The challenges humanity faces today is the failure to distinguish the Intellect from intelligence. Even the educated are unaware of the real nature of the Intellect. Neither do they realize the importance of intellect’s role in human life. Educational institutions have been focusing all their effort and interest on building only intelligence. The development of human intellect has been sadly neglected. The faculty to think, to reason is a human prerogative. All other beings lack this faculty since they do not possess an intellect. People do not care to develop this life-saving and sustaining equipment, the Intellect. Most people believe that thinking is a natural process like seeing, hearing, or breathing. That you can think clearly, precisely without putting in the required effort on your part. Understand that to develop the intellect, you need to devote as much time and effort to it as you would to learning any other art or skill.
Intelligence is built in an individual by gaining information, and knowledge from external sources. From teachers, textbooks, the internet, from schools, and universities. Intelligence is acquired through external sources. Using these sources, you become well-informed, knowledgeable, and even brilliant in one or more subjects that you have taken up. This is an important aspect but serves a limited purpose. Intelligence improves your standard of living. All other creatures have been provided with this expertise naturally. Only humans require some form of education to sustain themselves.
Intellect is distinctly different from intelligence. All other creatures are provided with a built-in program of life. Their lifestyle is fixed. They cannot live apart from their inherent nature. A cow remains a vegetarian, a tiger remains ferocious, they cannot live apart from their nature. The potential of intellect is absent in all other creatures.
The Intellect is the faculty to think, to reason, to analyze, to make the right choices using the available information, gathering more inputs to make refined decisions. Intellect is the capacity to enquire, to question, and not to take anything for granted. You will have to develop your intellect all by yourself. No external sources can achieve that for you. Do not blindly follow the line of your predecessors. Instead, build the strength of your intellect. You can achieve that by using your ability to think, to reason, and to question everything you meet in life. Do not accept anything which does not admit reason and logic. The constant exercise of thinking, reasoning, and questioning all through your life would strengthen your intellect.
Vedanta educates and guides us in the process of gaining Intellect in a liberal manner. Knowledge of Vedanta exposed in early years gives direction to the younger generation. Youngsters would no longer be driven only by scholastic way of choices, but by a combination of Intelligence and strong Intellect.
Text by S A Sreedharan
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