Questioner: Namaskaram Sadhguru. What is the difference between instinct and intuition? Should we follow our instincts or intuition?
Sadhguru: See, instinct is a survival process. There is a natural instinct to preserve yourself, which might have gotten weak living in artificial circumstances. But if you go back and again live in nature, within a short span of time you will see, there is a different level of instinct in you.
So, instinct is a different aspect, intuition is a different aspect. Instinct is a certain dimension of physical perception. Intuition is not perception. Intuition is just a different dimension of computing – same information logically, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 steps, intuition – toc – one step. That’s all it is.
So, how to develop intuition? There are various methods. The Shambhavi Mahamudra that you, do definitely enhances one’s intuition. But don’t try to consciously enhance that, because you will go about doing guesswork. Guesswork is not intuition. Intuition means you just know, clearly know that you can bank your life on it. Guesswork will lead you to a lot of confusion. “Oh, I have a gut feeling.” There are some people. Always their gut is saying something – because of bad food, I think.
So, there are specific methods to develop intuitiveness. There are certain systems of yoga which are totally left oriented. Here, the yoga that you learn with me in a program like this, we want to bring a balance between the right and left, because you want to live a normal life. There are certain systems of yoga where they’re not interested in what you call as normal life. Their only orientation is to develop intuition, and see life in a certain way. What they do is, they take beeswax and close off the right nostril. 12 years, one solar cycle, 12 and a quarter years, they block off the right nostril, and you will see, the logical mind will almost die. You will have no thought process, but you just simply know things like a Cobra.
See, if you – you ever handle snakes? No. If you handle a snake, especially a Cobra, it is so perceptive! The reason why you see a Cobra next to Shiva is because every yogi carried a snake at one time. Just yesterday somebody was reminding me that in the Middle Eastern culture, particularly the Christian mysticism, they show people carrying a snake-like stick because they couldn’t get Cobras in the Middle East. They created a stick, or they found a natural stick which looks like a Cobra, and they tried to use it.
You see Moses carrying a snake-like stick, and in many other places. But in India, yogis always carried a live Cobra, because its perception is phenomenal. A Cobra, which is here in Chamundi Hill, if there is going to be an earthquake in California – not happening, it is going to be – nothing has started, no Richter scale is saying anything, but this cobra will already start behaving in a different way. If you are keen enough, you will immediately know what’s going to happen. He is so perceptive, the Earth’s intentions he knows. Not the happenings, intentions he already knows.
That’s the reason why you see Shiva is carrying Cobra here [top], a reptile, a crawly creature, he’d kept it down at least, he carries it here [top], because Shiva is making a statement, “you are as good as me.” He has 3 eyes, everything possible he’s seeing, but he is telling, “the cobra is as good as me. If you worship me, you have to worship him, because he is as good as me, he sees as much as I see.” So, that’s why the cobra became very significant.
If you see a yogi with the cobra, not me, there are other kinds, who are freaky, freaky, who’ll have a cobra, and who’ll have green-colored glass bangles on their left hand, if you see them, if you look at his nostril, you will see, he has beeswax sealing off his right nostril. If you see that he doesn’t have a bee wax, that means he is past his 12 and a quarter year solar cycle, and he is worth being with. There are things about him that you cannot imagine. So, you cannot go that way.
What you can do is, the simple practice of Shambhavi definitely opens up that dimension. But before you go into intuition it is very important the logical dimension of your life is properly, properly established, otherwise every fool who can’t think straight will think he is intuitive. Yes! First establish the logical dimension of your life perfectly clear, then explore intuitiveness – it will be fabulous. But without establishing logic you try to walk in the intuitiveness, you’ll just go into a world of confusion.
