Intelligence is seen not just through aptitude but also through activity

[Sunday feast class at ISKCON, Connecticut, USA]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
I’m grateful to be here amongst all of you today, on Sunday, for the Sunday programme. And I’ll speak on the topic of intelligence is not just an aptitude, intelligence is also an activity. So, I’ll speak based on 18.30 in the Bhagavad Gita.
In the Bhagavad Gita, in the 18th chapter, in the 18th chapter, Krishna speaks about intelligence in the three modes. In 18.30, 31 and 32. So, there he speaks about, in 18.30, प्रणुतिम्च निवृतिम्च कार्या कार्ये भया भये बंधं मोक्षं च यावित्ति बुद्धी सापार्थ सात्विकी So, he says that intelligence is healthy intelligence, is intelligence is sattva.
By which we can understand what is to be done and what is not to be done. प्रणुतिम्च निवृतिम्च कार्या कार्ये भया भये This should be, this is a good thing to do, this is not a good thing to do. Doing this, I should be afraid of doing this.
And doing this, I should not have any fear of doing it. And बंधं मोक्षं च यावित्ति बंधं मोक्षं This will bind me and this will free me. So, one who can understand this, that person is intelligent.
For many centuries now, human beings, especially in the age of science, have been trying to understand what is it that differentiates humans from animals. There are two broad schools of thought. One is the materialistic world view, which holds that humans are simply evolved apes.
So, there is no difference intrinsically between humans and other animals. So, it’s just because our intelligence is more evolved, that’s why we do certain things which animals don’t do. And there is the reverse perspective, the Abrahamic religions.
The Abrahamic religions are Judaism, Christianity, Islam. They all accept Abraham as one of their prominent prophets. They are called Abrahamic religions.
So, they, especially Christianity holds that only human beings have a soul. And what differentiates humans from animals is the presence of the soul. So, one extreme is to say, so the materialistic world you say that there is no soul.
And in that sense, all humans and animals are all the same. Now, this thesis obviously has problems because all living beings ask questions. So, a dog asks, where can I get food? Where can I get meat? But it is only human beings who can ask questions about ultimate reality.
It is we only who can ask, we can question the purpose of our existence. There are how questions and there are why questions. Okay, how to eat? How to get a meat? How to protect myself? How to find a good place to sleep and stay safe? These are how questions.
Why question is, why should I live at all? What is the purpose of life? All living beings think. But it is only human beings who can think about their thoughts. We are the only living beings who can think about our thoughts.
So, what differentiates us from other species is this capacity for what the philosophy is called as meta-thinking. Thinking about thinking. That means, say we get angry.
I am getting angry now, I should not get angry. We can think like that. I am getting angry right now.
So, based on this meta-thinking, we can actually check our impulses. All living beings have impulses. But we can check our impulses by observing ourselves.
So, say, if it is Ekadashi and a cat sees a mouse. The cat can’t think, oh, today is Ekadashi, I should fast. No, cat doesn’t have that capacity at all.
So, if it sees a potential food item and if it is hungry, it will pounce on it immediately. So, animals are driven by their impulses. So, the impulses create certain thoughts within them.
And as soon as the thoughts come, the desires come, the emotions come, they act on it. We human beings also have impulses. And the impulses also create certain desires within us.
But we can process those desires. We have impulse. So, there is, we could say, impulse and there is intelligence.
By our intelligence, we can evaluate our impulse. So, based on that evaluating of the impulse, we can decide, should I act like this, should I not act like this. So, this is what actually differentiates humans from animals.
So, if a dog sees a she-dog, the dog may just want to pounce on her and inseminate her. A human being may also get a desire like that. But civilised human beings means they will check that desire.
So, the impulses come and checking the impulses, that capacity is what is, what differentiates humans from animals. And that is the foundational intelligence which we have. So, now, even hardcore evolutionists who say everything came from nature, everything came by chance from natural mechanisms, when they say somehow that we human beings have transcended or we can transcend the impulse, impulses that we have.
Now, why if we are simply biological creatures, why should we be able to transcend our impulses? Impulses will alone govern us. We see that nature operates in the principle of survival of the fittest. So, there is a tiger which can run faster than a deer, a tiger will chase the deer and devour the deer.
The deer runs faster than the tiger, the tiger will starve. So, whichever is fitter, that will survive. Now, at one level, even in human beings, there is this survival of the fittest.
And whether it is in academic exams or it is in corporate battles, those who are the fittest candidates, they are selected, they are promoted. But while this is a fact of our nature and our existence, but there is something different in humans also. That is sacrifice by the fittest.
If somebody is drowning in a river or ocean, then somebody else might just run there, jump in, risk their own life and save that person. And the twin towers were collapsing. Many firefighters risked their lives knowing that those towers may crumble anytime.
But they charged in and they rescued many people. And from the perspective of Darwinian survival of the fittest, this was ridiculous. Why did they do that? But we don’t consider it ridiculous.
We consider them noble. So, there is something within us which recognises that while survival of the fittest is a brute fact of life, it is not the only fact of life. And there are more truths that are ennobling, that are uplifting.
And we need to understand them and mould our life according to them. So, this understanding that we have impulses, the impulses, I want to protect my life. Somebody else is drowning, somebody else is burning, let them burn.
Let me protect myself. But there is something within us which makes us even go against the survival impulse and risk our life to save someone else. So, there is clearly something within us which differentiates us from animals.
And that is our intelligence by which we can check our impulse. By check, we mean two things. Check is to evaluate and check is to restrain.
So, check means, we have security checking. We check what is in their bag. So, checking is evaluating.
But check also means, if a child is making a lot of noise, parents may be told, check your children. Restrain them. So, the intelligence that restrains impulse, that the intelligence that checks impulse is the defining characteristic of human beings.
Now, from the perspective of, this is, I am talking about evolutionary perspective, the reductionistic perspective that is drawn from evolution, which it has its problems. The other extreme is the Christian perspective, which holds that only humans have souls. Now, the problem with this logic is that all living beings do have consciousness.
And there are much evidence that human beings, all other living beings also have intelligence. Animals also are persons. They also act just like human beings in many ways.
So, if we consider the soul as differentiating humans and animals, then why do animals have consciousness? Why do animals have emotions? Why do animals also have their own personality? There is an ethologist. Ethologists are those who study animal behaviour. And one such person has written a book called Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? So, there is a thesis that animals are much smarter.
And there are dogs which are so intelligent that sometimes some people have these, if some people have epilepsy and they get fits, then there are therapy dogs. And those dogs can anticipate when a person is going to get a fit. And before they fall, about to fall down, the dog goes behind them and cushions the fall.
And then they bark and then these dogs also have a tag that this is a therapy dog or something like that. And then they bark in a particular way and then they call attention. And I know a devotee who said that he has a dog like this.
And he said, twice this dog saved my life. So, now the point is that animals also have intelligence. So, they also, the Bhagavad Gita’s understanding is a balance between the two.
Not the materialistic understanding that there is no soul and human beings are just animals. Or that human beings are categorically different from animals and humans alone have soul. So, what the Gita explains is the difference between humans and animals is not in category but in degree.
Not in category. That means humans have souls, animals don’t have souls. There are two different categories of beings.
But rather it is in degree. Degree means that the degree of consciousness that is evolved. Animals have consciousness, humans have consciousness.
But in the animal body, the consciousness is covered substantially. And in the human body, the consciousness is much more developed. So, it’s, if you compare, there is a bright light.
Like we have light over here. Now, sometimes, if say we are doing video shooting or something like that, we may put some cover on the light. Otherwise the light becomes too bright.
So, then if we cover the light a little bit, it may become a little diffused. But if we cover the light too much, then it may become not just diffused but it may become dark itself. So, the soul is like the light source.
What comes out of the soul is consciousness, the energy of consciousness. And the covering on the soul is what prevents that consciousness from coming out. So, in the animal bodies, the covering is much thicker.
In the human body, the covering is relatively thinner. In the Bhagavad Gita, in the third chapter, the 38th verse, Krishna gives examples. So, just as a child is covered by a womb, just as a mirror may be covered by dust, and just as fire is covered by smoke, similarly, the living being is covered.
So, the acharyas explain that the child covered by the womb refers to the plants. The mirror covered by dust refers to the animals. And the fire covered by smoke refers to humans.
So, when the fire is covered by smoke, if the smoke is very thick, we may not even see the fire. But just a little stroking of the fire and we will see the fire, smoke will go. So, like that, sometimes some humans may live so materialistically that there may seem to be no spirituality at all in their lives.
But a little kindling, a little kindling of their life, a little kindling of their thoughts and some spiritual instinct will awaken in them. There, they will have some, everybody, no matter how materialistic they may be, they have some moments when they ask existential questions. When they say, lose a loved one or something which they have worked for very hard, they suddenly lose it.
What am I living for? What is the purpose of my life? They do ask these questions. So, our topic was that understanding what actually is intelligence. Understanding who is really an intelligent human being.
So, in today’s world, I took these two points, reference points of what differentiates human from animals, the Abrahamic perspective and the materialistic perspective as a launching pad for this discussion. Any questions to this point? Any questions or comments? OK. You can just ask.
I would have, but I know the bottom one will give you the microphone. With the difference between animals and humans, perhaps, especially in detecting, you know, you gave the example of epilepsy. Perhaps it’s just the difference in perception with the senses? Yeah, good question.
So, the difference between humans and animals, say, in terms of detecting epilepsy, is it just a matter of perceptual senses? Yes, definitely. So, every living being is endowed in a particular way. And sometimes animals may be endowed in particular ways which we just don’t know.
There are many places which are prone to earthquakes. And time and time it has been observed that before a major quake, some of the animals like dogs or horses or donkeys, they start behaving in an unusual way. They start barking or braying or neighing.
And in some ways, researchers have found that this can be a reasonable predictor of when quakes are going to come. So, yes, there are many things in the universe which we don’t know about. Animals can perceive certain things which we can’t.
So, for example, something like when we go for security clearance, sometimes we may use sophisticated machines. But if the crowd is a lot, sometimes they use dogs. And the dog just sniffs at each back.
And the dog detects if something is objectionable. So, what we try to do using our complicated machines, that can be done using a dog. So, with respect to sensory perception, specialised sensory perception, animals can be better than humans in many ways.
So, yes, that is also another kind of specialised sensory perception. So, that is actually the next point which I want to speak on. So, good.
You raised this question. Just led me to that point. So, yeah, we’ll talk later.
So, when we consider this difference between humans and animals, today intelligence is often measured in terms of information processing ability. Say, the standard parameter conventionally of intelligence is IQ. And IQ basically measures how much one can memorise, how much one can analyse and how much one can regurgitate.
It’s memorised and reproduced. So, mathematics is there, it will find, spot the odd man out or things like that. This is an important parameter of intelligence.
But this is not the sole parameter. This intelligence may help us to analyse information. But even from material perspective, it has been found that it is not that people who have the highest IQ are necessarily the most successful in their lives.
Successful either in material terms, it’s not even that the top scientists necessarily have the highest IQ. They have good IQ, no doubt. But the top scientists are not even successful even in material academic terms.
It’s not that the people who have the top IQ necessarily make the most money. It is not necessary that the top people with the top IQ necessarily become the most influential. So, it is definitely one parameter, but it is not an adequate parameter.
So, now, researchers say that, okay, that is only one kind of intelligence. And they say there are different kinds of intelligence. So, depending on different parameters, some people say there are seven kinds of intelligence.
There is Akron, Slim Bill. Slim Bill is your spatial visual intelligence. There is linguistic intelligence.
There is SLIMBIL, they call it. There is interpersonal intelligence, how people relate to each other. There is musical intelligence.
There is bodily kinaesthetic intelligence, how people can gracefully walk and dance and maintain their balance. Then there is intrapersonal intelligence. People can introspect and understand themselves.
And then there is logical intelligence. So, like that, they say there are different kinds of intelligences. And this is also, this is at least a bigger, better parameter than just IQ score.
So, we look at intelligence in a broader scope in terms of not just one faculty of processing information, but in terms of various talents or various abilities people may have. Musical, linguistic, logical, all that. However, this intelligence also is focussing on processing information alone.
It is not necessarily talking about discerning action. What action I should do and what action I should not do. So, I talked earlier about intelligence means the capacity to check our impulses.
So, let us take it backwards now. Let us take another example. Suppose somebody is driving a car.
And they have passed the exam for getting a licence and they know what all the road signals, road signs mean. But if at that time when they are driving, some people it is said that when they start driving, especially teenagers, a speed demon enters into them. And if the speed demon enters into them, they just want to go at a deadly speed.
They want to go so fast, maybe they are driving on a bike or something. They want to make heads turn and people’s eyes go wide and mouths fall apart. Just see how I am driving.
So, people get a thrill in that. So, once a traffic cop caught a person who was speeding. And he stopped him and he said, did you see the speed limit? He said, I saw the speed, yes, I saw the speed limit.
I just did not see you. So, such people will think that actually getting, doing something wrong is not the problem. Getting caught while doing something wrong is the problem.
But it is not that getting caught is not the problem. Just driving fast, excessively fast, means that you are more likely to meet with an accident. And that potential, so there is one consequence if I drive fast, I will get caught.
But that is not the main consequence that we should always be fearing. The consequence is that if we are driving fast, we risk our own lives, we risk the lives of others. So, somebody may be able to ace the licence test.
But if they can’t restrain their impulse to drive fast, then they will hurt themselves. Then they are not really intelligent. So, we see, one kind of intelligence is the intelligence to pass the exam for getting a driver’s licence.
Another kind of intelligence is to drive responsibly. So, similarly, the first kind of intelligence actually is about information processing. Hey, what does this signal mean? What does this signal mean? What do I do in this situation? What do I do in this situation? We know it theoretically, but when we have to apply it, then what do we do? Sometimes, some people may be very intelligent even in terms of specific actions.
Like some people may be geniuses at music or geniuses at art, geniuses at mathematics. But despite being that, in terms of their life, they may make a lot of mess. There was one of the most famous cartoonists in India.
He was brilliant in making cartoons. But he was a compulsive drinker. He was an alcoholic, a terrible alcoholic.
So, now, in the specific thing of drawing art, making cartoons, caricatures, he was good. But in terms of living his life, he could not restrain that impulse to drink. So, intelligence is not just in terms of either the capacity to process information or the capacity to do specific actions.
Intelligence fundamentally is measured in terms of the capacity to check our destructive impulses. We all have something inside us which makes us act against our best interests. And to the extent we can check that, to that extent we are intelligent.
And to the extent we can’t check that, we may have a very high IQ score. We may be phenomenally brilliant. We may even be labelled as geniuses in particular fields.
But we cannot be considered intelligent. So, there are many musicians. Jimi Hendrix was a big musician in the 70s.
And he had millions of followers. But then he died of a drug overdose. He couldn’t control himself.
So, therefore, if we consider broadly today’s education system, today’s education system, it provides us the specific intelligence for processing information. Maybe broader intelligence for training in various fields also. But the intelligence for making responsible decisions in our life.
The intelligence to understand that we have impulses that can be destructive. And that these impulses need to be checked. That intelligence our education system doesn’t provide us.
And that is the intelligence that the Bhagavad Gita provides. The Bhagavad Gita is not just some abstract book of philosophy. It is a guide book for action.
And helps us understand our inner world. The Bhagavad Gita is not a substitute for our, is not a replacement for our normal form of education. But it is a foundation for all of that.
Arjun also went to Drona and he got trained in archery. But when the impulse, when a destructive impulse hit him, at the start of the Bhagavad Gita, he became incapable of shooting any arrows. Of fighting at all.
Put aside his bow. Saying that I can’t fight. So, when that impulse hit him, an impulse overpowered him, it was the Bhagavad Gita’s knowledge that empowered his intelligence.
By which he was able to overpower the impulse. So, the Bhagavad Gita’s knowledge actually helps each one of us to become intelligent enough to process our impulses. And this is the intelligence that will matter the most in the long run.
In the short run, somebody can be brilliant in particular talents and they may work very well. They may become successful, even if you consider sports like say cricket. Some batsmen may be very talented.
But talent alone is not enough for success. Sometimes the situation may demand, a batsman may be able to hit the ball for boundaries and sixes. Just play batting, bat very well.
But sometimes the pitch is bad, the team is in a bad situation, the player may have a bad defence. It cools down one’s attacking instinct. So, basically talent is one thing.
But along with talent, for talent to lead to achievement, what is required in between is temperament. Talent plus temperament leads to achievement. So, we may all have certain talents and we may not have certain talents.
Certain talents can be developed, certain talents we may not be able to develop it so easily. Some people are just tone deaf. No matter how much they try to learn music, they just can’t learn music at all.
So, some people might not just be able to develop that. Talent is sometimes not so easy to develop. But temperament is something which every one of us can develop.
And achievement requires not just talent, but also temperament. And this temperament essentially means the capacity to check our impulses. Our emotions, our desires, our drives, they push us forcefully.
And then we check them. So, this temperament when we develop, that is when we become truly intelligent. In the Ramayana, Ravana is a person who had ten heads, but zero brains.
He had ten heads, but zero brains. Why? Because he was at one level very intelligent. He was expert in fighting, he was expert in performing austerities.
He pleased Shiva, he pleased Brahma, he got great benedictions, he fought and defeated the gods. And at one time when he got into trouble with Shiva, he tried to lift up Shiva’s Kailash Parvat. And just to try to show off his power in the Shiva, crushed him.
And his hands were crushed. But Ravana had the intelligence at that time, he realised the only way out of my trouble is I cannot use my power. So, he used his intelligence in trying to glorify Lord Shiva.
And there is a whole set of verses which are called as Ravana Stuti. It is not praise of Ravana, it is praise by Ravana. And Ravana Stuti is considered to be a very important part of the Shaivite canon.
Like among the Shaivite prayers, if you go to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, there is a Kashi Vishwanath deity is there and opposite to that on the wall Ravana Stuti is written. And the verses which Ravana composed to glorify Lord Shiva. So, even in terms of scriptural knowledge, he had enough scriptural knowledge that while his hands were being crushed under the Kailash Parvat by Shiva’s weight, he was able to compose prayers.
Compose prayers to glorify Lord Shiva. So, he had intelligence in one sense. But when the desire, when the craving for Sita hit him, that impulse rose within him, he just couldn’t resist it.
He just didn’t have the inner strength to resist it. And he lost everything that he had just because of that terrible impulse. And so many people gave him advice.
His own minister Akampan, first of all, Akampan had seen how at Janasthan Ram single-handedly had destroyed his whole army. He says, don’t mess with him. Then Maharishi also told him the same thing, don’t mess with him.
And still he messed with Ram and he made a mess of his own life. He abducted Sita. Even after he abducted Sita, Hanuman came and Hanuman single-handedly destroyed Lanka.
Half of Lanka he burned practically. And then as Hanuman was leaving, he stood on the border wall of Lanka and he said, I am the smallest of monkeys in the army of Lord Ram. If Ram does not return Sita, then hundreds of monkeys stronger than me will come and destroy Lanka.
So, at that time, panic arose among the residents of Lanka. And Vibhishan advised Ram, give back Sita. Even his own wife Mandodari told him, you just give back Sita.
Ram’s father Vishrava came and told him, you just give back Sita. But that obsession was so strong, he didn’t have the intelligence to check it. And then that obsession became the cause of his destruction.
So, intelligence fundamentally is in terms of the capacity to process our impulses. Some of us, we may feel, oh, I am not intelligent enough to memorise verses. I am not talented enough to sing nicely.
Or we may all have certain feelings of dissatisfaction because we don’t have certain abilities. Certain kinds of intelligence we may lack. But rather than worrying so much about which particular intelligences we lack, if we focus on the fact that all of us can develop the intelligence to process our impulses.
And that intelligence will shape our future much much more than any other kind of information processing capacity. So, without this foundation intelligence, whatever success we achieve, that success is simply like increasing the height from which we will fall. All the success that we achieve will be, yes, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise higher.
But sometime or the other, that self-destructive impulse will hit us. And when that hits us, all that we have achieved will come crumbling down. Like happened to Ram.
He rose up high up. But eventually that impulse became the cause of his destruction. So, rather than obsessing over external success, by gaming or by using particular information processing capacities that we may have, particular specific external capacities we may have, we focus on developing the inner intelligence.
I conclude with three points about how to develop this intelligence. So, we understood intelligence means, intelligence is the capacity to check impulses. So, how do we go about developing this intelligence? There are broadly three aspects to it.
There is conviction, association and purification. Conviction refers to mudhya dhruti gruhi daya. So, if we consider the capacity to perceive things properly, when we have material conditionings, our impulses will rise and our impulses will cause our vision to go in particular directions.
If somebody is an alcoholic, then if they come to a party, the first thing they will see, they will not even see who all is present in the party. The first thing, are there some drinks over here or not. So, our vision gets distorted by our attachments, our impurities, our impulses.
So, even if we see things in a particular way, conviction means to understand that reality is not necessarily the way I am seeing it right now. Krishna talks about this principle in 18.37-38 when he says, yatha dagre visham iva parinamaya mritopamam tat sukham satrikam proktam atma buddhi prasadajam that that which tastes like poison in the beginning will taste like nectar in the end. So, for an alcoholic, abstaining from alcohol will seem painful.
I want to drink. It feels like poison. But if they abstain from it, then there is freedom.
Then they can taste nectar thereafter. Conversely, Krishna says that, that which tastes like nectar in the beginning will taste like poison in the end. vishayendriya sanyogadhyat tadagre amritopamam pariname visham iva tat sukham rajya samsutam So, the pleasures of an alcoholic drinking may seem so enjoyable.
Oh, I drink, I go high. It’s said that first the drinker takes a drink, then the drink takes the drink, and then the drink takes the drinker. So, the desire keeps growing, growing, growing.
And then the desire, first the desirer has the desire, then the desire has the desire, and then the desirer has the desirer. This gets consumed by it. That’s how our desires grow.
We can envision this to be like a snow. Now snow is coming now because of winter. So, imagine there’s a hill.
On top of the hill, say, a snowball forms. Initially, a snowball is just a tiny snow pebble. Then, if somebody just kicks it, the snow pebble will crack apart.
But if nobody stops it, the snow pebble starts coming down, down, down, down. It acquires mass and momentum. And as it keeps charging down, what happens? It becomes bigger and bigger and bigger.
And the same person who with a toe could have cracked the snow pebble will be bowled over, injured, even killed by a snowball by the time it comes down. So, our desire is like that. Initially, when a desire comes, hey, why not do this? Let’s take a drink.
That is like a snow pebble. At that time, if you stop it, it’s easy to stop. But as it keeps charging down, it becomes bigger and bigger.
And the desire, it takes the desire. That means it becomes a snowball, it balls over the person. So, conviction means that even if things seem a particular way to me, I understand that they are not like this.
Conviction means the way my eyes are showing me, that is not necessarily the reality. Let me see with the eyes of scripture. So, intelligence is developed not just by studying scripture, but by gaining conviction that what scripture tells me is a higher reality.
And if what my senses show me and what the scripture tells me contradicts each other, then I will focus on scripture. I will choose to see with the eye of scripture. That is the conviction that we need.
And this conviction is the foundation of intelligence. Krishna says in 2.62 and 2.63 that smriti-brahmashad-buddhi-nasho that if our memory is destroyed, then our intelligence will be destroyed. So, here the Acharya explains smriti refers not just to general memory, it refers to the smriti-shastra.
The Puranas are called the smriti-shastra and they give us guidelines of how to live and how not to live. So, intelligence, its foundation is conviction. Conviction that scripture shows me reality better than what my eyes show me, what my senses show me.
And with this conviction when we operate, then we can move forward confidently. We can move forward intelligently. It’s like, say, if we are travelling on the road and then we see a signal, we see a sign which says a sharp turn ahead.
Now, right now we may be speeding and all that we see is a straight road. We don’t see any turn. We say, I don’t see any turn.
Why are these people being a spoilsport telling me to slow down? I will not slow down. Now, what we understand is, these signs, what they are telling me is for my good. And even if my eyes don’t show me any curve, sharp curve, it is going to come soon.
So, if a person is driving, it’s not that we reject what our eyes show us. We have to obviously use our eyes. But, if there are some authorised road signs which tell us something which our eyes are not seeing right now, we give due deference to that.
Similarly, scripture tells us that sensual pleasures lead to complications, lead to entanglement. Even if we don’t see it, we see it with the eyes of intelligence. So, that first step is, in developing intelligence is conviction.
We need to hear scripture again and again, regularly. Why do we need to hear regularly? Sometimes, when we hear some class, we feel, I know this point, I know this point, I know this point. And, yes, we may know that point also.
But there is a difference between between knowing in a passive way and knowing in an active way. An example to illustrate this would be, say, vocabulary. In vocabulary, there are two kinds of vocabulary to say.
People have passive vocabulary and active vocabulary. Passive vocabulary means that they know the meaning of the word and if somebody else uses it, yeah, that’s just the right word. But if they want to express themselves and they want to speak, that word just doesn’t come in their mind.
How many of you have this experience? When you want to express yourself, just don’t get the word. And somebody else uses it, you get it, that’s right, isn’t it? Even I have that experience quite often. So, what happens here, that means the word is there, we know the word.
But we don’t know it when we need it. So, for us, often scriptural knowledge stays in our passive vocabulary. It’s like a passive knowledge for us.
We know it. But when we need it, we don’t remember it. So, when the temptation comes, when the impulse rises, at that time, we don’t remember it.
For me, it happens so often. When I get angry, when I get so many things. How to control anger, I remember that very nicely when I sit on the vyasasur.
To give a lecture. But when somebody does something which upsets me, at that time to remember it is such a challenge. But the good thing in bhakti is that just by speaking about something repeatedly and also trying to apply it, gradually the knowledge internalises.
Sometimes we say, we should walk our talk. Yes, it is true. Whatever we are preaching, we should practise it.
But the wonderful thing in bhakti is that talking is also a part of the walking. So, that just by speaking about Krishna, speaking Krishna’s message, we are also serving Krishna, we are also doing bhakti. Now, of course, if you are talking in a holier-than-thou attitude, all of you are fallen souls, I am a liberated soul, then that is artificial.
That will just simply inflate our ego. But if you are talking in a mood of service, trying to share what we have learned with others, so that we ourselves can internalise better, then that also helps us. But the point I am making here is, scriptural knowledge, it should not be in the background.
Oh, I know it. It needs to be in the foreground of our consciousness, so that it is available to us when we need it. And that is why we need to hear regularly.
And hear regularly, so that we can use it when we need it. It is accessible to us. So, this is all a part of the first thing, conviction.
What is the second thing I said? You remember? Association. Yes. And now we may say, how is intelligence related to the association? Is it that a person who is musically very talented, if that person mixes with people who don’t know any musical tunes, will that person lose their talent? Unlikely.
That person may become a little careless. Nobody understands music, can just play whatever way they want, and people will not notice it. That is possible.
we say they are not going to lose their musical talent. But we have to understand, our intelligence is, especially intelligence in terms of the capacity to resist impulse. This is, it is not like a fixed deposit in a bank.
Our intelligence is like money in the stock market. Sometimes it rises, sometimes it goes down. So just because we know something, sometimes we may study scriptures, sometimes we may hear some class, and after that we feel, this is brilliant, I am convinced about this.
This insight is going to change my life. From today onwards, I am not going to do this, I am going to do this, I am going to live properly. We may get their conviction, and that is good.
It is wonderful if we get this conviction. However, we feel empowered, we feel enriched. But our intelligence is not like a wealth in a fixed deposit.
We put a fixed deposit, and we forget it for one year, that money is still there, and it is there with interest also. But if it is like money in the stock market, then anytime the stocks may go down, anytime the stocks may go up. Now with respect to the stock market, when the stocks go up and down, that is not in our control.
But with respect to our intelligence, the stock of our intelligence is very much shaped by our association. If we associate with people who are very materialistic, then we will become nonchalant about becoming materialistic. And the stock of our intelligence will start going down, going down, going down, going down.
If you associate with spiritually minded people, the stock of our intelligence will start going down. Why is that? Because we are talking here about behavioural intelligence. We are not just talking about information processing.
We are talking about how we behave. And how we act is shaped significantly by how the people around us act. So if somebody lives in a community where everybody is alcoholic, then for that person, even if they go to a de-addiction camp, and they give up alcohol, and they come back, but if they go back into that community, they will be almost certain that they are going to have a relapse.
They will not be able to resist. So if we want our intelligence to be strong, we need association with those whose intelligence is strong. Even if we can’t have that association 24 hours a day, but as much as possible.
And the essence of association is not physical proximity. The essence of association is the transfer of desires. If we associate with someone, what is the test that we have associated with them? What are their desires become our desires.
So at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, after Krishna completed his discourse, what was Arjuna’s response? Arjuna didn’t say, Good luck, nice class Krishna. Arjuna didn’t go and tap Krishna’s back. Nice class.
What did Arjuna say? Karishe Vachanam Tava I will do your will. So what happened was, by hearing from Krishna, Krishna’s desire became Arjuna’s desire. There is a transfer of desires.
So similarly for us, when we associate with those who are intelligent, then their intelligent desires become our desires. And that is how we move forward in our life. So regular association is vital for the development of intelligence.
And the last is purification. What do I mean by purification? Purification means that the impurities within us go down. We all have lust, anger, greed, envy, pride, illusion, various kinds of, I talked earlier about the impulses, the impulses which push us towards self-destruction.
So when we become purified, these impulses themselves become weaker. The impulses themselves start becoming weaker. The urge to become angry becomes lesser.
The urge for lust, the urge for greed, this itself starts becoming lesser and lesser. So if we said that intelligence is the capacity to check impulse. So the first two points I talked about, conviction, association, what they do is, they increase our capacity to resist impulse.
But purification decreases the strength of the impulse itself. And when that happens, then the inner struggle becomes much lesser. Till we have not yet become purified, for us, the practise of bhakti is effortful.
To be intelligent is an effortful activity. We have to put in effort constantly. But, once we have become purified, then being intelligent becomes an effortless activity.
Just do it naturally. So, I’ll conclude with an example for this. I say somebody has taken drugs a few times.
And say this was their home, this was their college. And on the way there’s a drug joint. Or there’s a drug peddler who sells some drugs.
Each time they pass by, the impulse will come, let’s take one drug, let’s take one, let’s take one, take one. So now if somebody has never taken drugs at all, they may not even notice there’s a drug joint over there. Even if they notice, they will not pay any attention to it.
So in their case, what has happened? There is no inner struggle at all. Why? Because the impulse itself is not there. And when the impulse is not there, the inner struggle ceases.
And then we become effortlessly intelligent. There is no effort required to resist the impulse. Because the impulse itself is not there.
So when we come to that point, that is the time when Krishna says, the mind becomes our friend. So as long as the destructive impulses are strong within us, the mind acts like our enemy. But when the destructive impulses disappear within us, then the mind becomes our friend.
And at that time, we can just joyfully move forward in our spiritual life. And that’s why the pure souls are considered to be the most intelligent. The pure souls may not necessarily have the highest IQ on IQ score.
They may not be musically intelligent, they may not be aesthetically, visually intelligent, but they are intelligent in terms of understanding what is life’s ultimate purpose and how to pursue that. It is this intelligence that we can get first by studying the Bhagavad Gita, which will give us conviction, by associating with devotees, which will comprise the association, and then by practising Bhakti Yoga. The process of Bhakti Yoga will purify us.
And when we are purified, then intelligence becomes our default state. Whatever decisions we have to make in our life, we’ll be able to make them constructively and effectively. So I’ll summarise what I spoke today.
I spoke on the theme of intelligence is not just about an aptitude, it’s also about activity. I started by talking in the Bhagavad Gita’s definition of intelligence means the capacity to choose right action and avoid wrong actions. In today’s world, traditionally, intelligence was thought in terms of… We started by talking about what differentiates humans from animals.
The materialistic perspective is there’s no difference. We all are just driven by our genes for survival. But humans can ask ultimate questions, not just functional questions.
We can think about our thoughts. That capacity for our meta-thinking means that we can check our impulses, evaluate them, and restrain them if necessary. So this is opposite to the animal instinct.
The animal instinct is survival of the fittest. But humans also have another side which comprises sacrifice by the fittest. So where does this come from? This doesn’t come from our biology.
It comes from our spirituality. The soul, which is a part of the divine, has these divine desires, has these divine aspirations, wants to live by these godly principles. The Abrahamic perspective, the Christian perspective, is that only humans have souls.
So the difference between humans and animals is not of category, but of degree. Degree of the evolution of consciousness. Animals also are smart.
Animals can do many things as well as humans, and some things better than humans. So they can sniff things better, they can perceive when earthquakes are coming, they can perceive when a person is about to get an epileptic attack. But what differentiates humans is that when an impulse comes, animals can’t check it.
They’ll simply be driven by impulses. Humans get impulses, but with our intelligence we can check it. So the intelligence that is truly differentiating humans from animals is the capacity to check impulse.
And in today’s education system, either IQ is focused on, which is simply information processing ability, in terms of mathematics or language or whatever. And, or it could be some other kinds of intelligences, but they are also focussing on just information processing, or specific talents or abilities. But for our long-term success in life, it’s not just the specific activities our capacity to do, but our capacity to keep our life on track.
That is most important. Somebody, so that is the intelligence for choosing responsibly our life’s course of action. Somebody may be able to ace the exam for getting a licence, but if the impulse to drive, they can’t check it, they will hurt themselves and hurt others.
So the intelligence to choose wisely, that means the intelligence to check the impulses that make us act unwisely. That is our defining intelligence. And that intelligence is developed by the Bhagavad Gita.
Buddha’s intelligence system provides us information processing, and the Bhagavad Gita provides us the intelligence for decision-making. And, we talk about Ravana, he had intelligence, even scriptural intelligence, but he couldn’t check the impulse, the lusty impulse, and that destroyed him. So how do we develop the intelligence? Three things.
Conviction. Conviction, association, and purification. Conviction helps us to perceive things not just the way our senses show us, but the way our intelligence shows us, the way the scripture shows us.
So even if the road seems to be smooth, the road sign says it’s a sharp turn, we trust the road sign. So we need scriptural knowledge, not just at the background of our consciousness, but at the foreground. Not in our passive knowledge, but in our active knowledge.
So that we can use it when we need it. Then, talk about association. Our intelligence is not like a fixed deposit.
We have it, and we store it. It’s like a stock market deposit. It keeps going up and down.
So, by the kind of association that we have, our desires get triggered accordingly. And, the self-destructive impulses, those desires will also get triggered by bad association. A very good association, the intelligence will get strengthened.
So, to the extent we associate properly, which means, it’s not just physical proximity, but transfer of desires. To that extent, we can become intelligent. And lastly is purification, in which the impulses themselves become weaker.
And thereby, the inner struggle becomes lesser. And when the self-destructive impulses disappear from within us, the mind becomes our friend, and our inner struggle ends. And we march forward, effortlessly, in our life, towards Krishna.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Yes, please.
Hare Krishna. I would like you, Farah, to explain the degree. The degree, I want you to explain the degree, Farah.
Thank you. Okay, yeah. So, when I said that, the degree of consciousness is different between humans and animals, what do I exactly mean by that? Consciousness, means to be, to perceive things.
That’s basically what consciousness is. So, like somebody is driving, they may perceive things in front of them. Okay, this car is here, that car is there.
But while we have to be aware of what is immediately in front of us, we also need to be aware of what is far away. Oh, there, all the cars are slowing down. So, let me press the brake right now.
So, while driving, we need to focus on the immediate, but even what is at the distant, we have to be aware of that. So, the broader our perspective, the more smooth our driving will be. We are caught only on the immediate driving.
And then we just, okay, there is nobody here, but ahead there is a traffic jam, and we suddenly have to brake. So, then we will not be able to function. So, when the consciousness is caught in small things, then we can’t perceive the big picture.
So, when we say that consciousness in human beings is more developed, what that means is, humans can see the big picture of life. Animals can see only the small picture. आहार निद्रा भाई मैति नमच्या Where can I get food? Where can I get shelter? Where can I get a mate? How can I protect myself? But humans can think, Okay, why am I doing all this? What is the ultimate purpose of life? So, the more developed consciousness is able to ask bigger questions.
A child’s consciousness is very undeveloped. Child will only think, Okay, where are my toys for playing? And where is my food for drinking? That’s all. But the parents will think, Okay, we are staying in this house.
Where is the money for this house going to come from? How are we going to take care? It’s going to winter now. Do we have enough arrangement to take care of ourselves in winter? The parent’s consciousness is more developed. So, in terms of humans, we can ask the big questions.
Okay, I am existing now. And I am struggling to exist now. But what is the point of existence? And Prabhupada was talking about survival of the fittest principle.
Prabhupada said, Even the fittest don’t survive. It is relative. The fitter may survive less than the unfit.
But ultimately, even the fittest don’t survive. So, what is the point of living if ultimately everything is going to end in death? That kind of big questions of life, we can ask only when that capacity is only there in humans. So, see the big picture of life.
And then ask the big questions. That is the expanded consciousness that human beings have. Which animals don’t have.
Does that answer your question? Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Yes, ma’am. I have a question.
It’s just clear. Very clear, amazing, right? Yeah, it’s true. You are doing mathematics so nicely.
Amazing about computers and all that. It might be like that, you have come to the conclusion that karma or something is related to computers? Yeah, definitely. So, some people are very intelligent, say music or computers.
So, is it coming from the past life’s karma? Yeah, definitely. Basically, the, all of us, we begin at birth in this life. But, although we begin at birth, we don’t begin at the same point.
So, all of us begin from where we had left off in a previous life. So, some people are very musically talented in this life. And that indicates that they, they had practised music in a previous life.
So, like we have Gajendra, he was just living the life of a normal elephant. But when the crisis came in his life, suddenly he started praying to Vishnu. And he started praying to the Divine with profound prayers.
And the Bhagavatam describes that. How did this happen? What he had learned in the previous life came back to him. So, in his case, that came back to him in a moment of emergency.
But, for some people, it might just come from the starting point of their life itself. Or some people may have some musical talent, but if nobody around them is musical, it may not be apparent only, but maybe at the age of 10 or 12, they meet somebody who is very musical. And then they start picking, they start practising playing, trying out music, and suddenly, their talent gets discovered.
So, we start in this life from where we are left off in a previous life. So, those who are prodigies, as they say, prodigies in maths, or computers, or music, or whatever, yes, they, it’s a fair inference that they would have done something in that direction in the previous life. Thank you.
Any other questions? Yes, please. I would like to ask, but since, you know, purity is not there, so much, this impulse, even if we have conviction, we know the scriptures, but when impulse comes, very strong, for anything, when we are in association of devotees, it can be easily checked. You know, like, if we all are fasting, and, you know, we are together, it can be checked, if, you know, big thanksgiving service going on, but if we are with the devotees, we can still check, because no one is going to mind.
But the moment we are outside, alone, and we see 70% off, 80% off, my God, it’s like impossible, you know, I should get it. So, my question is to that, you know, as we are, you know, living a nuclear family, almost no generations together, independent, in single room, lying, like, you know, almost like a dead person, with no association, how can we check impulse? Because it becomes very practical, to check impulse in association, but if we meet in temple for 2 hours, and then go on, if once a week, then once in a month, and then, as we are not, I am not verified, so that also is impossible to, you know, have proper check. So, how we can have a check, and use good conviction, without association? So, how can we, because we live, not with, nuclear family without, we don’t have association of devotees, how do we check our impulses? So, checking our impulses, it doesn’t have to be, like, digital logic.
It’s either I check it, or I give it to it. It’s not zero, it can be analogue. So, and not all desires, are necessarily equally bad.
If we become too rigid, this is material, and this is spiritual. Yes, that is true. But even in material, there is sattvic, rajasic, tamasic.
So, if we, try to fight too many battles, we will give up, and we will not be able to fight, or win even battles, which we could have won. So, if we have many desires, if we start waging a war, against all desires, at the same time, we will feel choked. So, we have to chew, we have to seek, check which desires are, the most damaging to us, spiritually.
And, then we focus on, controlling those, combating those. And others, we can live with them, and we can deal with them later. It’s, we often give the example, of the scratch and itch, when the itch worsens.
Now, that is true, but, it is true, when the skin is diseased. See, if all of us get a normal itching sensation, say, if suddenly somebody feels like, scratching their nose, that is not because, they have scratched their nose once, for the rest of their life, they will keep scratching their nose. Unlike, there is a normal, there is an urge to itch, it may not be well mannered, it may not look good, but, it’s not a big deal.
So, if the skin is diseased, then the scratching, causes, further pain, and, further itching. If it’s a normal, healthy skin, there is no problem with that. Scratch once, and it’s over.
Sometimes, we may desire, okay, I want to drink, I want to take this drink, I want to eat this food, I want to buy these clothes, I want to buy this. This is, not necessarily a destructive desire. It can be.
There can become, there can be people, who are, let’s say, they are alcoholics, then there are many, like Alcoholics Anonymous, was the first organisation, now there is also, Food Alcoholics Anonymous. People who are just, compulsive eaters. There is also, Shopaholics Anonymous.
There are people, who just shop, shop, shop, shop, until you drop. It’s like that. So, it can become.
But, for most normal people, just because they have eaten, a food item once, doesn’t mean that, they are going to, become addicted to that food. So, we have to also, recognise that, not all desires, are equally dangerous, or destructive. And, we focus on those desires, which are very, damaging for our, spiritual life.
Or, even for us. Some desires are damaging, even for our, family life, for our professional life. And, we focus on, combating them first.
And, while combating them, it’s good to, have, as many resources, with us, as possible. Resources means what? That, suppose, if somebody, is attacking us, and if they have, sometimes in a movie, you might see that, there’s a villain, who has got a whip, or some, some big rope, with which they are, lashing the, lashing the, hero, or lashing the victim. And now, how do this person, they are just, defenceless, as they are lashed, and lashed, and lashed.
What do they do with it? They just can’t do anything. So, similarly for us, sometimes the desires, arise within us, those desires, lashes, do it, do it, do it, do it, and we feel ourselves, defenceless. What do I do? So, at that time, if we understand, in advance, that you, these are the kind of desires, that trouble me, this particular desire, troubles me, a lot.
Then, I need to, in advance, prepare a shield, for myself. That means, in the broad body, of scriptural knowledge, that I have heard. Now, what are the specific, scriptural points, that can help me, to see through, this desire? This desire, is, in a general sense, you know, I should not do this.
But, why should I not do it? Unless, we get some impetus, for that, we will say, let me do it. So, what happens is, Prabhupada says, in a lecture, that we are meant, to use our intelligence, to control our, enjoying mentality. But, we are used, to enjoying, intelligently.
That means, we use our intelligence, to enjoy, in a way, that, we think, we can cover our tracks. And, we will not get caught. So, then, at that point, we may not, immediately remember them.
So, we need to, have some resources, that will remind us of that. So, keep some, verses from scripture, keep some quotes from scripture, keep some, striking points, that we have heard in classes, keep them in a, small pocket diary, or keep them in a, note in the phone, prominently, and read them at that time. So, that, will act like a shield.
When the wind is coming, and hitting us, then that will act like a shield. And, along with that, this is, there is, what is called as, Udgipan. Udgipan, is a spiritual stimulus.
So, if, for all of us, we can find out, what is it, that stimulates, our thoughts, to go towards Krishna. For some of us, it might be, kirtans. For some of us, it might be, shlokas.
For some of us, it might be, like a particular, darshan of the deities. For some of us, it might be, hearing the classes, of one particular deity. So, whatever it is, by which, naturally, easily, joyfully, our thoughts, go towards Krishna.
There are many activities, by which we can, of sadhana bhakti, by which we can, take our thoughts, towards Krishna. But, something, by which, naturally, easily, joyfully, our thoughts, go towards Krishna. If, we can keep that, accessible to us.
So, the intelligence, will give us reasons, for saying no, to the universe. But, saying no, is often painful. We need to say yes.
So, how can I say yes, to Krishna? How can I fill my consciousness, with Krishna? If we do, that, then that is very helpful. Even if we are, living in a nuclear family, or whatever, if we are, if we have, a strong purpose, to serve Krishna, if, we have a strong drive, to serve Krishna, then in every situation, in looking forward, how can I serve Krishna? So, if I decide, I want to study, the Bhagavad Gita, then look forward, to that, create the desire, for that. Then, as soon as we get, a little idle time, a little spare time, immediately, we will go towards, doing that.
So, generally, what we do, whatever is, our strongest attachment, as soon as we get, free time, our thoughts, will go towards that. But, if we have, a strong purpose, to do something, in our life, then, as soon as we have, free time, we will do that. So, if we can create, that sense of purpose, for ourselves, that will help us also.