is incapable of misusing that knowledge, as knowledge obtained through the intellect
alone can be misused. Life and action based on such knowledge must be righteous,
and in accordance with the Great Law which governs the whole Universe.
- The knowledge based on inference or testimony is different from direct
knowledge obtained in the higher states of consciousness (I-48) because it is confined
to a particular object (or aspect).
In the previous Sutra one prominent characteristic of the new consciousness
which dawns on the refinement of Nirvicara Samadhi was pointed out. This Sutra
clarifies still further the distinction between intellectual and intuitive knowledge. As
was pointed out in I-7, there are three sources of right knowledge—direct cognition,
inference and testimony. All these three are available in the realm of the intellect. Di-
rect cognition, however, plays a very limited part in this realm because it is confined
to the unreliable reports received through the sense-organs. These reports by them-
selves do not give us right knowledge and have to be constantly checked and corrected
by the other two methods mentioned above. We see the Sun rising in the East every
morning, moving across the sky and sinking in the West but by inference we know that
this is a mere illusion and the Sun appears to move on account of the rotation of the
earth on its axis. In the same way the familiar world of forms, colours etc. which we
cognize with our sense-organs has no real existence. It is all a play of electrons, atoms,
molecules and various kinds of energies which Science has discovered. We hardly re-
alize what an important part inference and testimony play in our life until we try to
analyse our ordinary knowledge and the means of obtaining it. These two instruments
of obtaining and correcting knowledge are peculiarly intellectual and are not necessary
in the higher realms of the mind which transcend the intellect. A person who is obliged
to discover objects in a room which is utterly dark is obliged to feel them carefully but