Mind and intellect

Received from Vathsala Jayaraman, Exrbites Group.

Mind and intellect

Recently I happened to read a book 'Medha Shakthi Vs Mahat Shakthi .

The human mind has two distinct capabilities. One is to acquire worldly skills and another is to do spiritual discrimination. These two faculties are called Medha Sakthi (cleverness) and Buddhi (intellect) respectively. 

 Buddhi is like a pipeline that connects Atma with the rest of the tools that are gifted by the Lord to the human beings. 

After Buddhi, the manas (Mind) plays a prominent role with respect to our memory, worldly knowledge, analytical skills, emotions, etc. 

 Medha Sakthi is how we convert the reactions of our senses into worldly knowledge whereas Buddhi is how we make decisions in our life using our discrimination power. 

 There are three components of Buddhi.he Buddhi. They are  Shradda (earnestness), the product of yearning and steadfastness. It is the earnestness that set goals for the well-being and improvement of true knowledge in a human being. 

The next is called Sathyam (Truth) which provides the ability or the human being to recommend right actions. Sometimes, this is called inner voice and this is very feeble if the mind is dominant and powerful if the mind is subservient. More the mind reaches out to Atma through the pipeline of Buddhi, our actions become right and invaluable. It is about empowering the Buddhi to carry the messages to the divine consciousness. 

Lastly, there is Yoga (power of control) which has the ability to guide the mind how to control the senses and the body. All of them together, i.e. Shradda, Sathyam and Yoga when reach their full capacity become Mahat Sakthi (Divine Power).

Being exclusively related to the phenomenal world, Medha Sakthi would help a person to be shrewd in worldly matters and achieve success in society. However, it is Buddhi that helps a person eliminate encryption to liberate the divine consciousness. When the body and senses listen to the mind and when the mind listens to the intellect, the human thoughts, words and actions are sanctified by the Mahat Sakthi.

 A clever man is restless, does not enjoy peace, and often goes through mental conflicts based on rules defined by the analytical mind. He becomes a slave to his ego, which casts a veil over the Self and renders Buddhi ineffective.

In Mahabharatha, when Arjuna was ready for the war, despite the Medha Sakthi he possessed to fight any warrior, it didn’t come to his rescue at a time when he faced all his relatives in front of him in a battlefield. It is the Lord Krishna who taught him Bhagavad Gita to make him understand the difference between Medha Sakthi and Mahat Sakthi. When he asked Lord Krishna, “Are you saying Krishna that Medha Sakthi is irrelevant?”, the Lord responded, “No. It is very important. One needs to know everything about the environment one lives. In fact, we need the body and mind in order to execute the divine command that comes from Buddhi. 

But all I am saying is to consult Buddhi to reach the divine consciousness so that it will be filled with Shradda, Truth and Yoga and becomes Mahat Sakthi.”

“Manomoolam Idam Jagath” is the saying meaning, “the world we see is what the mind projects us it to be”. Therefore, if we aspire to learn the true knowledge, practice truth and control the senses and the mind by the constant use of the intellect, the pipe that brings the divinity to the human, the world we see will be different than what we see from our Medha Sakthi alone. We also need Medha Sakthi to understand the environment but eventually, it is Mahat Sakthi that provides the peace we aspire. Medha Sakthi gives us the free will and Mahat Sakthi gives us the divine energy.

Vathsala Jayaraman

Vishnu Kelkar's view:

The difference between intellect and mind 

You begin to think before you speak and therefore you cut out unnecessary chatter. You speak less ... you begin to understand the greatness of silence. You become content, the satisfaction you feel about life increases. To be sure, the feelings of discontent, dissatisfaction are the preserve of the mind, yet it is equally true that these can be controlled through the use of the intellect. The keener, sharper intellect cab be used to develop a freer, clearer, cleaner mind. It can be used to increase concentration. This is how the intellect can be used to see things in the right perspective - objectively... in their true colour and texture. Therefore the buddhi is compared to sight or vision. Collect, process and store as much information as your intellect is capable of handling . In doing so, you increase the capability of your intellect. And the truth is that until and unless your intellectual capabilities increase, your view about life will not mature, you will not understand the true essence , the true import of being alive. If what you see, hear or read is not processed, 

understood and stored away quickly and efficiently or is willfully ignored not only is the growth of the intellect stymied but your inherent intuitional and inspirational powers die out. This in turn is a great blow to the intellect. In this scenario, the interpretative and analytical powers are extinguished and the intellect becomes lethargic. The intellectual lethargy brings about dependency, loss of freedom and eventually intellectual bankruptcy. It follows that intellectual poverty brings with it financial poverty and consequently ill health .

Thus use your intellect to the right extent and in the right manner and it will grow exponentially . A word of caution: do not let hate, revenge, jealousy and laziness entrap your intellect. The intellect thus entrapped by these vicious emotions expends itself in plotting and planning its own downfall. This is a criminal waste of intellectual energy, which obviously now weakens and is destroyed. Along with itself it destroys your life. The intellect is a god given gill, an elixir of life. Man dies every moment he lives; it is only through the use of his intellect that he can be alive each and every moment of his life.

V N Kelkar