Burst Forty Eight:
What is Intelligence ?
True intelligence is way beyond the well-known quotients IQ and EQ. The IQ (Intelligence Quotient) has been popular for long and, as everybody knows, it captures areas of logic, reasoning and clever processing of information. It is highly head-oriented and they say the left side of our brain has these abilities. Today slowly even machines have begun to have some amount of IQ called artificial intelligence (AI). For example, a machine plays chess and beats even grandmasters. The EQ (Emotional Quotient) is more heart-oriented and covers the domain of emotional energy in oneself and in others. It does so in both the areas of understanding and applying the energy. This has proved to be very valuable in all spheres of human activity. Better leaders, more effective negotiators and even more harmonious heads of families have all been found to possess higher EQ.
True intelligence is the key to total freedom. It is such a breakthrough that, when we have it, there is a fundamental difference in perception of situations. IQ and EQ may sit comfortably with this intelligence. In other words there is no contradiction between them and the true intelligence. It has the fragrance of simplicity, innocence and natural being. While good IQ and high EQ can help us occupy positions of advantage in the society, true intelligence can bless us with joy and peace without any position being necessary at all. The old Vedanta scriptures called this intelligence the liberating wisdom1. All other knowledge and skills are “for enjoyment and not for freedom”2. This unique gift is marked by psychological simplicity and it removes divisions and barriers between one another. As our false notions of high and low go away, we are able to act in an impartial way towards one and all.
Jesus Christ once was watching a soccer match between Catholics and Protestants. He stood up and clapped when the Catholics made a goal. Spectators behind him thought he too was a Catholic. To their surprise and confusion, he rose and rejoiced when the Protestants made a goal too. As this went on for a while, the people in the rows behind him concluded, “He is an atheist.” Impartiality is so rare.
Psychological simplicity is the key to tremendous, if not total, freedom from stress. We pretend to be knowledgeable, powerful, well-placed etc. and invite a lot of unnecessary pressure within us. We live in the fear of being exposed. When true intelligence cleanses our mind of all the tendencies behind such pretensions, we enjoy a great sense of being unburdened. We do not need to have many possessions, for example, but we think we ought to have them. We need not know many things, again, but there is a self-created pressure in us to know them all. Once somebody asked J Krishnamurti, “What do you think of Osho?” Krishnaji simply replied, “I do not think of Osho.”
True intelligence empowers us to drop false beliefs, attachments and values instantly and totally. Is it not very thought-provoking that the Prince Siddhartha saw old age, sickness and death on just one occasion and was deeply moved by the sight? He must have perceived it so intelligently that a radical transformation took place in him, paving the way to Buddha-hood. The wife of Shri Tulasidas said to him, “If only you were attached to Lord Rama like you are to me, you would have been free by now.” The husband perceived these words in a state of great intelligence and lo, the man changed drastically that moment onwards. (His wife must have regretted her saying those words for the rest of her life, or perhaps she did not.)
We see thus the nature of true intelligence as distinct from mere scholarship, methodical reasoning or healthy emotional makeup. It is something that breaks the shell of ordinary thinking and, touching the core of human existence, gives us a glimpse of the essence of life.
Swami Chidananda
Varanasi
Friday, December 15, 2006
Footnotes:
1 saa vidyaa yaa vimuktaye – That is wisdom which leads to freedom.
2 bhuktaye na tu muktaye – Viveka-choodamani, verse 60