Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

Today I thought I would speak something about the relationship between the mind and the intelligence and what does it mean to us in the context of a spiritual life and pursuit. This is a point that people never care to think about. I think even in Vedantic teaching and also training, the actual role of intelligence is not at all either discussed or evaluated or understood or appraised properly.

Our personality is a composite. Being a composite, it has some components or constituents. Our body is the gross part of our personality. This body consists of matter and energy. So, I generally describe the body as a matter-energy aggregate. Our body has hair, skin, flesh, blood vessels, bone; all these are matter. Then water, 80 percent of the body is said to be water. All these are matter and material items. Then we have heat constantly present in the body which keeps the body alive. That is energy.

The body can also generate energy, for example sound is a full energy generated by our system where matter is converted into energy. This energy is made by the spiritual presence that animates and activates the body. It converts matter into energy in the form of sound. So, there is a constant conversion between matter and energy in our body. All these are instrumented, designed by the supra-material presence in the body.

Our body being matter-energy aggregate, it does not have the power to think, feel, understand, sense, memorize, enquire and know. But we have all these functions. Naturally, these functions do not belong to the body or bodily parts. So, there is an inner personality in us that is different from the gross, external body. Only a subtle item can be present within the gross. So, the inner personality is subtle. It consists of mind doing mentation and intelligence doing intellection. Then we have an ego. Mind, intelligence and ego constitute the inner personality.

This inner personality activates and animates the body, in everything. If I am speaking, that speech is enabled by the inner personality consisting of mind, intelligence and ego. Ideas are formed in the brain, they are transmitted to the vocal system, and the vocal system comes through the throat and produces sound in the form of syllables, letters, words and sentences.

Our body is completely made up of food and nourishment. A new-born child is fed with nourishment and it simply grows. If you take exercises, then you will have a healthy and a flexible body. This growth of the body is irresistible and at one point of time it is stopped; it is a self-arresting growth. I would like to say maximum 21 years it takes for the body to grow. Except wisdom teeth, all are grown. But that is the time we become an adult and we have our choices, aspirations, goals, values and the like.

The creative period of life starts at 21. But the body has completed its growth. Naturally, a question arises - What in our personality will grow thereafter for decades of life that we are going to have? Obviously, the answer is mind and intelligence and ego alone will grow. And that is a fact. My dear children, I am asking you, are you conscious of this fact? How many of you are conscious of the fact that there is an inner personality and the mind and intelligence which constitute this personality has to grow, particularly after we become an adult by virtue of our own choices, selections and endeavour? And this growth and enrichment will continue and can continue till last breath of life.

So, every day should register a specific measure of growth and enrichment for your inner personality. No matter whether you succeed or fail in your objective effort, there should be inner enrichment. To understand this and to ensure this is the role of the intelligence.

The relationship between the intelligence and mind is, mind receives data through the senses by interacting with the objects. This data is collected, collated, studied and evaluated and the outcome called knowledge is evolved by the intelligence. This knowledge should guide the mind and such guided mind should employ the senses for their interactions with the world. The senses in the body by themselves cannot act at all! Our doctors will say, every time the lungs bellow and the heart beats, there must be a conscious stimulus, a signal sent by the brain. There are people in whom brain death takes place, but they keep the hearts and lungs mechanically active.

Without the mind and the intelligence working properly, the body and senses are totally inactive. If you wink your eyes, if you lift your fingers, in everything there is a conscious involvement of the mind and intelligence. Generally, the mind takes imprints of the sense object interactions, interaction of the senses with the objects of the world. So right from the childhood, my dear souls, our mind has got only object imprints, imprints of the objects. So, our knowledge is object knowledge, object knowledge, object knowledge. This object knowledge is about the world of the objects. But the knowledge itself is not objective. It arises and it prevails inside the body in the sphere of the mind and intelligence. That is not the area of the object. The area of the object is around the senses. Inside the body, the senses cannot penetrate or perceive. And that is the area of the subject. It is this subject inner personality that matters in our life.

How is your mind? What is it like? What are the qualities and enrichment the mind has? How sharp is your intelligence? Does it do any introspection? Over what? How much do you know about the inside body, the inner personality that you have? Do you know what is the ‘I’ which you are constantly referring to?

You say, ‘My body, my mind, my intelligence, my ego, my house, my car, my married partner, my children, my everything’. So the ‘I’ remains in the nominative, separate from all these. What does it indicate? It certainly indicates a presence within the body and we are not doubtful about it. Because only from the ‘I’, everything else proceeds. But we don’t think about the ‘I’. The thought about the ‘I’ constitutes the subject, the subject process.

The role of the intelligence is fulfilled when the intelligence begin to think wherefrom interactions proceed, wherefrom a thought arises, wherefrom knowledge arises, and who keeps the memory, what are experiences, where are the experiences getting formed, is it on the skin or the pupil of the eye, or the eardrum or something inside which is beyond the scope of matter and energy. Now this kind of an introspection when the intelligence begins to do, you become spiritual.

At present, all the knowledge that the mind is guided by is by virtue of the intelligence but introspecting over the sensory perceptions. In the same manner, leaving the sensory perceptions, the intelligence should start thinking about the inner factors, the inner source, what is the source of knowledge, source of experience, source of interactions, source of memory, what is that supra-material factor inside the body. In other words, I would like to put it, the intelligence should do truthful introspection, introspection in which truthful elements are sought, employed and understood.

A thought arises in our mind. How does it arise, where does it prevail, how does it end, where does it go, is there any space inside the body for millions of thoughts to be arrayed? No thought is arrayed; every time we have a single thought, and we only have a thought, not many thoughts. So what kind of an evolution is this thought if it is not placed anywhere like an object produced on the earth? So there seems to be a different law and process, what is that? This kind of an introspection if the intelligence takes up, it is spiritual.

There is only one factor which can influence the mind, its quality and virtues and functioning and that is the intelligence. Your mind cannot be acted upon by any external factor. If you apply a balm on your body, it is not going to soothen your mind, mind can be soothened only by the intelligence. And the intelligence does it through introspection. The function of the intelligence is called introspection. But object introspection will not help, only subject introspection does. Now that is what Krishna made Arjuna do in the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

The first factor Krishna presented to Arjuna was, “Arjuna, there was no time when I was not, you were not, Bheeshma, Drona and the rest were not. There is not going to be a time when we shall not be”. So Arjuna’s intelligence started introspecting over the presence of the ‘I’ in the past, present and future. So, it was an initiation into what - Into eternality. It was an initiation into something that was present in the past, present and future without any change. Normally all the objects are changeful whereas this presence does not change. It is a full contrast. So, the intelligence was enabled to introspect over that kind of an eternal presence. And Arjuna was told, “Your identity is ‘That’, is ‘That’, not the body, not the mind, not the intelligence, not the ego”. If ‘That’ is your identity, where is the question of death?

Death is a change that takes over the body as birth took over. Following birth, a number of changes take place and death is the last visible change. It is only a change and transition and not an extinction so far as the person who lives is concerned. Just see how introspection works. Arjuna grasped the point and he said, “I will no more speak about death. That misunderstanding, fear and apprehension have gone. I have only doubts if at all about life.” So, Krishna analysed life. He analysed this as an interaction between the senses and objects of the world.

So, life is interactional, life is experiential, and these interactions are bound to produce happiness and misery, sukha and duhkha alternately. So, you don’t have to work for sukha nor do you have to work to avoid duhkha, both are impossible and unneeded. Life becomes easy then. You don’t have to work for sukha, it comes from the interactions in the level of the senses. You don’t have to try to remove duhkha, because that is also impossible. Then what will you do? You will receive both of them alike and give equal importance to both. This equalness, poise, equipoise and evenness, this is the sādhanā and this is also the siddhi, the fruition.

What I want you to understand is, the intelligence should be put into an inner introspection, it should be made to think about what is duhkha, what is sukha, what is transitoriness, what is eternality, and all my body, mind, intelligence and ego, are they eternal – no. Is there anything eternal - yes. What is that indicated by ‘I’?

So, I have a two-fold personality. I have the ‘I’ and ‘I’ level which is eternal and the rest is all transitory. From the transitory, I cannot expect anything lastingly good, and from the eternal I will never miss it. So, the mortality is overcome by immortality, death is won over by eternal life, duhkha is overcome by knowledge about it. This introspection, my dear souls is what everyone of you will need. Use your intelligence properly just like it thinks about the objects, their subtlety, the subtle laws, physical, chemical, biophysical, biochemical, biological. Just like it acquires knowledge about these, it can also acquire knowledge about the psycho-intellectual plights and fates and potentials of the human being. Arjuna had not done this introspection earlier. So, Krishna made him do it and they continued the dialogue for two and half hours.

The same dialogue in a much more detailed manner was given by Vasishtha to Sri Rama when Rama was 16 years old, before sitting on the throne. And that dialogue strengthened, enlightened and stabilized the Prince Rama to such an extent that he was able to rule the Kingdom making all the sacrifices that were necessary and meeting all the hazards and discomfitures he had successfully with facility.

In the case of Parikshit, he was able to overcome the impending death on the seventh day, bitten by the Takshaka, the cobra. But before Takshaka came and administered its bite, Parikshit had transcended his body awareness, withdrew himself from the senses, mind and intelligence and steeped his awareness in the soul and its deepest level. He did not know the arrival of Takshaka or whatever followed. Others alone were there to witness his body getting turned into ashes in the fire that was generated by Takshaka’s bite and poison. These three examples I would like you to keep. This is the marvel of human intelligence.

Suka spoke to Parikshit for 6 ½ days continuously, put him into introspection. Parikshit did not have to get up for anything whatsoever because he was not eating and drinking water even. So, there was no activity other than hearing. When the words come touching the soul, drawing the spirit from the soul, those words have got magnetic startling effects.

There is a lot of difference between a spiritual talk and a physics or a chemistry lecture. One is about the visible, another is about the invisible. One is about the gross and object, another is about the subtle and the subject. So, if you can pick up words from the subject level and present it cogently, inspired by the subject’s fervor, subject’s magnificence, subject’s splendor, then the words will have marvelous effect. That is what Arjuna felt, Rama felt and Parikshit experienced.

Will you understand this special place of the intelligence in dealing with the mind? And the process is through introspection. I call it truthful introspection because in that introspection, the truth is constantly reflected and imparted.  It is not an object talk; it is a subject talk. It is not imparting the object knowledge, but the subject knowledge, knowledge of the subject. So, the entire scenario will change, the ambience will change. That is what we generally call, ‘I am inspired, I am inspired, listening to you I am inspired’, some people will say ‘I am invigorated’, some people will say ‘I am enlightened, I feel poise and peace, I feel stillness, I feel absorption’, some people sit absorbed also. It is all an effect of the intelligence acting upon the mind and that is the only agency that can act on the mind at all.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.