Does loss of intelligence lead to control by the mind or does control by the mind lead to loss of intelligence?

So, here it is said that when the intelligence is lost, then we identify, misidentify with the body and then we get captivated by the mind's lower desires and then we fall. So, actually this is, the mind and intelligence are constantly, they are in an interaction with each other. That interaction can be cooperative or that can be antagonistic, it depends.

So, there is a basic misidentification which is there, which indicates a lack of intelligence, that is, the soul identifies with the body. Now, that is itself at one level delusion, but that does not necessarily mean that because of that the soul is going to fall into sinful activities immediately. There can be people who identify with their body, but overall still they live in the mode of goodness.

It is not that everybody who is in the bodily conception is necessarily living sinful. Majority may be. So, in a sense, the misidentification of the body is like a broad illusion which is there for everybody's material existence and in that sense, that itself indicates a lack of intelligence.

So, we can say that the intelligence is also lost at various levels. Say somebody, somebody is trying to recover alcohol, recover from alcoholism, they take the first drink and that is, that is itself a loss of intelligence. You should not have drunk at all, but they drink twice, thrice, ten times, at least after one drink they could have stopped, they drink ten times, that is further loss of intelligence.

Then if they drink, now I can drive home, they are driving under the influence of alcohol, that is even greater loss of intelligence. So, like that the intelligence is also lost in installments, that at one level, the loss of intelligence in terms of bodily misidentification, that is there for everyone, but further by the contemplation of the sense object, we can lose our intelligence further. So, even when all of us, intellectually we understand, I am not the body and the soul, but still many times we act on the bodily platform, but the bodily platform itself does not have to necessarily be a sensual platform or a sinful platform.

At the bodily level, people can act in different ways. So, the intelligence is lost in various installments and the more the contemplation of the sense objects, the more the intelligence gets eroded. We are talking about that progression from the basic bodily misidentification to captivation by sense objects and then to degradation to terrible suffering.