Suppose we invest in stocks but think of such an investment to be as stable as a fixed deposit. If the stocks go down, we will lose money. To protect our investment, we need to regularly monitor stock market prices.
If we compare knowledge to wealth, then we often misunderstand the nature of the wealth of spiritual knowledge. When we study the Bhagavad-gita and understand its overall philosophy, we often think that our intelligence has become equipped with Gita wisdom.
However, intelligence is essentially transformational, not informational; it is meant to transform our actions, empowering us to resist our unhealthy impulses and to reinforce our healthy instincts. The Gita (18.30) states that healthy intelligence perceives the consequences of actions and then chooses wisely. Such is intelligence in the mode of goodness. In the mode of passion, our intelligence gets misused to implement our impulses, not to inspect them (18.31). And in the mode of ignorance, our intelligence often rationalizes and glamorizes our unhealthy impulses, thereby totally misleading us (18.32).
Just as the modes influencing us keep changing, so too does our intelligence keep changing. That’s why the wealth of our intelligence is not like a fixed deposit – it is not determined by the spiritual information we have, but by the spiritual inclination we have. And as such inclination is shaped by the changing modes, our intelligence is like a volatile stock market share.
We need to monitor our intelligence regularly – and strengthen it by repeatedly studying the Gita and resiliently striving to live the Gita. Then that intelligence will become like a fixed deposit. Not only that, it will appreciate in value, eventually granting us the return of lasting fulfillment.
Think it over:
- What is the essence of intelligence?
- How is our intelligence like a stock market share?
- How can we make our intelligence like a fixed deposit?
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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 Partha, is in the mode of ignorance.
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Hari bol Dandavat !!
Very true . Need to sharpen the tool regularly .
What a wonderful article! Thank you very much.
After reading this analogy what comes is just a ‘Vow’! Thank you, Prabhu, for making us available the Gita Wisdom in the way we can understand and apply in our life.
Thank you – I pray that Gita wisdom keeps giving us many “wows” throughout our life.
intelligence grows with BHAKTI