A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga | Page 4

higher than
Intellect, yet we are in duty bound to examine the reports of the
Intellect concerning its information regarding the One. The Intellect has
been developed in us for use--for the purpose of examining,
considering, thinking--and it behooves us to employ it. By turning it to
this purpose, we not only strengthen and unfold it, but we also get
certain information that can reach us by no other channel. And
moreover, by such use of the Intellect we are able to discover many
fallacies and errors that have crept into our minds from the opinions
and dogmas of others--as Kant said: "The chief, and perhaps the only,
use of a philosophy of pure reason is a negative one. It is not an
organon for extending, but a discipline for limiting! Instead of
discovering truth, its modest function is to guard against error." Let us
then listen to the report of the Intellect, as well as of the higher fields of
mentation.
One of the first reports of the Intellect, concerning the Absolute, is that
it must have existed forever, and must continue to exist forever. There
is no escape from this conclusion, whether one view the matter from
the viewpoint of the materialist, philosopher, occultist, or theologian.

The Absolute could not have sprung from Nothing, and there was no
other cause outside of itself from which it could have emanated. And
there can be no cause outside of itself which can terminate its being.
And we cannot conceive of Infinite Life, or Absolute Life, dying. So
the Absolute must be Eternal--such is the report of the Intellect.
This idea of the Eternal is practically unthinkable to the human mind,
although it is forced to believe that it must be a quality of the Absolute.
The trouble arises from the fact that the Intellect is compelled to see
everything through the veil of Time, and Cause and Effect. Now, Cause
and Effect, and Time, are merely phenomena or appearances of the
relative world, and have no place in the Absolute and Real. Let us see if
we can understand this.
Reflection will show you that the only reason that you are unable to
think of or picture a Causeless Cause, is because everything that you
have experienced in this relative world of the senses has had a
cause--something from which it sprung. You have seen Cause and
Effect in full operation all about you, and quite naturally your Intellect
has taken it for granted that there can be nothing uncaused--nothing
without a preceding cause. And the Intellect is perfectly right, so far as
Things are concerned, for all Things are relative and are therefore
caused. But back of the caused things must lie THAT which is the
Great Causer of Things, and which, not being a Thing itself, cannot
have been caused--cannot be the effect of a cause. Your minds reel
when you try to form a mental image of That which has had no cause,
because you have had no experience in the sense world of such a thing,
and there fail to form the image. It is out of your experience, and you
cannot form the mental picture. But yet your mind is compelled to
believe that there must have been an Original One, that can have had no
cause. This is a hard task for the Intellect, but in time it comes to see
just where the trouble lies, and ceases to interpose objections to the
voice of the higher regions of the self.
And, the Intellect experiences a similar difficulty when it tries to think
of an Eternal--a That which is above and outside of Time. We see Time
in operation everywhere, and take it for granted that Time is a
reality--an actual thing. But this is a mistake of the senses. There is no
such thing as Time, in reality. Time exists solely in our minds. It is
merely a form of perception by which we express our consciousness of

the Change in Things.
We cannot think of Time except in connection with a succession of
changes of things in our consciousness--either things of the outer world,
or the passing of thought-things through our mind. A day is merely the
consciousness of the passing of the sun--an hour or minute merely the
subdivision of the day, or else the consciousness of the movement of
the hands of the clock--merely the consciousness of the movement of
Things--the symbols of changes in Things. In a world without changes
in Things, there would be no such thing as Time. Time is but a mental
invention. Such is the report of the Intellect.
And, besides the conclusions of pure abstract reasoning about Time, we
may see many instances of the relativity of Time in our everyday
experiences. We all know that