What intelligence can and can’t do in bhakti: 

On the devotional path, the ultimate success and the immediate process both center on a personal loving relationship with the Lord. Whether love is abundantly present, as in the seer stage, or is being meticulously cultivated as in the seeker stage, intelligence can’t replace the love that we are to offer our Lord for his pleasure and that we can relish when it is offered by the Lord to us

We may use our intelligence to study bhakti texts and understand how our heart longs for lasting love and how that longing is perfectly fulfilled in the all-attractive supreme Divinity, Krishna. Still, that intellectual understanding in itself doesn’t produce devotion, just as knowing that a thing such as a medicine is good for us doesn’t make us like it, leave alone love it. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita declares that Krishna can’t be known merely by using our intelligence to gain scriptural knowledge (18.53).

What intelligence can do: 

Many devotional practices seem simple: just chanting the names of the Lord, worshipping his deities and essentially cultivating his devotional remembrance. However, if we engage in these activities with a desire to love Krishna, then those activities act as potent channels by which we can express our love to him and also experience his love for us, thereby nurturing and increasing the mutual loving reciprocation. Because none of these practices don’t require us to do anything sensational, we may discount them, thinking that they won’t be very transformational. That’s why we need to be intellectually convinced to avoid laxity and maintain serious commitment, thereby rapidly accessing their transformational potency. Pertinently, the Gita urges us to hear about the glories of the Lord, thereby providing us intellectual impetus to fix our mind on Krishna (07.01)

One-sentence summary:

Intelligence can’t replace or produce devotion, but it can reinforce the process that nurtures devotion.

Think it over:

  • On the bhakti path, what can intelligence not do?
  • On the bhakti path, what can intelligence do?  
  • Are there any bhakti practices that you need to be more intellectually convinced about? 

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07.01: Hear, O son of Prutha, how by practicing yoga in full consciousness of Me, with mind attached to Me, you can know Me in full, free from doubt.

What intelligence can and can’t do in bhakti