We find in all beings three sorts of instruments of knowledge.
The first is instinct, which you find most highly developed in animals; this is the lowest instrument of knowledge.
What is the second instrument of knowledge?
Reasoning. You find that most highly developed in man. You find a mighty barrier before reason, beyond which reasoning cannot go; yet it always feels impatient to get into the region of the Infinite beyond.
This world, this universe which our senses feel, or our mind thinks, is but one atom, so to say, of the Infinite, projected on to the plane of consciousness; and within that narrow limit, defined by the network of consciousness, works our reason, and not beyond.
Therefore, there must be some other instrument to take us beyond, and that instrument is called inspiration.
So instinct, reason, and inspiration are the three instruments of knowledge. Instinct belongs to animals, reason to man, and inspiration to God-men.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Talk in Pasadena, California
The first is instinct, which you find most highly developed in animals; this is the lowest instrument of knowledge.
What is the second instrument of knowledge?
Reasoning. You find that most highly developed in man. You find a mighty barrier before reason, beyond which reasoning cannot go; yet it always feels impatient to get into the region of the Infinite beyond.
This world, this universe which our senses feel, or our mind thinks, is but one atom, so to say, of the Infinite, projected on to the plane of consciousness; and within that narrow limit, defined by the network of consciousness, works our reason, and not beyond.
Therefore, there must be some other instrument to take us beyond, and that instrument is called inspiration.
So instinct, reason, and inspiration are the three instruments of knowledge. Instinct belongs to animals, reason to man, and inspiration to God-men.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Talk in Pasadena, California
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