Mind and intelligence (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"intelligence and mind" |"intelligence and the mind" |"mind and intelligence" |"mind and the intelligence"

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

God is cause of all causes. That is final realization. Unless one comes to that point he has not come to the perfection of evolutionary process of the mind and intelligence.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Dr. Weir: That's where your line is so very good in saying that the real evolution of man's mind has been his ability to produce more and more the functions of whatever the mind may be. But the mind is just as indivisible as God. We know what the brain is, but we don't know what the mind is. Yet more and more of it under conscious control instead of being irrationally eruptive(?).

Prabhupāda: But there is the summum bonum of that realization. That is explained in Bhagavad-gītā: bahūnāṁ janmanām ante, jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). After many, many births of this mental evolutionary process, when actually he becomes wise he becomes God conscious and surrenders to God. That is real evolution(?). That evolution will go on. But when it comes to the summit, that is God realization. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19). God is cause of all causes. That is final realization. Unless one comes to that point he has not come to the perfection of evolutionary process of the mind and intelligence.

Mind is instrument. The mind's position is accepting and rejecting. Intellect helps the mind what to reject and what to accept. And that intelligence is of the soul. That ground of intelligence is the soul.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Śyāmasundara: How does our philosophy define mind and intelligence?

Prabhupāda: Mind is instrument. The mind's position is accepting and rejecting. Intellect helps the mind what to reject and what to accept. And that intelligence is of the soul. That ground of intelligence is the soul. First of all bodily concept is gross life, ordinary, like animals, they do not know except the body. Higher than bodily concept of life, the exercise of the mind, mental speculation. That mental speculation is adjusted by intelligence and that intelligence belongs to the soul. Therefore soul is the ultimate and soul is the part and parcel of God. Therefore God is the supreme. So the mental speculation or the evolution of mental exercise when it comes to the summit, that is God realization. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti, sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). When one realizes "God is everything," that mahātmā, that great soul is very rare. That is the statement in Bhagavad-gītā. Mahātmā means whose mind is great. The mind is great. He's not thinking ordinary things. He's thinking of greater subject matter. They are called mahātmā, broader minded, broad-minded.

Above the mind, above the body there is mind; above the mind there is intelligence; and above the intelligence there is soul; and above the soul there is God.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: We think our activities above intelligence. Spiritual. Spiritual.

Dr. Weir: That's quite different.

Prabhupāda: Because above the mind, above the body there is mind; above the mind there is intelligence; and above the intelligence there is soul; and above the soul there is God. So we are talking of relationship between God and the soul. It is above body, mind and intelligence.

Dr. Weir: That's what interests me. One has this hierarchical or superior attitude even in the statement you've just made, that things, you know, about (indistinct) which is what I feel is easier.

Prabhupäda: Because we take from God there is no mistake. There's no mistake. Otherwise He cannot be God.

Dr. Weir: I mean this is just unnecessary. It is just tautological. This is in your definition of God. You don't have to go any farther.

Prabhupäda: But God means He's above mistake,

Dr. Weir: Yes.

Prabhupäda: ...above the illusion, above cheating, above imperfection. This is God.

Çyämasundara: There's a central premise that everything is simultaneously one and different. Just like flowers—there are many flowers, roses, but within the flowers there is variety.

Mensa Member: But still it raises the danger of another (indistinct), it really does. This is a very (indistinct) you're trying to make but it's impossible to talk about physics in the language of chemistry. It's impossible, so when...

Çyämasundara: So when he says there's a gradation, that we see gradation, that the soul is higher than the body, this is also (indistinct)

Prabhupäda: Soul is higher than the body, mind and intelligence.

By practice of bhakti-yoga one's mind and intelligence become cleansed.

Room Conversation -- December 11, 1971, New Delhi:

So we have to take knowledge from Vyāsadeva. Vyāsadeva. How? Vyāsadeva is the learned, most learned than others. How? That is explained in the Bhāgavata, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: bhakti-yogena manasi. Because he has adopted bhakti-yoga, bhakti-yogena manasi samyak praṇihite amale (SB 1.7.4). Bhakti-yogena, by practice of bhakti-yoga one's mind and intelligence become cleansed, dirtiless, dirt..., without any dirt. Just like the mirror, if it is without any dirt, it is cleansed, clear, you can see everything rightly, your face, or even in the spot in the face, everything, corner to corner, very nicely reflected. So bhakti-yogena, by practicing this bhakti-yoga, one becomes cleared in consciousness. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

That subtle body, mind and intelligence, carry me to another body, as it is doing now. My gross body has changed, but mind and intelligence continuing. Similarly when this body will be completely finished, my mind and intelligence will carry me to another gross body.

Room Conversation with Anna Conan Doyle, daughter-in-law of famous author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Guru-gaurāṅga: How is it they can see continuity between baby's body and young boy's body and young man's body, they say, "Oh, he's still here," but they can see no continuity between this body and...

Prabhupāda: That, that, he has no eyes. How I have got my continuity of my childhood thoughts and now also? Just like for a old man. He hasn't got so much sexual power, but the sex continuity is there. He wants to enjoy. Therefore he takes some medicine. He takes some injection. Why? The continuity. That means the continuity is mind. The gross body has changed. The mind is there, subtle. Intelligence is there. That is continuity. And that continuity, that subtle body, mind and intelligence, carry me to another body, as it is doing now. My gross body has changed, but mind and intelligence continuing. Similarly when this body will be completely finished, my mind and intelligence will carry me to another gross body. Then in the womb of my mother I shall grow another gross body. The mind and intelligence being continued. And I get a particular type of body on the condition of mind and intelligence at the time of death. Death means finishing this body. But the mind and intelligence is the same. As the air carries the flavor. This is the logic.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Antarātmanā means beyond his mind and intelligence.

Morning Walk -- February 23, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ah. This is the gross body and subtle body. So when these jñānīs, they think that they have become liberated, but they are entrapped by the subtle body. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya...

Dr. Patel: These yogis...

Prabhupāda: Then they are also, the same thing: gross material thing.

Dr. Patel: The yoga means to join yourself. Your self means not body, not even mind, but your soul, to the higher soul of, that means the God. That is real yoga. And that is as good as bhakti. Or you call it yoga, anything. Yoga and bhakti comes to same thing then.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Bhakti is real yoga. Others are farce. Yoginām api sarveṣām (BG 6.47). The bhakti is real yoga. That is real yoga. And this is farce.

Dr. Patel: Mad-gatenāntarātmanā.

Prabhupāda: Ah. That is real yoga.

Dr. Patel: Antarātmanā.

Prabhupāda: Antarātmanā means beyond his mind and intelligence...

Dr. Patel: No, within yourself.

Prabhupāda: Yoginām api sarve... So within yourself, if one thinks, antara mad-gatena, Kṛṣṇa, always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, that is first-class yogi. But the so-called yogis, they want to become Kṛṣṇa. "Now I have become God."

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is on the spiritual platform, above body, mind and intelligence. But actually, we should come to that platform. Because we are spirit soul, we are neither this body nor this mind nor this intelligence.

Room Conversation with Two Lawyers and Guest -- May 22, 1975, Melbourne:

The meaning is that "Anyone who is God conscious, a devotee, he has got all the good qualities. What we consider as good qualities, he has got. And similarly, one who is not a devotee of God, he has no good qualities because he will hover on the mental platform. There are different platform: bodily concept of life, general, "I am this body. Therefore my business is to satisfy the senses." This is bodily concept of life. And others, they are thinking, "I am not this body. I am mind." So they are going on mental speculation like philosophers, thoughtful men.

And above that, there is intelligent class of men, practicing some yoga. And spiritual platform means above that. First bodily concept, gross, then mental, then intellectual, then spiritual. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is on the spiritual platform, above body, mind and intelligence. But actually, we should come to that platform. Because we are spirit soul, we are neither this body nor this mind nor this intelligence. So one who is on the platform of spiritual consciousness, they have got everything, intelligence, proper use of mind, proper use of the body.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Avan manasa-gocara. Which is beyond your mind and intelligence, you have to hear from the authority. Just like father. If one wants to know who is father, he cannot see it. He must know it from the authority-mother.

Evening Darsana -- February 26, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: By knowledge, therefore... So therefore Kṛṣṇa giving you the knowledge. That you have to hear. Knowledge which you cannot experience by your senses at the present moment, you have to hear from the authority. Avan manasa-gocara. Which is beyond your mind and intelligence, you have to hear from the authority. Just like father. If one wants to know who is father, he cannot see it. He must know it from the authority-mother. Similarly, therefore called Vedic knowledge. Vedic knowledge means whatever is beyond the capacity of your senses, that you have to hear from the right source. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). And that is the teaching in the Bhagavad-gītā. When the things became so complicated, Arjuna submitted to Kṛṣṇa: śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam (BG 2.7). And then He taught him Bhagavad-gītā. And the first teaching of Bhagavad-gītā is this, that you are not this body.