Intellect Surpasses all your Senses

The sun and moon shine in the world but they cannot illuminate God. The light shining inside the house can illuminate the objects inside but it cannot illuminate God. How do you know that the sun and the moon shine and that fire burns? On what basis can you declare that these things are bright and luminous? It is because of your eyes that you can recognize their brightness. If you did not have eyes the radiant light of the sun and moon would not be seen by you. But as for these eyes, what is it that helps them to see? Even when you are sleeping or when your eyes are closed there is an unmistakable radiance shining in your awareness. It is your highest intellect, your intuitive faculty, your buddhi. Therefore, you can conclude that even more effulgent than your eyes is your intellect. There is a small story to illustrate this.

There were two friends, a blind man and a lame man;. They would go begging together from village to village. The blind one had good legs and the lame one had good eyes. The lame man sat on the shoulders of the blind man. So, with the help of each other they were able to go from village to village. Once, on their way, they came across a beautiful field of melons. The lame man said to the blind man, "Brother, there are some very fine looking melons in this field. Let us go into the field and eat some; afterwards we can take a little rest and proceed on our way."

The blind person said to the lame person, "Brother, be careful. There may be some watchman keeping an eye on the field." The lame man said, "No, there is no one there." The blind man went on, "Please tell me if there is a fence or a gate around this garden." The lame one said, "There is neither a gate nor a fence. We can go and have our dinner." The blind person immediately said, "Brother, these melons must be very bitter and inedible, otherwise why is there no watchman, no fence and no gate to protect them?"

A person may not have eyes to see, but if he uses his intellect he is greater than the one who sees with his eyes. Therefore, it is really the intellect which lends a shining quality to the eyes. But from where does the intellect get its power? The intellect is shining because of the atma. Therefore, because of the atma the intellect is illuminated, and because of the intellect the eyes shine and can see, and because the eyes see, the effulgence of the sun and the moon can be perceived, and because of the sun and the moon the whole world shines. We see that the ultimate source that illuminates everything is the atma. Therefore, it is the atma which you should worship.