In the west, a philosopher named Bergson of France ranks high amongst the philosophers whose mind rose very high towards the unseen and whose eyes could see wondrousness i.e. the sixth sense despite being tied to the five senses of the body.
This is the first time in the history of philosophy that a philosopher has considered science as well as intellect inadequate to peep in the unseen.
Bergson saw eye to eye with Kant's doctrine that we could not know or reach God with our intellect. Kant, therefore, did not consider God as the topic of intellect. He had concluded in his doctrine that God is beyond the scope of philosophy.
Bergson said that we had a dual mind for research. One is intellectual mind and another is intuitive. Without the union of the two one could not perceive the unseen because even the unseen has two facets, one is matter and the second is life.
All the discoveries of science are the result of research by the intellectual mind. It is the intellectual mind that has the art of reasoning and uses it to come to logical conclusions. Its knowledge pertains to matter. The intellectual mind has scope up to knowledge of meat and bones and not of life. The knowledge of the secret of life is beyond its scope. The intellectual mind is inexpert. It cannot put its finger on the cycle of life. The cycle of life is a miracle of the Lord. For the intellectual mind it is something that is alien or unfamiliar.
The intellectual mind is made of matter and its subject is matter. Whatever comes in its scope is matter. It cannot gain knowledge from a whole object or substance. It has to cut it bit by bit and do research. The flow of life stops when it comes under the cutting edge of the knife. Life is a flow. Its stoppage is its end. But actually it is unending. It never stops.
We think it has stopped but actually it goes and hides itself in the unseen world that is invisible to the intellectual mind.
The flight of life is a transition. It is an extension of the cycle of life. This cycle of life is inaccessible. It cannot be stopped. The life is in quest of something. The intellect cannot realize that.
Life spreads from a centre i.e. the Lord and wants to remain in touch with the Lord.
The mind is enticed by desires and is not able to realize so. Only a person who has insight and can see inwardly can perceive the centre i.e. the Lord.
Bergson has named this insight as intuition. It is somewhat similar to what is mentioned in our Scripture as the sublime mind.
Bergson's entire focus rested on the point that if we wish'to peep into the unseen and meet the Lord then we essentially have to develop this intuition in ourselves. He was of the view that the entire research of philosophy should be done with the intuitive and the intellectual mind.
Now, how to develop this intuition or so to say this intuitive mind?
Bergson could not know. He only hinted that intuition could be gained from the knowledge of physical sciences.
This clearly indicates that Bergson's intuition is a sister of intellect but slightly higher. It seems Bergson had a glimpse of intuitive and sublime mind but he was not able to describe the same.
Here, it is important to mention the greatness of Guru Nanak Dev Ji who almost four hundred years before Bergson gave knowledge of the intuitive and the sublime mind. It is not that he gave knowledge only. He also showed the way to develop the intuitive and the sublime mind. The way is faith, love and devotion.
Faith: One has to have faith that the Lord is omnipresent, here, there, everywhere, inside the body and outside in nature. Love: Remembrance of the Lord.
Devotion: Recitation of the Lord's Name by the tongue or silently in the mind.
He said: By remembrance and 'recitation of the Lord's Name with love' another mind develops i.e. the intuitive mind and the sublime mind that can feel the sensation of the Lord. The Lord reveals Himself in His Name by way of sensation.
Another philosopher said: If then anywhere there is possible for us a view of reality in its purity it will be in the inward view that we may obtain of this privileged object [The Philosophy of Change by Can. Page 26\.
Guru Nanak Dev Ji resolved the issue in advance without any philosophical discussion.
He said: We have to see inwardly and to see inwardly the path is 'incessant recitation of the Lord's Name with love'. The love of the Lord and recitation of His Name elevates the mind and the intellectual mind is transformed into intuitive mind and further into sublime mind. The body soul immerses into the Supreme soul.
The incessant meeting of the three, namely, mind, body soul and Supreme soul is sublime consciousness or intuition. Love is the cement that joins the soul with the soul.
One can attain it in this life only.
Some philosophers did get a glimpse of this intuition maybe from the wondrous scenes of nature but were not fully blessed with it.
What happens when our body soul immerses in the Supreme soul?
When the body soul immerses in the Supreme soul, then one gets the sensation of the presence of the Lord that fills with ecstasy and rapture. All sorrows vanish and one gets out of the cycle of births and deaths. One gets eternal happiness in this life itself.
Similarly, Emerson, a pious soul who lived in America felt the sensation and ecstasy of meeting the Lord. But he clamored: Tell me, how this sensation would become incessant?
Guru Nanak Dev Ji has shown the way, how to make it incessant.
Alas! Emerson had known Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
Similarly, Goethe felt ecstasy and wondrousness sometimes.
Inspired by Emerson, Carlyle and Goethe a few persons in Europe and America gained new thoughts, e.g. Trine. He wrote nice words about Emerson's sensations of the Lord and feelings of ecstasy and wondrousness of Goethe. Trine has described the incessant sensation in an excellent manner.
Had these philosophers known the true Spiritual path that Guru Nanak Dev Ji told, then all their doubts would have gone.
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