Books are sources of knowledge. Great minds are sources of great knowledge. We read books and understand. The understanding of the Mind is a tool to secure knowledge. A highly well-read person is a shining star in the society. It is true. Having come to Spirit, and being in the habit of invoking the Spirit, it is right to endeavour to know the ultimate Source of knowledge. To know is great. To be able to avail of that KNOWLEDGE is a rare fulfilment. We have read of great men, pioneering scientists, poets, etc., suddenly receiving a revelation. Newton's falling apple is a case in instance. Sri Aurobindo has said that the world is not going to produce a greater mind than Socrates or Newton.
The problems in Newton's mind had crossed or risen above the stage of thinking or understanding through thinking. For a long time he was contemplating his ideas silently. He was in Silent Contemplation, which at the point of maturity revealed what he was seeking for. It is the level of the Higher Mind where the Muni dwells. There are others who SEE the formula they are seeking for. It may be in the dream or in meditation. A formula such as E = mc2 is capable of revealing to the seeker as vision. How Einstein arrived at it, I do not know. Such visions belong to the illumined Mind where the Rishi dwells. Its acme is trikaladrishti. Vision is superior to Silence. At the next level the medium of Silence or Light is dispensed with. Knowledge is directly received without the effort of thinking or even silent contemplation. Nor does it reveal as vision through the medium of light.
Direct knowledge is intuition. Ramanujam received all his mathematical knowledge through such Intuition. Supramental intuition is inside oneself. It is not outside oneself. The ultimate SOURCE of knowledge is higher than the Supermind, known as consciousness -- Chit in Sanskrit. Chit splits itself into knowledge and will. It is that knowledge that comes to us at lower stages through Intuition, vision, silent contemplation and thinking. This is the hierarchy of knowledge. One who is very much used to invoking the Spirit may sometimes have a serious intellectual problem or a personal one. He can try to concentrate seriously to reach CONSCIOUSNESS. Should he do so, his previous experience with Spirit will help him. Spirit is one step higher than consciousness. Such an effort will take him for a moment to this source of consciousness and miraculously solve his problem at once.