The Spontaneous Dance of Intelligence || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2012)
Question: Sir, does Intelligence leads to disorder?
Speaker: (Picking up a bottle which is one-quarter full of water and three-quarter empty) Let’s consider, does this bottle has water?
Student: Yes Sir.
Speaker: You see this quantity of water? Can you just estimate the number of molecules in it? Not very difficult at all. If I tell you that this weighs around 50 grams, you can easily calculate the number of H2O molecules in it. Matter of a minute. Now, it may appear to be still, if you don’t disturb it then it appears still but what actually is going on within?
Students: – Random motion
Speaker: Random Brownian motion. What are the molecules all doing?
Students: Colliding.
Speaker: Bumping into each other, in a very mad way. Is there any order to it?
Students *(in unison)*: No Sir.
Speaker: This is the reason why you are calling it random, correct? There is transfer of momentum and velocity going on all the time. Correct? Right. Now you also very well know that out of all the space that is being occupied here (Inside the bottle) , molecules are actually occupying a very tiny fraction, most of it is empty space. Do we know that or do we not?
Students : Yes Sir.
Speaker : Remember Bohr’s experiment? That most of the space inside matter is actually empty space. Molecules actually occupy a very small fraction of the space. So this (The bottle) is an empty space of which say one hundredth or less than that fraction is being occupied by molecules and still they all are bumping into each other. So remember, that there is enough space for all molecules, it’s not as if it is overcrowded. Most of it is empty space, still the molecules are colliding with each other.
Now if I fill up this hall with students, say students like you, and I ask you to perform tasks which require continuous movement, I can do that? I can fill up this space? And this space is now packed with you people much more densely than the density of molecules in this bottle of water. If there are ‘x’ molecules per unit space in this bottle of water, then I can pack this hall with a figure more than that. Then I ask you to do a few tasks. I ask the person sitting left corner to come over to the diagonally opposite corner and do this painting all over again. I can ask some of you to clean these fans which requires a movement in Z-axis. I can ask some of you to mop the floor, again a Z-axis movement. I may ask some of you to white wash the walls which requires both Z and Y-axis movements. Correct? Getting it? All kinds of movements are required. One of you may be required to check up the wiring whether everything is alright with the wiring.
And if you do all of that, what will I see? Will I see you guys bumping into each other? Will you keep colliding with each other in the same way as these molecules do? Will you do that?
Students: No
Speaker: Why will you not do that? I am not imposing any order, I have not given you any rule, and still you are not colliding with each other. But these molecules keep colliding with each other.
Student: Because we will try to avoid the collision.
Speaker: Right. And how can you try to avoid collisions, through a programming? No. In Intelligence , an order is automatically generated. In fact, lack of Intelligence leads to disorder. You see this disorder here (Picking up the bottle of water and showing it to everyone) , even on roads that are the most densely packed with traffic, do you see cars bumping into each other? We don’t see that. But molecules keep bumping into each other. Intelligence leads to its own order. Are you getting it? Please don’t be afraid that if you act out of Intelligence, there will be randomness, disorder, anarchy. No, not at all. Because all of us are intelligent, so we will not bump into each other.
I will now twist the tail a little. Now suppose two of your friends enter here, who are drunk, and drunkenness is the state of the brain in which Intelligence cannot function. The brain needs to be an appropriate seat for Intelligence. If the brain is damaged or underdeveloped, intoxicated or inebriated then Intelligence cannot function. So suppose two of your friends enter here, and they are drunk. Now what will happen in this room?
Student: Chaos.
Speaker: People will start colliding with each other. They will collide with somebody and then in turn that person will collide with someone else. Can you see this? So, what causes disorder?
Students: Lack of Intelligence.
Speaker: Yes, lack of Intelligence. Disorder does not come through Intelligence. Don’t be afraid. Disorder is the result of lack of Intelligence. The repercussions of this are that in a healthy society, you do not need rules, what you need is Intelligent people. If people are intelligent then there is no need of rules. And the more rule driven a society is, the more unintelligent it is. So, look at your life, if there is a lot of space for rules in your life then that means that you are?
Students *(in unison)*: Not intelligent.
Speaker: And if someone wants to impose rules on you that only proves that he thinks that you are?
Students *(in unison)*: Not intelligent
Speaker: And that implies that he is not?
Students *(in unison)*: Intelligent
Speaker: See, many a times this argument is advanced that “You know if everybody starts acting on his freewill then there will be chaos in the society.” You will hear it from many people. No, it’s not like that at all. Freewill never creates chaos. Chaos is here (Picking up the bottle filled with water) it’s not visible right now but given the right kind of scientific instruments, you can actually watch that chaos.
The molecular speeds are very high. We all know what the range of root mean square (rms) speeds is. But still you can watch it. The chaos is there because these molecules are just what they are. ‘Molecules’- matter in time and space. Like the brain. The brain is just like these molecules in the bottle. The molecules are conditioned to move, the brain is conditioned to do other things. This (Water bottle) is matter and this (Brain) is also matter. The brain is nothing but matter. Are you aware that every experience that you go through actually changes your brain? Say, you have a computer hard disk, if you save something in it then will the hard disk remain the same as it was before?
Students: No Sir.
Speaker: A few molecular configurations have changed. In the process of saving something in the disk, the disk changes. Similarly every experience that the brain records changes the brain. Brain is just matter, every experience that it undergoes leaves a footprint on it, changes it permanently. You can also called this the plasticity of brain. You understand what is plasticity? Change something and the deformation is permanent. So, the brain is like this. You had undergone an experience when you were six years old, that experience is still with you and is also dominating your behaviour in some way or the other. Not only when you were six years old but even an experience that you had forty thousand years back, is still with you. I am not talking of rebirth and all that stuff, I am talking about the journey of the brain. An experience that you had when you were a dinosaur, is still with you. When you were an amoeba and you got burnt, so you are still afraid of fire. Are you getting it? All those things are there in every bit of our body. Getting it?
Students *(in unison)*: Yes Sir.
Speaker: Good
Student: Sir, when there is a two-year old kid, he has a brain but no Intelligence. Initially he is not afraid of fire.
Speaker: Oh! He is.
Student: Out of curiosity he will go near fire and…
Speaker: Right! Then what will happen?
Student: After that he will get hurt.
Speaker: Yes, the moment he feels that rise in temperature, affecting his skin, he is bound to recoil.
Student: But that is something that he is getting to know.
Speaker: That is an experience that he has gathered now. But there are a thousand other things that he knows of since the beginning. For example: Beautiful and ugly faces. It has been demonstrated that even very small kids, say just a few days old, you show them a face of a particular configuration, they will recoil and you show them a face of another configuration and they will be attracted. Now, they don’t have any experience in this life time. What makes them recoil? It’s the memory coming from the past. Let’s taken the example of a rabbit. A two-day old rabbit which has never heard a snake hissing, you just bring to him the sound of a snake hiss, it gets alerted and wants to run away. Where is that knowledge coming from? It’s stored knowledge. How does a baby know that water is what he needs? And you think that if instead of water you feed him benzene then he will take it? We are programmed for certain things.
Even a baby doesn’t want to be left alone, have you seen this? He always wants human company, just as the brain is always trying to identify with something. The brain is always feeling lonely. So whenever you feel lonely the next time, know that the animal past is acting. The brain doesn’t want to be alone, it always wants to cling to something.
(Silence)
Student: Sir, I understand that leading an intelligent life will not lead to the programmed life like which has been experienced by the brain before. But then, how will I handle the randomness in the future, the unpredictable path that I will walk on?
Speaker: Life is anyway unpredictable.
Student: That is why we want to predict it. The brain dominates and says that “You won’t be secure.”
Speaker: ‘Unpredictable’ means new, right? That which you have not experienced before, you call as unpredictable. But everything is new! Have you seen me earlier? The problem arises when you meet the new as if it is old. Now I come to you and what do you say? “I’ve met many people like him.” You have done so many lectures today and now you think that this is just another lecture. Am I one of the old types? When every moment is fresh, I am bound to be fresh. But then how will you look at me? As if I am coming from the past, as if I belong to the same variety. Isn’t every moment new? What is happening right now has it happened with you before?
Students: No.
Speaker: Whatever has ever happened to you, had it happened to you before that? But how do you come to it? The brain comes to it as if it were already there in the past because the brain knows nothing except the past. It has no way of approaching the present. So how does the brain approach the present? It approaches the present as if it is the photocopy of the past.
Now this is a problem. He is Hari (Pointing to a listener) and I am approaching him as if he is Suresh, and who is Suresh? Someone from my past. Then can I know Hari? I know Suresh but I don’t have any idea of who Hari is. I approach Hari as if he is Suresh. Now there is a great problem, there is conflict, there is suffering.
Not only so much, even if I approach him as Hari, I approach him as if he is the same Hari that he was ten days back. Now, is he the same Hari that he was ten days back? He is a new, fresh Hari today. But how am I approaching him today? “Oh! I know him. He is my friend.” That is what the brain does. “I know.”
The brain operates within its boundary of knowledge. And all knowledge comes from the past. Intelligence operates in a continuous knowing.
There is a great difference between knowledge and continuous knowing. Are you getting it? What is knowledge?
Students: Something gathered from surroundings.
Speaker: What is continuous knowing?
Student: Present.
Speaker: Present. Brain lives in?
Student: Knowledge.
Speaker: Knowledge, it is an accumulated knowledge and brain lives in this only. And Intelligence?
Student: Present.
Speaker: Which is continuous knowing. The brain lives in relationships, which are all coming from the past: mother, father, society, country, teachers, the brain knows them, these are fixed relationships. And Intelligence lives only in the now and it knows only one relation, that of Love. The brain cannot know Love, it can only know knowledge and dead relationships. It’s Intelligence that knows Love because Love is always right now, Love cannot be a carry forward from the past.
Someone asked that what’s wrong in behaving like an animal. One of the biggest wrongs that will happen is that you will never know what Love is. Because an animal, a machine, cannot know Love, it can know a lot of other things like attachment, gratification, lust, but it cannot know Love. Only an intelligent being can know Love because Love is the joy of this moment, getting deeply immersed in this moment, which cannot happen if the brain is dominating. Are you getting it? The brain doesn’t want Love and such things. What does the brain need?
Student: Security.
Speaker: Security and continuity. The brain want to live anyhow. It says, “If I am not there then others like me should be there. So I will live, and after me, my children will live.” So all that the brain want is food, sex and security. “Give me food, give me sex and prevent me from death.” The brain just want this. The brain has nothing to do with your joy, your liberation, because all this is the work of…?
Student: Intelligence.
Speaker: Intelligence. The brain doesn’t care whether you live in understanding or not.
(Next question)
Student: Sir, how is the action of an intelligent being different from that of a normal being?
Speaker: It is very simple. The action of an intelligent being has very little dependence on the future; it is fulfilled in this moment itself. At this moment if you are listening keenly to me, are you also desiring something for the future? Now, this is the action of Intelligence. Desires have vanished. Whereas those who are not listening keenly will be lost in thoughts, and all thoughts are in time and space. They might be thinking “What will happen after 4:30?” “What will happen when I will go home during Diwali?” They will be lost in all kinds of thoughts. This is the function of the brain.
So, where does the activity of an intelligent man come from? It comes from the understanding of this moment and as you are understanding, you are also asking the questions. It is all happening on its own. There is very little will power involved in this. An intelligent being does not need any will power. Will power is rubbish. Only in the domain of brain, words like will power and all are valid. Are you getting it? If it is all happening spontaneously then who requires will power? Why do I require will power?
Student: Sir, then the most intelligent person would be the one who lives in the present.
Speaker: Yes, though it’s not about the person. All of us do live in the present in a few moments. If we totally stop that then we will die, then we will become mad. We will really go mad. It’s just that out of the twenty-four hours in a day there are very few moments when we are really attentive. It’s not about persons, it’s about moments. Everybody is intelligent, but only for a few moments in a day. The rest of the time we act like machines. Right now, many of you may be intelligent because a particular environment has been created here. At this moment many of us might be intelligent. Why am I saying this that ‘many of us might be intelligent’? Because attention is the environment in which Intelligence functions.
Student: Sir, if someone dies, a very near one and the person is totally into that so is he being intelligent at that moment? He is not thinking of any other thing other than what has happened to him. Only that thing matters to him.
Speaker: See, no thought is an intelligent thought.
Student: No, if he is crying just for that thing.
Speaker: No, Intelligence is not focus. Are you talking of focus?
Student: If a very near one dies then you will cry, you will definitely cry…
Speaker: See, a question arises that “Why are you crying?” Why are you crying? Crying is an emotion.
Students *(in unison)*: Yes.
Speaker: I am feeling a particular sadness. Where is this sadness coming from?
Students: Past.
Speaker: Right? But it doesn’t mean that an intelligent person doesn’t cry or doesn’t do anything and just sits like a Buddha. In fact he is the one who really gets immersed into life, knows life to the maximum and enjoys life to the maximum, but then he is not a slave of life, he is a master of life
Student: As you said that an intelligent person is totally immersed in life, then that person is totally immersed in that emotion.
Speaker: No, he is not immersed in life, he is immersed in memories. Now, looking at the dead body can give you liberation, that’s what happened to Gautama Buddha. He looked at a dead body and he learned so much. There are so many deaths happening every day and so many people look at those dead bodies. Do the people get liberated? No, because they don’t look at those dead bodies. The moment they hear of death, what do they do? They go back into memories. They do not allow their Intelligence to operate. Otherwise looking at the dead body is an experience that can give you a lot. It can liberate you totally. You will come to know about life. We don’t look at the dead body directly. Our culture is such that we do not allow death to come close to us. We do not allow even the mention of death in our homes. Try going home and talking about death with your parents, they will say, “What nonsense, leave this topic.” We do not let small kids see how the body becomes after death. The dead body stinks, so we light an incense stick near it. Have you seen this? We decorate them, especially when women die, you really decorate them.
We do not allow ourselves to see the true face of death . This body that you are so obsessed with, this will stink, turn blue, swell up, and become rotten. We do not allow ourselves to do that. Even till very recently, women were not allowed at the cremation ground because if women look at the facts of life then it will become very difficult for males to exploit them. Once a woman see’s that this is what the truth of the body is, then it will become really difficult for her to decorate herself, and become desirable for men. What does the man want? Man wants that the women should remain desirable for him. She should decorate herself and should look amorous, erotic and sexy, that’s what you want? And if she sees that this happens after death then she won’t do this and that’s why it was necessary to hide all this from her.
Student: But same thing can happen to a male that when he see all this, he can also become…
Speaker: Yes, there is a possibility and that’s what happened to the Buddha. But then we really don’t look at it. Looking at it means looking at it without a thought, because all thoughts are in the past. Really looking at something means understanding, not thinking. Looking means just looking, not thinking. Looking does not mean seeing the dead body and thinking, “Oh he was such a good guy.” Just as right now you are just listening, are you also thinking?
Students *(in unison)*: No Sir.
Speaker : Similarly looking at a dead body means just looking, not thinking, not being lost in memories or hopes. Whenever someone dies what all is being discussed, “Oh! You know he has left three children, I fear that now they are going to have a court case. Has he written his will? What will happen to the poor wife? Is she working somewhere?”
Now are you looking at the dead body? You are already lost in the thoughts of future or you are lost in the memories, the past. “You know, he was a very nice man, he had lent me money when I was in need.” Are you looking at death? No, memories.
One moment of real attention can do wonders, but we really don’t look at life. As I said, he may be Hari but how do I look at him, as if he is Suresh. The brain is incapable of looking at reality because the reality is in the present moment. And does the brain live in the present? No, it lives in the past.
(Next question)
Student: How to hold on to Intelligence?
Speaker: You see, if I am intelligent, I understand. Most of all I understand what is happening in my own mind. Of course, sitting here, limited by the inputs of my senses, I cannot understand what is happening in New York right now. I can understand my own mind, right? I also see what distracts my mind. In the moment of Intelligence, I can see what distracts me. If I can see what distracts me, then I can stay away from it; that is what is called as ‘holding on to Intelligence’, holding on to attention.
Appreciate this.
Here you are, and I can see from your faces that at least some of you are keenly attentive right now. Now, what will happen once you walk out of this room? You will again get lost in the crowd. In this moment, as you are attentive, you also know what takes away your attention, right? Now, as you are attentive right now and someone starts scratching you, or whispering something in your ear, won’t you know that this is distracting you? And if you know that you are getting distracted by this, you will also gently push him away and you will say, “I’m here. Kindly don’t take me away from this moment.”
But this environment has been created by me, so it is quite likely that when I go away, this environment will also go away. And then as I said, you will also go away in the crowd. Then it will depend upon you, how to hold on to Intelligence. In fact a better way of saying this is, how to hold on to attention? Because Intelligence is always there, just as the brain is always there, Intelligence is also always there. It’s just that the Intelligence functions only in an environment of attention. So attention keeps coming and going. Attention requires a particular environment, you have to give yourself that environment. You have to give yourself that environment.
Right now, I am giving you that environment. It is incumbent upon you to give yourself that environment. That is your responsibility towards yourself.
Student : So by attention we mean to observe and to understand.
Speaker : Yes, yes. You can see it. This is attention, right now. (Pointing at a student) Attention is the environment in which Intelligence functions.
Student : Sir, but when we are listening to you, we are also thinking of some questions…
Speaker : You can’t be listening then.
Student : But Sir, if you are saying something, I am understanding it, then I am asking something, that means that while understanding there were some things that were coming into my mind that made me ask you something.
Speaker : No not really. You see, if you are hearing and side-by-side you are also thinking, then, you cannot be listening. Second thing that he is saying is, “If I am not thinking then, how is it that I am asking questions?”
Students : Yes Sir (Nodding his head)
Speaker : Did you nod your head after thinking? So that means that action can happen without thought. So, you can ask a question without thinking. That is the spontaneity of Intelligence. Just as you nodded your head without thinking, similarly you can ask the question without thinking. That is called the spontaneity of Intelligence, instantaneous, right now. “I didn’t have to think, I just asked.” It is not a product of thought, it is not a product of the brain. It is a product of understanding.
You are again nodding (Pointing at a listener) and again without thinking. So nodding can happen without thinking. Understanding is happening without thinking.
Student : Is reflex action also coming from Intelligence?
Speaker : No, no. That is purely conditioning. But a good question. Absence of thinking does not mean Intelligence. This camera also cannot think. That does not mean that it is intelligent. Good that you pointed this out. A stone too cannot think. That does not mean that it is intelligent.
These are the stages:
The complete absence of thought
Conditioned thought
Conscious thinking
Understanding
Understanding means no thinking and the stone at the bottom-most place also cannot think. It’s a full circle. You start with the stone that cannot think and then you reach to a level of understanding where thought is not needed. And in between lies, first random thought, and then conscious thinking.
For example, when you are solving a problem of mathematics, then what you are applying is conscious thinking. When you are just sitting here and random thoughts are coming into your mind, that is random thought or conditioned thought. So there is that bottom-most level for inability, incapacity for thought, which is the stone. Then there is random thought, then there is conscious thinking and then there is understanding or Intelligence.
Student : Sir, Can conscious thinking also be a part of Intelligence?
Speaker : Conscious thinking sublimates into Intelligence. Conscious thinking is alright, in the sense that you think but that thinking soon disappears.
You see, let’s all get into this. We are all solving a third order differential equation.
Go very attentively into this and you will understand everything.
You are solving a third order differential equation, how do you start?
Student : Auxiliary equation.
Speaker : We start with thinking.
(Students and the speaker start laughing)
(Pointing at the student) Which (The auxiliary equation) is a part of thought, we are thinking. We start with thinking, then, go into the moment when you have gone really deep into it, are you still thinking? All of us would have experienced that moment right? There is you and there is the problem and you are deeply into it. At that moment are you still thinking? Or are things just happening on their own?
Student : On their own.
Speaker : On their own. You start with thinking and then the intensity of thinking reduces, reduces, and becomes so little that now there is just understanding. Thinking is a problem solving mechanism of the brain. Now a point comes when there is no problem, it’s crystal clear, you have come to understanding. Conscious thinking is alright because it can move into understanding.
Student : Sir are we saying that only human beings have Intelligence?
Speaker : Only human beings have a brain that can be a seat for Intelligence.
Student : Even animals can be intelligent?
Speaker : No, their brain has not yet reached that stage. Evolution has not yet taken them there. Even all human beings are not ready. You see, something may happen to your brain, then you will be incapable of intelligent behaviour. A baby for example, his brain is not yet fully mature, so he is incapable of intelligent behaviour.
Have you seen how distracted a baby is? One of the characteristics of Intelligence is attention. We said that there is an environment of attention around Intelligence. The baby is incapable of it.
Student : Sir there are philosophers that usually ‘think’ about various topics. They only think and understand the topics. So, can we say that when they are spending time in thinking about life, about behaviour, they are understanding?
Speaker : No. See, through thinking you can understand objects from the past. Because all thought is about the past. But can any of you think about the Spanish language? There is a problem written in the Spanish language, think and solve it? Can you do that? Thought can never help you approach the new. Because all thought comes from the past.
If there is a problem in the Spanish language, can you solve it using thought? You can’t. So those philosophers who as you said are ‘thinking all the time’, I don’t know what you mean by that, but let’s say there is a person who is thinking all the time, it’s possible that through the process of thinking he will learn more about the objects contained in the past. That is quite possible. But he will never be able to address the new. And life is forever new, moment to moment it is new.
Student : But sometimes we need facts from the past.
Speaker : Oh, Of course! Thinking is a very useful capacity of the brain. By no chance are we trying to say that one should not think at all.
Student : Sir, but random thoughts sometimes lead to new discoveries and inventions.
Speaker : No, no they can’t. Random thoughts can’t do that. Random thoughts are all external influences, they keep coming and going like traffic.
Student : Then how does someone get a good idea for anything?
Speaker : See, what is an idea? Idea is also a thought, it will again come from the past. We keep on using words like, ‘new idea’, but no idea can ever be new. Because an idea is a thought. So when someone says that he has a ‘new’ idea, he is acting foolishly, he doesn’t understand what he is saying.
There are no ‘new’ ideas . The only thing which is new is understanding. And that understanding is observation. Did Newton invent gravity? Gravity exists since the time there is mass. Where there is mass, there is gravity. What did Newton do? He just observed. He observed like a child. He observed as one observes something for the first time.
What will we do? We will look at Hari as if he is Suresh (From an earlier part of this discussion. See above.) So, apples keep falling, how do we look at it? “Whatever, it happened yesterday also, day before that also.”
Student : Sir, but what about the Calculus that Newton gave? That was not something he observed, it was something which came from his mind.
Speaker : See, all will come from the mind. If there is no past, if there is no brain, we can’t even talk, because language comes from the past. But will language give you the understanding that you have right now? Will language give you that?
Language will come from the past, alright. Stored knowledge has its utility. But it cannot help you approach life, life is new, forever new. We are not denying here the importance of past knowledge. If you do not have past knowledge, you cannot go back to your hostel. How will you know the route? All that comes from your past. If you don’t have past knowledge, you can’t even dial a mobile phone. You won’t even know what a mobile phone is.
Ghajini , finished. (Referring to a Bollywood film character) A healthy brain prevents you from becoming Ghajini . But then, just remembering the past will not enable you to live in the present. The present is an altogether different and magnificent thing. Are you getting it?
Student : Sir, my question is a little off topic. Sir, what is motivation? Does it come from the brain or from Intelligence?
Speaker : Motivation is greed. Simple. You do this, you get something. Motive, there is a motive, a target, a purpose. So what is it?
Students (in unison) : The brain
Speaker : So when we look it closely, we will see that so much of that which we hold as so important, so sacred in life, turns out to be the mere animal behaviour. It is very possible to motivate animals. In fact animals can only be motivated, they can have no understanding. You can very easily motivate them.
Have you seen how they put a carrot in front of a donkey? That is motivation. So those of us who feel highly motivated, (While raising his hand) how many of us?
(Laughter)
Student : What about passion?
Speaker : You tell me. What is passion?
Student : Passion is something which we are crazy about.
Speaker : (Smilingly) Haven’t you seen animal’s crazy about things?
Student : No, no, it’s not just about a thing. It can be a passion for learning, understanding.
Speaker : Like what?
Student : I have a passion for knowing about different things.
Speaker : ‘About’. And that about is a thing, an object right? That ‘about’ is an object. You see, let’s say I was born in Afghanistan, and there were all kinds of terrorists around me, now I have a passion for (Demonstrating the firing of a machine gun)
I was born in India so I am passionate about cricket. As every Indian is. Will I be passionate about cricket if I was born in Brazil? Then I will be passionate about?
Students (in unison) : Football.
Speaker : Don’t you see what passion is? I am born with a male body, so I am passionate about girls. I am born with a female body, so I am passionate about boys. Don’t you see what passion is? External influence, what else?
Student : But then every intelligent being is passionate about some subject?
Speaker : Who told you?
Student : Like Albert Einstein.
Speaker : First of all, not subject, object. You are the subject. Any external thing is an object. This is a great fallacy of language to call something outside of yourself as the subject. You are the subject. Everything else is an object.
Student : So, Albert Einstein was passionate about Physics.
Speaker : No, no, not really. You don’t know Einstein then. Einstein was active in religion, in philosophy and in music, Physics was just one of his endeavors.
Student : But then he left religion.
Speaker : What do you mean by that?
Student : He stopped believing in it.
Speaker : Come-on, it’s not a belief. The intelligent man has no beliefs. Because all beliefs come from the past. He just knows. There is a difference between knowing and believing. Do you understand this difference? If I am blind, then I need to believe that there is a door there. But if I have eyes, then do I need to believe that there is a door there? I will know. Religion is not believing . Any intelligent man is bound to be religious. Every intelligent man is religious. Because religion is Intelligence. Religion is knowing. Religion is not belief. Going to the temple or the mosque is not religion.
Student : Sir whatever theories he gave, was that the product of his intelligent or his brain?
Speaker : See, nothing can come from the brain. Information can be given from the brain. For example, I give you a particular information, say a sum in mathematics, a sum in mathematics is a particular information right? Data, do you see? Then working upon that data, that is Intelligence.
Student : Sir, we talked of passion. I want to say that the greatest things are achieved by those people who are passionate all throughout their life.
Speaker : Son, someone else has taught you these things. That “Only passionate people achieve.” No, passionate people do not achieve. Which one of us is not passionate? This world is full of passionate people and what is happening because of that? Your passions, interest, hobbies are all external things which you have absorbed, and they also change because of external influences.
Things which you are passionate about today, you were not yesterday. Neither will you be in the future. Because passion has come from an influence, when that influence goes away, the passion also goes away. Though today you say, “You know, I am so passionate about you that I will never leave you.” Tomorrow you will find another girl who’s more, you know, then you’ll forget all your passion.
~ Excerpts from a Samvaad session. Edited for clarity.
