March 30, 2011 – Humanity is Unable to Judge

All renunciation is for a greater joy yet ungrasped.
Some renounce for the joy of duty done,
some for the joy of peace,
some for the joy of God and some for the joy of self-torture,
but renounce rather as a passage to the freedom and untroubled rapture beyond.

Sri Aurobindo

(Thoughts and Aphorisms 94)

Humanity is Unable to Judge

The only true attitude is one of humility, of silent respect before what one does not know, and of inner aspiration to come out of one’s ignorance. One of the things which would make humanity progress most would be for it to acknowledge willingly that it does not know and is therefore unable to judge. We constantly do just the opposite. We pass final judgements on things of which we have no knowledge whatsoever, and say in a peremptory manner, “This is possible. That is impossible”, when we do not even know what it is we are speaking of. And we put on superior airs because we doubt things of which we have never had any knowledge.

Men believe that doubt is a sign of superiority, whereas it is really a sign of inferiority.

Scepticism and doubt are two of the greatest obstacles to progress; they add presumptuousness to ignorance.

The Mother

The Great Adventure: page 307