The magic of intuition with shakuntala devi

The magic of intuition with shakuntala devi

Intuition is in some ways like instinct and in other ways absolutely unlike instinct; in still other ways, it is like intellect and in yet other ways, absolutely against intellect. Intuition is like instinct because you cannot do anything about it. It is part of your consciousness, just as instinct is part of your body. But just as you can allow your instincts to be fulfilled, you can give total freedom to your intuition to be fulfilled.

Intuition can give you answers to ultimate questions… Instinct and intuition are both independent of you. Instinct is in the power of unconscious nature, and intuition is in the hands of the super-conscious universe of which we are just small icebergs; we can melt and become one with it.

Fulfillment of instinct is always dependent on something other than you. Intuition leads you only to yourself. It has no dependence, no need for the other; hence its beauty, freedom and independence. Intuition is an exalted state needing nothing. In a way intuition is like intellect because it is intelligence. Intellect and intelligence are similar only in appearance. The intellectual person is not necessarily intelligent and the intelligent person is not necessarily intellectual. You can find a farmer so intelligent that even a great professor, a great intellectual, will look a pygmy in front of him.

In India there is a woman, Shakuntala, who has been around the world, in almost all universities, exhibiting her intuition. She is not a mathematician; she is not even much educated. Even when Albert Einstein was alive she was giving her demonstration in front of him (early ‘50s). She would sit with a chalk in her hand before the board: you would ask any kind of question about mathematics or arithmetic, and you would not have even finished the question and she would have started writing the answer. Albert Einstein gave her a certificate – she showed the certificate to me when I was in Madras (mid ‘60s). She showed me all her certificates, and the one from Einstein says, “I asked this woman a question which I take three hours to solve because I have to follow a whole method; I cannot just jump from the question to the answer. I know that nobody can do it in less time than I can, and that is three hours. But the whole procedure has to be followed. If you miss even a single step….” The figures were so big that it took the whole board for her to write the answer. And before he had even finished the question, she started writing the answer. He was puzzled, because it was impossible. He asked, “How do you do it?” She said, “I don’t know how I do it – it simply happens. You ask me and figures start appearing before my eyes, somewhere inside. I can see 1, 2, 3, and I just go on writing.”

Shakuntala was born with her intuition functioning, but I felt really sad for her because she became just an exhibition. Nobody cared that a woman, who is born with intuition functioning, can become enlightened very easily. She is just standing on the brink; one step and she becomes the ultimate in consciousness. But she is not aware, because this (gift) is just a freak of nature.