Question: If we use intuition on the outer plane, does it become less effective in spiritual activities?

Sri Chinmoy: Most of the time when we use intuition on the outer plane, we use it to serve our own purposes and not to serve God’s Purposes. Spiritual Masters used to shed bitter tears when their disciples would ask them to use their intuition to answer rubbish questions. One comes and asks, “I have lost my cow. Please tell me, where is it?” Another asks, “Please tell me if my son will pass the examination or not.” On the strength of his intuition, the spiritual Master can easily say where the cow is or whether the son will pass his examination, but by doing so he is not fulfilling the Will of God.

There are so many ways intuition-power can be used for a divine purpose. If a sincere seeker comes to his spiritual Master and wants to know why he is not making progress, then the Master can use his intuitive power to see what the reason is and help the person. He may say, “Your defect is in the mind. Doubt is not allowing you to make progress.” Or he may see that the defect is fear or insecurity or impurity. If somebody is sincerely crying that he cannot make progress because of some defect in his body, vital or mind, then intuition-power can be used to really help him.

But if somebody has lost something and you use your intuition to help that person find it, what good are you doing? You are not helping the person’s spiritual life; only you are creating or increasing curiosity in that individual. If you use your intuition to tell people on the physical or vital plane what is going to happen or what already has taken place, you are only misusing your power. Some spiritual Masters used to deliberately tell the wrong answer when people asked them silly questions so that these insincere people would not come back.

Once we enter into the spiritual life, our first and foremost concern is to help people in their inner life and elevate their consciousness. To deal with their outer life, people have their own ways. So if my disciples have intuition, I ask them to use it to help seekers expedite their spiritual journey and not to know outer happenings. Otherwise, intuition is just a waste of time.