What type of intellect
do you have?

This whole creation is made up of one energy. Everything is made up of just one thing.

Whenever anything bothers you, come back to this one principle - there is only one energy which everything is made up of. There are a lot of possibilities. This kind of thinking brings great relief. 

Yes, even the intellect has types 

There are three types of intellect:

1) Tamasic intellect: An intellect which is dormant or doesn’t function at all. It is always sleepy, in a constant state of slumber and only into negativity. This is tamasic intellect.

2) Rajasic intellect: Most people have a rajasic intellect. Rajasic intellect means seeing everything as different. This person is different’, ‘that person is different’, ‘this person behaves that way’, ‘that lady behaves this way’ - dwelling on these differences. Thinking that there are so many people, personalities, and seeing that as reality. This kind of thinking makes you low sometimes, and at other times, very high. This is rajasic intellect.

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3) Sattvic intellect: This kind of thinking is the goal of evolution. Sattvic intellect sees there is only one thing that is underlying all other differences. That is the reality.

There is one underlying truth. That one thing has come up in so many forms.

A puppet show

Let me give you an example. Have you seen a puppet show? One person is behind the curtain and puppets tied to his fingers with strings. He is the one who makes the puppets dance and tells the different stories on screen. 

A rajasic intellect is seeing all the puppets as different characters. A sattvic intellect says there is only one person who is making all these dolls dance. Actually it is a mono act.

A sattvic intellect is seeing that there is only one thing, one truth, one reality, one consciousness that is underneath the whole creation. When this truth is well lodged in the mind, although you see and dwell on the differences, you will be unshaken.

A house that has a very good foundation does not collapse in an earthquake. It has a shock absorber. A real shock absorber is deep inside knowing that all this is made up of one consciousness.

All of matter is one consciousness. I am that one consciousness and everything is that one consciousness. One who knows this is free. It is called freedom. ‘I’m so free. Nothing bothers me.’

Going beyond the intellect

It is the intellect which harbors inhibitions, likes and dislikes, approval and disapprovals and it is again the intellect which harbors wisdom, which brings forth the intuition.

Q: Is intuition beyond intellect?

Gurudev: Yes, but it moves through intellect. It's the intellect that lodges wisdom.

Q: Are emotion and intellect contradictory?

Gurudev: They can be contradictory.

Q: When there is a conflict, which is better?

Gurudev: The pure intellect rises beyond conflicts. The pure intellect is not caught up in the emotional turbulence of the mind. Otherwise the intellect often gets coloured by the emotion and becomes impure like muddy water. Then it is unable to reflect the Self. Whereas pure intellect, still and serene, reflects the Self.

Q: Is intellect affected by karma?

Gurudev: Karma does not afflict the pure intellect. Liberation is purifying the intellect. The Sanskrit word for intellect is buddhi and one who is liberated is the Buddha.