Q : I had read in a book that one can see the fragrance of a flower only through innate wisdom and not through sense organs. One can hear through eyes and see through ears too only if there is innate wisdom and that is achievable only through enlightenment. Is it true? Holy mother, as you are, you may use the sense organs or not, your wisdom makes you omniscient, am I right? If I am incorrect in my understanding of this philosophy, please correct me. Answer Interesting question. The eye sees, the ears hear, the nose smells. But a question has come that I have read in a book that the one who has attained enlightenment, can do any job with any sense organ. Meaning, he can hear with his eyes and see with his ears. Is this true or not? That way anything can happen. Everything is possible. What is the difficulty? There is no difficulty. But the one whom we are calling enlightened, the one whom we are calling a realized person, he does not need to prove anything by turning nature upside down. That is why he does not do any upside down work. But it is possible. Saints who did not have eyes since birth could recognize people. Forget about the people, they could even tell what color clothes people coming to meet them were wearing. How? To know, we need the sense organs, it is true. But behind the sense organs is the mind and behind the mind is the intellect and behind the intellect, there is something else. This is called intuitive knowledge. But if someone starts seeing from his ears instead of the eyes, what is great about that? His picture will definitely come in the Guinness Book of World Records. Ramakrishna Paramhans used to tell a story. A man returned home after doing tapasya for 20 years. He became very famous for his siddhis or powers. His younger brother who stayed in the same village, did not come to meet him. The yogi was taken out in a procession on an elephant all over the village. People were shouting, Victory to the great one! But this yogis eyes were looking for his brother. If unknown persons laud you for your achievements, you do not enjoy it. You feel pleasure only if someone who knows you understands that you are being recognized. If a teacher marks Very Good in a childs book, he will run to show it to his father or mother. He feels good when his loved ones appreciate his achievement. So the tapasvi looked for his brother and thought that his brother must be jealous of his achievements. Otherwise, he would have come and met him, given him respect. When he could not stay away, he headed towards his brothers house. The crowd followed him singing his praises. On reaching home, he asked his brother, Why did you not come to meet me? I have returned after 20 years. The brother was working and said, Now that you have come, you are welcome. You do not need an invitation to come home. The mendicant said, Do you know what powers I have? The brother said, I will be obliged to know about them, though I do not know them yet. The mendicant said, Come with me to the river bank. Watch, I will walk on the surface of the water and reach the opposite bank without drowning. He demonstrated his feat and the crowd was ecstatic. But the brother remained unmoved, in fact he looked annoyed. When the mendicant asked his brother what he thought of his feat, his brothers reply was, You spent 20 years and what is your achievement? Just 20 paise! I pay 20 paise to the boatman and he takes me across. I am not a fool. I have intelligence. But the common man gets pleased by such achievements. You people love showmanship. No wonder the maximum no. of films are made in India, in Mumbai, in various languages. Indians need entertainment, even in the name of religion. It is not a measure of enlightenment that a person can see with his ears or hear with his eyes. If you need entertainment, you can watch a man on the road staging up his show and entertaining the public.