's teachings as intuition, superconsciousness and the inner voice. Here is a description utilizing the term inner voice also from the 'Clear White Light':

"Occasionally, through his newly exercised extrasensory perception, he may hear the seven sounds he previously studied about in occult lore. The sounds of the atomic structure of his nerve system, his cells, register as voices singing, the vina or sitar, tambura, or as symphonies of music. Instruments to duplicate these sounds to the outer ears were carefully tooled by the rishis of classical yoga thousands of years ago, including the mridanga or tabla, and the flute. He will hear the shrill note, likened to a nightingale singing, as psychic centers in his cranium burst open, and then an inner voice indicating to his external consciousness--like a breath of air--direction, elucidation. This inner voice remains with him as a permanent yoga of the external, with the internal consciousness an ever-ready guide to the unraveling of complexities of daily life."

So, to quote Gurudeva:

"Intuition day by day occurs spasmodically, but it does occur. And systematically one can gear his observation of his own intuitional faculties and find out exactly when these intuitive functions occur within. It is a well-defined fact that we have the faculty of precognition of coming events. It is also concurrently known that feelings of fear may precede impending danger. It is for the individual to disentangle and sort out within his own daily experiential pattern which is which. In this way he becomes knowledgeable in the great university of his own mind as to what is a daily intuitive occurrence and what is not."

End of quote.

And there's an analogy I like to use:

To understand the idea that intuition is always functioning. Gurudeva made that point last time. Intuition is not something that turns on and off. It's always functioning, it's just we're just not always aware of it. So it's always present within us but we don't always perceive it for one reason or another.

This is comparing intuition to very soft music being played in a noisy room. The music is there but we are unable to hear it because of the noise. It is the same in our mind. The mental noise is the constant thoughts and feelings we are experiencing which cover up or prevent us from hearing our inner voice.

However, there are situations in which our inner voice is more apparent to us despite the mental noise. As Gurudeva pointed out, one of them is when facing danger. An example is a child playing outside and the mother senses the child is about to get hurt and runs outside to protect her child.

And back to Gurudeva's quote here, how do we tell the difference between a genuine intuition and what is not?

Gurudeva says:

"Desires come through feeling, warmth of emotion, as do thoughts, schemes, ways of manipulating the media forces for one's own personal benefit or that of a loved one... "

That's such a great sentence; I want to read it again:

"Desires come through feeling, warmth of emotion, as do thoughts, schemes, ways of manipulating the media forces for one's own personal benefit or that of a loved one. This is contrary to the power of intuition, which runs cold and is direct, like a bolt of lightning in the inner sky or the subtle rainbow of an etheric aura which bypasses the processes of current thinking, giving answers before the question and solving problems before they have accrued."

Then Gurudeva comments on having an intuition but not acting upon it:

"Here's a fine example of the use of intuition. You have often been in a situation in your own mind where you felt a subtle, direct impulse from deep within you as to how you should proceed. Most probably you denied it as fantasy and commenced in a logical way to fulfill your impulses and desires from previous patterns of experience only to find that you would have traversed agonies and confusions had you followed the subtle impulse of direction which was rejected to enhance established patterns of procedure. But I might add that that first impulse must have registered itself as cold and clear, direct and profound. Only if it did would it have indelibly imprinted itself within your memory patterns, clear and sharp, thus distinguishing itself clearly from all warm, emotional feelings that appear to be reasonable and totally in line with the current pictures of the day."

Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.