When the intelligence is material, how can it take us to the spiritual level of reality?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwJUoZ6ikCA

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Question from Swaraj Prabhu. Is intelligence material or spiritual? If it is material, then how can it be used to transcend the material reality? Answer, yes, intelligence is material.
It is one of the subtle material elements. But it is spiritualizable because in fact the process of bhakti is so inclusive that even the senses are spiritualizable because we can use our senses to take, eyes to take darshan of Krishna, tongue to take Krishna prasad. So, even if the gross elements can be spiritualized, then what to speak of the subtle elements.
But in principle, that the intelligence is the decision maker. And to understand the role of the intelligence, we can go back to the analogy of the chariot body. Now, the charioteer is different from the warrior or the traveler in the chariot.
Now, the chariot, the warrior may be a great king, the charioteer may be an ordinary citizen. But if the charioteer obeys the warrior and the charioteer is able to control the horses, then the chariot will go to the destination where the warrior wants to go. The charioteer himself may be living in a simple hut or a small house and the charioteer may not have the qualification to go into a big palace himself.
But the warrior lives in a big palace and when the charioteer obeys the warrior, then the chariot will go to the palace. Similarly, the intelligence is material, the soul is spiritual. So, if the soul is in control and the intelligence obeys the soul and then the intelligence can guide the body chariot to the spiritual level of reality.
So, there are times also when it happens that the intelligence can get controlled by the senses in the mind. So, just like the charioteer loses control and the horses start running here and there, then the charioteer as well as the warrior end up somewhere where they didn’t want to go. They may end up in a ditch on the side of the road.
So, like that, if from down towards up the control goes, that means the senses go wild and the intelligence also collapses, then that intelligence gets taken over by lust or anger or greed and then that person goes down. So, that means, if we compare, say, there is now in India-Pakistan, there is a line of control and there is a disputed territory. So, now if the war is going on, the line of control may change.
Sometimes a particular border area may be under Pakistan’s control, sometimes under India’s control. So, like that, there is an inner war going on and the intelligence lies as a disputed territory and the line of control keeps varying. So, when we are in proper consciousness, when we have studied scripture, when we have done our sadhana well, then our intelligence is spiritualized.
That means we remember our spiritual goals and then our intelligence is in Krishna’s territory. But if we are weak in our sadhana and did not study scripture, then we tend to get overwhelmed by illusions. So, instead of the line of control going from top to bottom, from Krishna through the soul to intelligence down to the mind and senses, the line of control goes from bottom to up.
That means the senses are in control, they agitate the mind and they agitate the intelligence and they drag the soul down. So, then if we have not studied scripture, then in the disputed territory, the line of control shifts and the intelligence goes into illusion and then it drags us also down into illusion. So, because the illusion, intelligence is the decision maker, and if it is guided properly, then although the intelligence is material, it can, by taking right decisions, take us to the spiritual level of reality.