​Is our intelligence enough for making right choices or do we need Krishna’s mercy?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
It is Krishna’s mercy that we are able to make right choices. So, the mind’s function is to accept and reject.
But the problem is, when it is misprogrammed, it doesn’t know what to accept and what to reject. And not only that, it takes control of the intelligence also. So, then the intelligence also becomes misled.
And as I said earlier, we use the intelligence to rationalize the mind’s choices. Prabhupada says in one lecture that we are meant to use our intelligence to control the enjoying mentality. But our problem is that we are habituated to enjoy intelligently.
Enjoy intelligently. I enjoy and then I try to use my intelligence to figure out how to say, you know, I serve some websites and then I don’t want anyone to come to know I serve the websites. Then I go and delete the history.
So, I am using my intelligence. So, then the intelligence right now is controlled by the mind. And that’s why we need to connect with Krishna very strongly.
And that connection happens at multiple levels. The inner guidance of Krishna is the dama-kundri-yogam-tam. That comes at the same time Krishna’s guidance comes from scripture also.
When we associate with devotees and study scripture, that guidance is what will stabilize our intelligence. And the more we act according to that guidance, the more we enjoy this, then Krishna sees that this person wants to come close to me. Then I will guide that person.
Because before the dama-kundri-yogam-tam, there is, So, we need to serve him with some affection or at least some favorable attitude. Then that intelligence comes. So, our intelligence alone is not enough.
But when we use our intelligence to study Krishna’s message, so there are, you know, as you said, the mind is very simple, sankalpana kalpa. But the, in the present age, our mind, simple is not simple for us. It’s like simple living, you may say.
But if you actually go to a village and try to live simply, for those of us who are used to the comforts and the gadgets of modern times, it’s not easy. It’s quite difficult. So, like that, just have some kalpana kalpa.
That’s the mind. Accept, reject. That’s all the mind is.
We just do, we can’t connect with it. But then we give some contemporary examples, you know, default program, the pop-up windows, and all that. Then we can connect with it.
So, Srila Prabhupada would also do that all the time, that he would give contemporary examples. You know, in the seventh canto, when Prahlad is offering his prayers, jeevah ekto chitvikarshati maa vitrupta. So, he says that the tongue is attracted in one direction, the ears are attracted in another direction, the nose is attracted in another direction.
So, Prabhupada writes over there that the ears are attracted to radio songs. Now, he is writing that in the translation. Now, somebody will say, at Prahlad Maharaj’s time, there were no radio songs.
So, what is Prabhupada doing? Prabhupada is making that concept accessible. You know, Prabhupada, if he had written the parpot today, he might have said, the ears are attracted to jukeboxes or to whatever. So, we have to make the concepts as contemporarily intelligible as possible.
And then the concepts hit into us. They register within us and then we can, we feel more inspired to apply the underlying principles. Thank you.
Any other questions?