Are we connecting the dots or concocting the dots to connect?

Connecting the dots is a sign of perceptive intelligence, while creating the dots that can then be conveniently connected is a sign of deceptive intelligence. Bhagavad gita

Intelligence is the resource that makes the invisible visible. For example, if we are conducting a science experiment and have results that appear as dots on a graph, it is through intelligence that we discern patterns and connect those dots. By identifying such regularities or patterns in the events around us or the behaviors of people we interact with, we become wiser. Those who can quickly and accurately connect the dots in ways that most others cannot are often considered perceptive.

Such intelligence can be a gift received at birth, potentially influenced by past karma, but it can also be cultivated through education, training, and contemplation. However, those lacking this form of intelligence might still crave the prestige associated with it or feel envious of those who are respected for their perceptive abilities. This desire can lead to frustration and an attempt to conceal their shortcomings by creating their own dots, which they then connect to simulate perceptiveness.

This deceptive practice can occur even in scientific research, where falsified findings are concocted as evidence for a favored theory, despite lacking actual support. Beyond scientific contexts, pseudo-intellectuals may fabricate evidence or plant false elements that they later “discover” to showcase their ability to connect dots, when in reality, they have only manufactured the dots themselves.

The Bhagavad Gita warns against such perverse intelligence, describing it as intelligence in the mode of ignorance. This kind of intelligence twists the purpose of true understanding and promotes untruths as truths, thereby distorting reality. Rather than serving to deepen our understanding of reality, it supports a skewed version of reality that feeds one’s ego and enhances one’s intellectual reputation.

While such deception may endure for some time, reality eventually prevails. Theories, interpretations, or ideologies built on fabricated connections will inevitably clash with the truth, leading to the collapse of their entire structure and exposing the deceivers.

By carefully and sincerely evaluating our motivations for using intelligence, we can guard against the misuse of intelligence or its perversion.

Summary:

• Intelligence helps us connect the dots by discerning patterns among seemingly disconnected events, much like connecting points on a scientific graph.
• Perceptive intelligence is distinct from deceptive intelligence, which seeks prestige by creating artificial dots and connecting them for show.
• Such concoctions eventually fail when they clash with reality, leading to their collapse and the exposure of the deceivers.

Think it over:

• Recall an incident when you were impressed by someone’s ability to connect the dots.
• Reflect on a time when you felt tempted to create dots that you could connect.
• Remember any incident where pseudo-intellectual claims were exposed, resulting in distressing or disastrous consequences.

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18.32 That understanding which considers irreligion to be religion and religion to be irreligion, under the spell of illusion and darkness, and strives always in the wrong direction, O Pārtha, is in the mode of ignorance.