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The Limitations of the Reasoning Intelligence and the Need to Maintain It During the Spiritual Practice · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The mental knowledge we acquire is mostly a form of ignorance,
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  reaching out to try to acquire knowledge in the life Divine
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  Triorobindo describes the various forms of knowledge with
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  one exception. They are set up in the paradigm
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  of subject object and the process of knowing and treats
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  the object as something separate and external to oneself.
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  We acquire facts, make inferences and draw logical
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  conclusions to try to ascertain the truth of whatever we are
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  trying to know. This implies that we cannot
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  really ever know everything about the separated object using
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  these methods, and in fact we find that knowledge in this
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  world is never stable as we are always finding out new aspects
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  and expanding our knowledge and experiencing the unintended
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  consequences when we try to act on that partial knowledge that
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  we have obtained. The one form of knowledge which
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  goes beyond this ignorant seeking for knowledge is what
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  shriorobindo terms knowledge by identity.
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  This form of knowledge is gained through unification of the
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  consciousness between subject and object.
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  Many who take up spiritual practices conclude that since
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  external knowledge is flawed and the reason is limited instrument
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  of knowing, that, the correct method is to abandon it and move
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  on to something else. This idea, however, has its
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  flaws and drawbacks, particularly with respect to the
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  control of the vital nature, which is one of the essential
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  functions of the reasoning intelligence when it is awake
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  and active, the mother notes quote.
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  As for the knowledge of which Sriorobindo speaks here, it is
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  ordinary knowledge. It is not knowledge by identity.
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  It is knowledge that can be acquired by the intellect
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  through thought through ordinary means.
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  But once again, and in any case, we shall have occasion to return
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  to this when we study the next aphorism.
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  Do not be in a hurry to abandon reason in the conviction that
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  you will immediately attain to wisdom, because you must be
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  ready for wisdom. Otherwise, by abandoning reason,
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  you run a great risk of falling into unreason, which is rather
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  dangerous. Many times in his writings,
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  particularly in the synthesis of Yoga, Sriorobindo warns us
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  against the imaginings of those who believe they can do sadhna
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  without rigorous selfcontrol and who heed all sorts of
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  inspirations which lead them to a dangerous imbalance where all
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  their repressed hidden secret desires come out into the open
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  under the pretense of liberation from ordinary conventions and
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  ordinary reason. End Quote Reference Srioro Bindu
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  and the Mother Our Many Selves, Practical Yogic Psychology,
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  Chapter 2 Plains and Parts of the Being, page 44.