You are Intelligence🔗

To be free from the fear of death, which is really the fear of losing our identity, we need to be aware that we are something more than this body and mind. We need intelligence to understand this. We then come to these questions: What exactly is intelligence? Are some of us more intelligent than others? Can we increase the level of our intelligence?

Intelligence is not something to attain; every single being is endowed with intelligence. Every one of us has intelligence. It is an inherent, inborn quality of life just as fire is hot and ice is cold.

I am reminded of a joke on ‘intelligent’ people: Once there were four men travelling in a private airplane. Suddenly, there was an emergency as the tail of the aircraft caught fire. Unfortunately for the four passengers, there were only three parachutes available.

The first person in a panic took a parachute saying, "I just got married. My wife is waiting for me."And he jumped. The second person declared, "I am the most intelligent person on earth. Planet earth needs my intelligence. " He jumped as well. One of the passengers was an old man, he told the other remaining person, "I am old already but you have your whole life ahead of you. You take this parachute and jump." The young man quipped, "You can also come, Sir. We can both go. The most intelligent person on planet earth just jumped off with my back-pack!"

Most ofus have lost touch with our natural intelligence; that is why we are not able to live life to its fullest potential. We mistake our acquired knowledge for intelligence; we are like the man who jumped with the backpack as a parachute!

Every single being in nature has been endowed with inherent intelligence. Birds have a natural intelligence that enables them to fly. It is amazing to see the migratory birds travel thousands of miles in the sky - with no map or guide and retrace their paths back when the season changes!

Patanjali, an enlightened master from India and father of the ancient science of Yoga", says that man has in him the intelligence of all the lower forms of consciousness such as the trees, birds and animals.

Man has the capacity to produce food just like trees. He has the capacity to live by himself right from the time he is born - just like animals and birds. By nature we have all the intelligence in our human body. The difficulty is we strongly believe we are limited. We have been conditioned to think that we have only limited capabilities, that ‘we cannot.’ so we have forgotten how to use these capabilities. And because of this, we are not tuned to the technique to tap into all the dimensions of our being.

A small story: One boy came back from school and told his mother "You said the school dentist would be painless but he was not!" His mother became worried and asked him, "Did he hurt you?"The boy replied, "No, but he screamed when I bit his finger!" Children are born intelligent. They are so spontaneous and enthusiastic. But the family, society and conventional school destroy the natural intelligence within the child with the undue importance they pay to logic, memory and competition. The price the child pays for education is too heavy as he sacrifices his priceless creativity and uniqueness and he is not even aware of it.

The other day, I read a statement on a teenager's T-shirt, I was intelligent until education ruined me.'

Allow your complete being to simply express itself - and you will see your natural intelligence flowering beautifully. This is what I call being integrated and fulfilled.

We think we are very intelligent and so we try to mould our children to become intelligent like us. When we start this process, we first teach the child the logic of running in life driven by either fear or greed.

Either he has to do something to achieve more, or he has to do something to prevent what he doesn't want to happen. When you want something to happen, it is greed. When you are afraid that something will happen, it is fear.

Either he has to study so he can get better grades and win admission in a good college - this is being driven by greed. Or he has to study so he is not left behind in his future professional life - this is being driven by fear.

The motivation for the child is greed or fear, never inner fulfillment. Naturally, the child gets into the rat race and just keeps running - with no time to even look whether he is running for what he really wants. He does not even know that he can enjoy the run! He has been taught that with any other diversion, precious time will be wasted in reaching the goal. But how many people have felt fulfilled after reaching the 'goal'? When you reach the goal you have set, you realize the goalpost is no longer there. It has moved further and you want something else now! Understand, if you are living your life based on just seeing what others are doing, you are just wasting your precious life. This is what they call 'herd mentality' — joining the rat race because everybody else is a part of it. You may even win the rat race but you are still a rat!

What is the measure of intelligence?

Can we measure intelligence? Is there a standard to measure intelligence? Right from school, we use standard benchmarks to determine a person's so-called level of intelligence. In the grading system used from elementary school through college, we compare and grade all children for various skills and aptitudes.

We need to understand an important thing here: one kind of intelligence is needed to be a scientist and another kind of intelligence is needed to be a poet. To be an Olympic swimmer one needs yet another kind of intelligence! Intelligence is the ability to respond to a situation or challenge. Everyone is born intelligent; it is a question of just discovering each one's unique dimension of intelligence

You have a natural, spontaneous intelligence inside you. You have tasted it as a child. As a child, you looked at things in a very simple, straightforward way. That is why you were so spontaneous. What took away that spontaneity as you grew up? The societal conditioning that has been telling you right from when you were a child, ‘You are not enough...’ Because of this, you are constantly trying to become something else, prove something to others. By constantly thinking that you are not enough, you try to imitate others and waste the wonderful natural energy bubbling inside you.

I read one funny one liner on a company’s notice board Death will be accepted as an excuse, but we would like two weeks notice, as we feel it is your duty to teach someone your job prior to your death. Note: this new benefit program began yesterday.

If you blindly imitate another person’s performance or behavior instead of acting from your own inner spontaneity, your own intelligence, you will be cheating yourself out of wonderful possibilities.

Once there was a statistics student who, while driving, would always accelerate before coming to any junction, and then drive fast past the junction and slow down again once he passed the junction.

One day, he was travelling with his friend. They passed a junction in his usual way. The friend asked him in surprise, "Why do you drive so fast across junctions when you are actually supposed to slow down?" Th e statistics student rep lied, Well, statistically speaking, you are more likely to have an accident at a junction, so I just make sure I spend less time there!"

Knowledge is good only when applied intelligently. It is intelligence that gives the real result, not the knowledge itself. When knowledge is applied in the right place at the right time, it is intelligence. Spontaneity is when we easily express our knowledge in the right place at the right time; in other words, using our intelligence.

A small story: One boy was learning a lot of new things at school and home. One day, he told the teacher "Yesterday I killed three female and two male flies. The curious teacher asked, "How did you know which were males and which were females?" The boy replied, "Simple. Three of them were on the mirror and two were on the cigarette box!"

Intelligence is being aware and spontaneous. Understand an important thing: when you are deeply aware, you cannot make mistakes!

With awareness, you don't rely on what others have taught you. You don't rely on the past conditioning that has gone on inside you for many years. You act just out of the fresh intelligence that comes with awareness.

The light of awareness is enough to remove the darkness created by years of living by habit. The whole key lies in being aware so that your intelligence can function. Living every moment in total awareness is what meditation is all about.

A small story: Once, a sergeant in his training session asked the recruits why walnut wood was used for making the rifle. The recruits thought hard and one of them answered, "Because walnut is harder than other types of nuts." The sergeant brushed him off saying, Wrong!" Ano ther recru it ventured, "Because it is more durable."The sergeant"s voice boomed, "Wrong!"A third person tried his luck, "Because it is waterproof." The sergeant, tired of the answers by now, replied, "You boys surely have a lot to learn. Simple reason. that is what is laid down in the rule book!"

In life, because it is easy to place responsibility on others, you blindly follow other people's directions instead of relying on your own intelligence. Talking about responsibility, a small joke on how people understand responsibility: Once, a convict was scolding his lawyer "You are a useless lawyer. You don"t even understand your responsibility of when to raise an objection." The puzzled lawyer asked him, "I don't understand. When do you think I should have raised an objection that I did not?" The convict replied, "When the opposing lawyer spoke, you objected. But, when the judge declared me guilty, you kept your big mouth shut. That was the time to do all the objecting!"

It is always easy to put the blame on the whole world for what happens in your life. But, if you just look a little deeper, you can see how you are completely responsible for what is happening in your life!

Being intelligent requires the effort to be yourself, which you are not used to. So you choose to react based on your past experiences.

Usually, we only react like programmed machines; we do not respond to situations. Someone insults you and you become angry even before becoming aware of what you are doing.

A beautiful story from the life of Buddha, an enlightened master from India: Once a person insulted Buddha openly. His disciple Ananda said, "I was getting so angry with the person. Why did you keep quiet? At least I would have given him a piece of my mind." Buddha calmly replied, "You surprise me. What he was saying was comp letely irrelevant and you know that. Then why are you getting angry? You are punishing yourself. It is foolishness. When somebody else has made the mistake, why are you suffering for it?"

Moving with time, flowing with life, becoming a fluid process instead of being a solid ego is called intelligence.

Once, a father and son checked into a cheap motel at night. The father tucked in the son to sleep and switched off the light assuring the son, "Don’t be afraid son. The angels are watching over you. " "I know, “said the boy. "Two of them just bit me! " Operating with intelligence is the process of going back to the innocence you were born with. It is not a process of becoming. It is not attaining something new; it is discovering your very being. It is the true door to knowing you as you truly are.

When you are intellectual, you operate purely from the head, from logic.

A small story: A man was working on his doctorate in philosophy. He was so involved in his studies and research, his wife thought he would forget her if he was not reminded of her once in a while. So one day, she casually mentioned to him, "Honey, what is the one reason you love me so much? " The man asked very seriously, "When you say "so much “are you referring to the depth, quality, quantity or mode of expression?

When you are too caught in the head, you start thinking that your logic, your head, can understand the whole of life. You try to frame everything in this universe with your head.

Another small story: Once, a student had freshly graduated in a course on plumbing. He went with his friends on a sight- seeing tour to Niagara Falls. He took a look at the huge Falls and said, "I think I can fix it!"

Your knowledge gives you the false illusion of knowing everything that exists. It keeps you firmly rooted in the head. When your intelligence awakens, you drop from the head to the heart, from logic to love. Then, you operate neither from pure intellect nor from pure sentimental love. You operate just from loving intelligence, and you automatically radiate compassion to all of those around you.

A small story: Once, three wise men set out on a travel journey to the city with the hope that they would learn more about life. They entered a big city and were surprised to see a very tall building - a skyscraper- in the distance. They wondered what it might be.

They grouped and discussed what to do. They were afarid to go near and see for themselves, thinking it may have something dangerous in it. What if they did not know how to come out? So, they decided it was better to find out before they ventured inside.

They analyzed and came up with all the things it could possibly be, based on all their past experiences. Finally, they concluded it was something too big for human beings and it must belong to giants. So, it was not safe for them to be in this city of giants.

Very satisfied that they had gained this new knowledge, they picked up their bags and went back to their village!

So, you see there is not much you can understand from past knowledge. You cannot think about something in the mind and try to understand everything about it in that way. You need to see it, to experience it in order to fully understand. One more thing: you can only think about what you have known, what you have experienced. Can you think about anything unknown? You may fantasize about what the unknown could be, but that is still based on what you have seen in the past.

With thinking, the energy of intelligence and truth is not there, so the answer will be based on your limited experience and it will always lead to further questions and doubts. Not falling back on the answers rising from the past memory but functioning from your present consciousness is called understanding.

Thinking arises from the mind, which is actually one of the most marvelous mechanisms. But the problem arises when the mind becomes your master instead of a tool in your hands.

A small story: There lived a king who had a very faithful servant. He was so loyal he had even risked his own life to save the life of the king on a couple of occasions. On one such occasion, the king highly pleased with the servant asked him for anything he wanted. The servant humbly replied, "I don't need anything, O King. You have given me everything I need. " But the king insisted. Finally, the servant said, "Ok. If you really want to give me something, please make me the king for one day. " The king was a bit uncomfortable but he had already promised and had to keep it up.

The morning of the day the servant became the king. He simply pointed to the king and ordered the royal guards, "Kill him! " The king was shocked and asked the servant, "Do you know what you are saying?" The servant calmly replied, "I am the king today. I can do what I wish to The king was killed and the servant remained king forever.

Understand: in this same way, when we give the power of attorney to our mind, it takes entire control over us.

How many of us realize the tremendous intelligence that our body possesses?

Take the example of our digestive system. The whole process of converting bread to blood is such a complex and delicate one - requiring fine intelligence to convert the different types of food into energy to run the body.

What is achieved through a few feet of coiled intestine would need a few miles, if it were an industry outside of the body!

The process of digestion starts from our mouth. We chew the food and the saliva we secrete starts the digestion. There are so many big and small body elements that perform amazing functions in the process. We swallow the food and it passes through the throat into the food pipe. Beautifully the food is blocked from going into the wind pipe instead of the food pipe - by the epiglottis. The food enters into the stomach, which is like an elastic bag and has a delicate and powerful digestive mechanism. Depending on the type of food taken in like carbohydrates, proteins or fats, the digestive mechanism varies.

The digestive fire in us, what we call jataraagni in Sanskrit, is related to the acid in the stomach. The stomach is such a delicate organ but it actually contains this powerful acid needed to digest the food we eat. The stomach itself is beautifully protected from this acid by a thick mucus layer around its wall which neutralizes the acid.

All the complex foods we eat take just a few hours to digest and get absorbed into our system. Imagine not even a single process has to be consciously thought about! It is managed automatically and so precisely - adapting itself so beautifully to accommodate all our diets.

After the stomach, the food passes into the small intestine where the majority of the digestion takes place. It is actually a long structure but so efficiently fitted in a small area with many folds which increases the surface area of absorption. Most of the nutrients get absorbed in the small intestine. The main function of the small intestine is absorption of nutrients. The complex products like carbohydrates and proteins are broken down into basic elements and absorbed. The nutrients that are absorbed are carried to the liver for further processing.

Then the food moves into the large intestine where mostly water absorption occurs. Then, the food that cannot be absorbed, like fiber for example, is mixed with other waste products from the body and thrown out as waste matter. This is just a basic explanation of digestion. But in the body it is such a complex, well-organized and adaptive mechanism.

Distributed Intelligence The human body starts from a single cell which replicates and becomes about 250 different types of cells.

Imagine, one cell transforms into so many different specialized cells that form the complex parts of the body! Not only do these cells do their specialized job, their very maintenance needs millions of things to be done in a second. And all their activities have to be coordinated for the body to function as a single organism. It is the best example of distributed intelligence.

We have been taught that the center of our intelligence is in our brain. We think that we control the body through our brain. Science has all along been saying that the brain controls respiration, digestion, blood circulation, and all such activities of the body.

Now, cutting-edge research has given rise to a new field called epigenetics. One of the pioneers in this field, Dr. Bruce Lipton', an eminent biologist, has been doing research in the field of epigenetics for over ten years. In his book, ‘The Biology of Belief’, he states that our brain does not control our body. In fact, there is evidence of intelligence in every cell, even in the cell’s membrane!

Recent research at Sandia Nati-onal Laboratories, USA, supports cellular intelligence theory. Scientists there studied how cells responded to a harmful substance called an antigen that attacked the cells in the body. They concluded that even the cell membrane had a beautiful and complex structure to fight the antigen, and that the cell membrane was not a simple structure as it was earlier believed

that our body is not a simple centralized system of intelligence controlled by the brain. The human body is a highly evolved distributed system of intelligence beautifully and seamlessly orchestrated.

An important thing to understand which may shock you: You have an independent intelligence in your system which runs your life without your interference.

Right now, you think you need to interfere with your intelligence in order to run your life happily. But the truth is the intelligence with which you came down to planet earth, the intelligence which created your very body, can run your life beautifully for you.

The intelligence or the energy based on which you created your body at birth, is called your bio-memory. You need to understand this important truth here: it is you who designed your own body to enjoy specific things, to live for a particular number of years, and to do particular things when you take birth, you decide your life, your enjoyments, whatever you want to do, based upon what you think is the ‘juice’ of life. That same bio-memory has enough intelligence to live, run and expand your life. That tremendous intelligence is operating every single moment whether you believe it or not, whether you accept it or not. But our limited understanding prevents us from realizing this - and we constantly feel that life has to be different from what it is at the present moment.

Trusting that intelligence and relaxing is what I call devotion. Surrendering to that higher intelligence is true surrender. Living in harmony with our natural intelligence is living a spiritual life.

Please sit straight. Close your eyes and be in a relaxed way without moving the body. Body movements will create thoughts. So if your body is stable without movement, it can take you to a deeper silence.

Very consciously and intensely, create an intention that you are accepting yourself as you are in the outer world and the inner world, this moment.

Tell yourself, ‘I have enough nice things in the outer world, enough possessions. I have enough good qualities in the inner world, my inner feelings. I am accepting myself completely. There is no need to develop myself in the outer world or in the inner world. If I have ego, that is ok. If I have guilt, that is ok. If I have fear, that is ok. If I have greed, that is ok. Whatever I have been told I have, is ok. Even if I am going to die the next minute, it is ok.’ Decide consciously, ‘I accept everything.’ Don’t bother whether it is right or wrong. Whatever objection your mind raises, accept that also.

Accept the present moment. Accept all the future moments. Whatever your mind thinks as the worst thing that can happen to your life, accept even those moments. If it happens, you cannot avoid it. It is inevitable. Understand the inevitability and accept everything. Do this for 21 minutes.

Your intelligence will simply awaken and show you how to relate with every moment, how to relate in every situation, in every relationship.

This may be a surprising revelation, but the truth is that universal or cosmic intelligence responds to every thought of ours.

Interesting research by Japanese scientist, Dr. Masaru Emoto shows this point very clearly.

Dr. Masaru Emoto' did experiments on water. He collected water samples from different sources and exposed them to various kinds of thoughts. Then he froze the samples and studied their crystalline structure through a microscope with the help of high-speed photography. Thousands of these crystals were studied under tightly regulated conditions of temperature, cooling time and lighting.

He did various experiments on these water samples — playing different types of music to the water, talking to the water, reading out from ancient life teachings, praying with a certain intention etc. He found that when the water samples were exposed to healing music, the water crystals that formed were very beautiful and graceful. The water exposed to negative feelings or thoughts did not form crystals but rather an irregular structure which reflected the emotions of the person handling them.

Our body is about seventy percent water. Planet earth is covered with over seventy percent water. After studying the effect of mental thoughts on water, just imagine the tremendous effect our thoughts, words and intentions have on the planet and us!

Another real incident from history: When India was under British rule, the British soldiers found that when they carried water from England to India in their ships, the water got spoiled even while on the ship. But when they carried water back from India to England, the water not only stayed fresh through the voyage, but also remained fresh until they consumed all of it back in England! When scientists studied this surprising phenomenon, they found that this fresh water was from the sacred river Ganga in Calcutta which was worshipped by millions of people from around the world. It had the natural properties of neutralizing harmful bacteria and purifying itself.

Billions of people have been praying to Ganga for over thousands of years. Naturally they have left their prayerful thoughts as imprints on this water which is so energizing and self-healing.

Even in Egypt, the river Nile has been studied by the Egyptians over thousands of years by measuring its flow, level, turbulence etc. They have found that many times these parameters reflected the calamities like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis, that have happened or are about to happen in even distant parts of the world.

What makes us become insensitive to nature? The moment our ego comes into play we become insensitive to nature.

There was a beautiful story I was reading about a poet who in his young age used to go and play with the wild animals near his house. His father used to warn him that he should not play with the wild animals because they might harm him. But, he still used to go and sit with the wf/d animals when he could. He would say, "When I was self-conscious and afraid that there was a possibility that the animals might harm me, they would never come near me," the communication never happened, the relationship never happened.

But, whenever I had courage or I was in a very playful mood, whenever I did not have the fear or the self-consciousness, the communication and relationship used to be so strong. I could feel very clearly the animals were connecting with me andI was connecting with them.”

Understand, what I mean when I say your ego becomes strong, it means when your identity that you are a ‘separate person’ is felt strongly. When this happens, your connection with nature is disturbed. The innocent way of relating is lost. The feeling of being connected is lost. This is one of the big losses that can happen to a human being.

It is similar to how a person who is born blind can never be made to understand what he is missing. In the same way, the man who has forgotten the way of relating with the heart can never be made to understand what he has lost.

I was reading about an experiment where some years back scientists used an electroencephalograph‘ (EEG) to measure the brain waves of two people meditating together. It was found that certain pairs of people showed a strong correlation in their brain wave patterns. These strongly bonded pairs were asked to meditate side by side for some time. Then, they were moved to different rooms.

Then one of each meditating pair was stimulated by bright lights flashing in the room. The EEG brain wave recording showed activity in the brain of that meditator as expected; but, surprisingly it also showed that the paired meditator in the other room who was not stimulated by the lights also showed the same activity in the brain automatically and instantly!

Understand: what happens in your mind affects not only you but also those around you. Space is not a criterion for thoughts. They simply travel in air. That is why in your house, if you express worry and negative thoughts a lot, the very atmosphere for your family members becomes heavy. They are affected by the negativity that you radiate.

Our entire educational system is based upon evaluation of information, not intelligence. It is driven by intellect and verbalization, not visualization.

When you try to move on the basis of information you lose the ability to be intelligent. In fact, if you are logically logical you will understand that logic itself is not logical. Life is not logical. It cannot be explained with the mundane logic and intellect. It happens in a plane much higher than the intellect.

The intelligent person lives moment to moment, not through logic. He does not believe in borrowed answers. He sees the challenge of the situation and directly responds to it. The intellectual person is like a photograph; he has the imprint of the past on him. The intelligent person is like a mirror; he reflects and responds to reality and is therefore spontaneous.

The intellect is a beautiful mechanism but only as long as it remains a tool. It should not become the controlling factor. When you put your intellect aside, a deeper intelligence awakens inside you. You start functioning from your center instead of from the periphery. And your center is pure intelligent energy.

Intelligence can be rediscovered. The only way to rediscover it is meditation. Meditation destroys all the barriers, all the blocks which society has created, that prevent you from being intelligent. Like in a flowing river, it's as if meditation removes the rocks so that the water can flow smoothly.

Intelligence requires tremendous courage; it needs a love for adventure! When you are always going into the unknown, then intelligence grows, it becomes sharpened. It grows only when it encounters the unknown every moment.

Intellect is only a mental game; it cannot be creative. Intellect is imaginative, but not creative. Intelligence is creative because it is a part of the divine energy.

Just try this for the next 48 hours. Consciously decide you are not going to think about your problems. Drop your intellect which continuously tells you that you do not have enough intelligence to solve your problems spontaneously, that you do not have the capacity to produce that much spontaneity.

Work on solving your problems boldly and with simple awareness and you will see that a higher intelligence comes into play. One lesson you will learn is that without your knowledge, the higher intelligence comes in to do things for you. When you become sensitive to this happening, your awareness will take a quantum jump. Then you no longer need to work to dissolve your problems. Problems will simply dissolve with the play of spontaneous intelligence in your life.