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On the other hand, if there’s a human being who’s doing this job instead of this machine, which means he’s selling water bottles; the situation may change altogether. The chances are high that he may not even care for someone to approach him and tell him that a person is suffering, he needs water and no one has that specific coin or say any type of money for that matter.
As he has heart, an intense feeling of helping this person out of his situation may rise as soon as he finds him falling on the ground in front of his shop. Accordingly, he may not wait for anything, he may grab a bottle of water and he may run to the suffering person so that he may feel relieved at the earliest. You see, how much can change in the absence of heart? It should be noted that this example doesn’t mean anything against any type of machine and it only indicates the fact that machines don’t have hearts and hence they can’t do the things which require the application of heart.
The intellect can help us create a number of useful resources but it can’t help us enjoy the services offered by those resources; as enjoyment is a feeling and the intellect doesn’t deal in feelings to start with. All types of feelings and emotions fall into the domain of heart and this is what makes it a very important entity because without feelings and emotions, we may be able to pass time, we may never be able to live life in its true sense.
As already mentioned, the heart has the ability to live in the moment and it doesn’t need to store much information on the subconscious mind, in order to do what it wants to do, in most cases. The intellect on the other hand, operates in a different manner as it finds information about things, people and places; it stores such information on subconscious mind and it needs that information in order to deal with those specific things, people or places in future.
Hence the ability of intellect depends largely on the amount of information it has stored on the subconscious mind, whether such information has been stored in this life or in a number of past lives. Therefore, the definition of an intellectual person includes the condition that the person in question has gathered and stored a large amount of information related to various spheres in a number of lives, on his subconscious mind and he’s able to use this information to his advantage, as and when he comes across those spheres.
It is certainly a big advantage but it comes at a cost and at times, this cost may prove higher or much higher than the value of information stored by the intellect on the subconscious mind. This is because the intellect may keep sending more and more information to the subconscious mind, the latter may keep storing it and as this process goes on, the subconscious mind may get cramped with pieces of information of various types.
This is the time to know that the subconscious mind perfectly fits the saying which is used for the ocean, ‘the ocean never keeps anything inside it forever and whatever goes in, must come out at one time or another’. It may or may not be true in case of the ocean but it is absolutely true in case of the subconscious mind. Accordingly, more information you’re storing on it, more is the number of thoughts it may keep sending to your conscious mind and as you can understand; more thoughts mean less peace of mind.
I guess now you know why a number of intellectual people tend to suffer from mental problems like anxiety, restlessness, difficulty in sleeping and even from bigger types of mental problems. These people keep collecting new pieces of information at a fast pace and they keep storing them on their subconscious minds. As the subconscious mind of such a person stores more and more information, it keeps sending more and more thoughts related to that information, to his conscious mind. As these thoughts increase in number and as they don’t stop from appearing even when this person tries to stop them; his mental rest is disturbed and he may suffer from mental problems, which may vary in quantum, depending on a number of variables.
The primary reason that people in the old times had fewer resources but they still lived much more happily than the people of this age; is that they didn’t assign undue importance to intellect. These people didn’t store such information on their subconscious minds through their intellects, which they didn’t need often in their lives. For instance, an average person from the past didn’t care to learn more and more about medicines, if his profession didn’t deal in medicines. Whenever he felt like suffering from a health problem, he’d go to a doctor and consult him for suitable medicine.
Let’s compare this to an intellectual person of this day and age. He has learnt about a number of medicines which may prove useful for him; which means he has remembered most of the medicines he has used for any types of health issues he has faced till a point in his life. For instance, if he suffers from urinary infection, the doctor prescribes him a medicine and he gets well, he may feed that medicine in his memory so that he may use it whenever he suffers from urinary infection again. He keeps doing so in case of most other medicines and soon, it becomes a habit.
Some people may go even farther and they may feed information related to those medicines also, which their family members used for treating certain problems they had at times. Doing so may give them an edge in the domain of intellect as they have better chances of treating themselves on their own in future and they may even try to treat other people around them, through the information they have.
For instance, if a friend suffers from urinary infection; such a person may draw information related to this health problem from his subconscious mind and he may suggest his friend to try this medicine. Whether such medicine works for his friend or not is not the scope of this discussion, but we’ll still assume it works. Though storing more and more information on the subconscious mind, related to various medicines may help this person, it comes at a cost as it can disturb his peace of mind.
Some people go even beyond this, they store the names of all the medicines used by them on their minds and if they tend to suffer from a different type of health issue; they may open a search engine on the internet and they may try to find more about this health issue as well as about the medicines which may help in case of this health issue. Once again, they may find the correct medicine through internet; but that may happen only after a long history of browsing through different pieces of information and storing them on their subconscious minds.
Though this information can certainly help, it keeps filling the subconscious mind of such a person with more and more information, which may lead to many types of problems. For instance, he goes to a late night party, he enjoys eating and drinking a number of items, he comes back and he feels the urge to urinate more than usual. Though the problem with urine may not be much to handle and he may still be able to have peaceful sleep, the problem with his mental plane may become too much to handle.
As he’s the intellectual type, it is natural for him to try and find the cause of such more than usual urine. His conscious effort may generate a request which may activate his subconscious mind and as a result, all the pieces of information related to this problem may start coming to his conscious mind. For instance, when he consulted the doctor once for this problem, he suggested him a list of food items which might cause this problem on temporary basis like for 2 to 6 hours as these items might be diuretic in nature, like any drink containing caffeine.
He may start scanning through all the food items he had at this party and this may put load on his intellect; at this late in the night when rest is a better option for his intellect. Another thought may come from memory that sometimes, sitting in a specific seating pose which may press the bladder more than usual for a significant period of time may also cause this effect on temporary basis. The intellect once again starts working on it and it tries to find out whether it happened or not. A number of other such pieces of information may come to his conscious mind through his subconscious mind and he may keep working on them, let’s say for an hour or so.
Another complication which may rise is that among a number of things which may cause this effect on temporary as well as on long term basis; he may have done two or more than two of such things. For instance, he may have had an energy drink which contains caffeine and which can create this effect for 2 to 6 hours. He may also have had a specific type of meat which has the tendency to initiate a urinary infection, though it may happen in one in hundred such incidences only.
Similarly, there may be other things also, which may be responsible for a temporary or permanent problem related to more than usual quantity of urine. He may get confused as to which one of them may have caused this problem and this may take more time; as well as put more load on his intellect as it has to rationalize which one of those things may have caused this problem.
He may finally reach the conclusion that if this problem doesn’t go away by the morning, he’ll try the medicine which is also stored on his subconscious mind, which has come to his conscious mind now and he has repeated its name a number of times inside his conscious mind, so that he may not forget it by tomorrow morning. This is what many of us do, we repeat such pieces of information in our conscious minds which are very likely to be used soon. All this effort may take an hour or more; he may be able to sleep only after that; or even after two hours as it is not an easy job to put your mind to rest at once, especially when it’s been processing at fast pace for an hour or so. Hence he may be able to sleep even after two hours, from the time he goes to bed.
Suppose he wakes up in the morning and the problem is gone by now. Very likely, it was caffeine which caused this effect on temporary basis and hence this effect went away on its own. Nothing much has happened to him in reality but he has lost a couple of valuable hours of sleep, bothering to solve something which wasn’t there in the first place. This is how your intellect can cause problems for you, if you use it beyond healthy level.
Let’s consider an emotional person in the same situation. He comes back and he finds himself passing urine which is more in quantity than usual, though it is not troublesome, like in the first example. All he may think is that it may be temporary and hence there’s no need to worry. Another thought may come that if it doesn’t go away by tomorrow, he’ll consult a doctor or he may find the previous prescription for this problem when it happened in the past, he may try that medicine and see what happens. That’s all he may do and he may then sleep in no time. By the morning, his problem is also gone but he has not missed his sleep like the intellectual person.
It is interesting to note that even this emotional person’s intellect may generate the couple of thoughts mentioned in this example, as thoughts are created by the intellect, whether they’re conscious or subconscious. Conscious thoughts are the ones which are created freshly by the intellect whereas subconscious thoughts are the ones which it created in the past and they were stored on the subconscious mind which keeps recreating them naturally, as and when it finds fit.
As this person is emotionally dominated, he may not store much information related to this incident of urinary infection which happened in the past. An intellectual person may intentionally try to remember the names of all medicines prescribed for this problem whereas an emotional person may not bother much and he may simply keep the prescription at a safe place; so that he may find the name of the medicine in case he needs it. The same may happen to many other aspects related to this incident where the intellectual person may store all the information on his subconscious mind; and the emotional person may store all such information outside his mind.
Accordingly, the subconscious mind of this person doesn’t have much information related to this incident and hence it may not send many thoughts or pieces of information to his conscious mind, which saves time and effort. In addition to that, an emotional person doesn’t care much about thoughts and he lives by feelings. Hence even if a couple of thoughts may rise from his subconscious mind, he may not care paying intention to them because paying attention to thoughts needs intellect; and intellect is what he doesn’t believe in much.
You see, the incident is the same, but two different types of people react differently where one of them may lose his sleep over this incident and the other one may remain unaffected by it, almost completely. It should be noted that even if a urinary infection has happened in reality, the relevant steps are to be taken in the morning only. Hence there is no point in wasting time over this issue in the night, when you should be sleeping and putting your intellect to rest so that it may feel fresh in the morning. This way, it may actually be in a better position to handle this problem as it has recovered from fatigue.
This is just one incident and there are thousands of such incidents in everyone’s life. Though one of these incidents may not make much difference to disturb your peace of mind significantly; thousands of such incidents joined together can certainly do significant amount of damage to your peace of mind. Hence intellect should not be used at places where things can be managed without it, and it should only be used when its usage becomes necessary. Feeding each and every piece of information to your subconscious mind through your intellect can certainly give you instant advantages at times; this practice comes at high cost and hence it should be avoided.
Apart from disturbing your peace of mind, unnecessary use of intellect may not even let you enjoy properly, many times in your life. This is because you start thinking about things which should be enjoyed instead. This reminds me of a small but valuable incident from real life. Not long ago, I went to Haridwar which is a city famous for taking bath in Ganges, the holiest river in Hindu religion. It is believed that this city has places where the water of this river becomes holier compared to when it reaches most other places. Hence a number of people visit this city to take bath in Ganges.
Apart from the fact that this river is considered as the holiest river in Hindu religion, its water is cold and alive enough to make you feel immense joy, even if you’re not bathing for religious purposes. In addition to that, the scene around the intentionally prepared bathing venue is beautiful with hills all around; and it adds more value to the feeling of joy. Hence it may prove a beautiful experience, if you like bathing in rivers.
As we went at this place made for bathing and as we entered the life giving water of this river, the two of us enjoyed this water differently, based on our overall personalities. As soon as my friend entered, he said that there was more than usual sand in the water, which meant there’s rain on the hills. This river came from the hills and when it rained on the hills; more sand was added to this river. Moving ahead, he said that there was significant amount of soil also, which also suggested the evidence of rain as some hills offer soil instead of sand, when it rained.
Then he looked at a small tree branch and he said that this tree branch indicated that rain was accompanied by a storm also since tree branches had fallen into the river. He then spotted a bigger tree branch and he said that the storm seemed to be of significant strength as the river contained very big tree branches. It went on like this for some time, he told many other things; and then he changed the topic.
He told me that the water of Ganges had something special about it. He added that contrary to the water from many other sources, you might store this water in a plastic can or in any other type of pot or box for as long as twenty or fifty years or even longer; neither fungus would grow on it nor any other type of deformity would be witnessed. He mentioned that many scientists and researchers had been trying to find the cause behind it and he then started providing facts in support of the information given by him, while I kept enjoying the water of this river. This went on for about 30 to 40 minutes and he only stopped once we stepped out of the river.
As far as I was concerned, I never engaged in a conversation and he kept talking alone, as I intentionally stopped my intellect to interfere in the experience which was purely meant for my heart. While he kept explaining the facts related to the water of this river, he forgot to enjoy this water, which was so special according to him. On the other hand, I used my heart to get as much life out of this experience as I could and by the time we got out, I was feeling as fresh as I could.
You see, both of us bathed in this river but the experiences were almost the opposite. While I enjoyed and lived this bath to the fullest, my friend did everything but bathe. Standing in water or dipping yourself in water cannot be called bathing, especially when it comes to do so in a river like this one. Bathing in a river like this is an enhanced experience filled with feelings of joy; and joy can only be felt with heart and not with intellect. Hence according to me, he never bathed in this river on that day because he didn’t feel the life enriching water of this river even for a moment. All the time, he was busy using his intellect, when he should have been using his heart. You see, how much damage can your intellect do at times?
It should be noted that my friend may not have done all this with conscious effort and it may all have started naturally or so to say, through his subconscious mind. As he has developed the habit of using his intellect a lot, he may not be able to stop it from working, even when he wants to do so.
This is because he’s always given priority to intellect over heart and this preference has been stored on his subconscious mind. Accordingly, his subconscious mind suggests him to use intellect in each and every situation, even if such situation demands against the use of intellect in order to be handled in the best possible way. In addition to this, he keeps collecting almost each and every type of information related to everything that comes his way. This information gets stored on his subconscious mind and as it holds more and more information, it starts sending more and more thoughts to his conscious mind in all situations, where these thoughts may be relevant to those situations.
For instance, he stored all such information about this river and as soon as he stepped into this river, his subconscious mind started sending pieces of information related to this river, as they are naturally the most relevant thoughts at this time. Yes, there is no doubt that the thoughts related to this river are the most relevant thoughts in this situation but kindly understand, this situation suggests against the use of any types of thought at all, to start with.
This is not a situation to use thoughts or information and this situation demands the use of heart, feelings, emotions and the experience generated through all of them. Therefore, even the most relevant thought in this situation is equal to the most irrelevant thought in the same situation; as the concept of any type of thought is irrelevant in this situation to start with. Accordingly, any type of thought is as useless as any other type of thought and hence there is no difference between them, at this time.
This is the problem between your intellect and your heart. The way your intellect may see it is that the thoughts generated by your subconscious mind are the most relevant ones according to this situation, whereas your heart may find them as absurd as the thought of being bankrupt or any other thought for that matter. This is because all your heart wants at this time is to feel this moment and anything that stops it from doing so is equally bad. Since every type of thought is doing the same thing in this situation, which is to keep your heart away from enjoying the moment; they’re all the same and they’re all equally irrelevant to your heart.
Let’s now try to understand it in the language of intellect, so that it may become easy to understand for people who use little heart and a lot of intellect. Suppose you have Rs. 1000 only with you; you really need to get on a train in order to reach city X today, for an important assignment and the ticket costs Rs. 800. As you try to approach the ticket window, suppose someone comes to you and he offers to sell a branded travel bag for Rs. 500, when its retail price is Rs. 1000 or even more. Though you may certainly have purchased this bag at any other time if you had money as you need it, you can’t afford to do so as reaching the city X is much more important than this bag.
Considering another option, suppose the ticket seller offers you 50% discount or even more, if you choose to go to city Y instead of going of city X. He offers you this ticket for Rs. 900 when the routine price may be Rs. 2000. Let’s take another option and suppose he offers you the train ticket to city X for Rs. 400, if you choose to go tomorrow, instead of going today. You have no choice and you refuse these offers also as your intellect warns you that the train to city X must not be missed today. All these offers are intellectual offers and hence it should be easy to distinguish between them, for intellectual people.
Let’s first look at the relevance of these offers and try to arrange them in the order of relevance. The offer to go to city Y looks like the most irrelevant offer because you don’t’ have anything to do there and hence you may not want to purchase the ticket to this city, even for Rs. 100. The offer for travel bag may come higher in relevance because you need a travel bag, you like this brand and the discount is really good. Hence if you had extra money, you might have bought it. Since you don’t have that extra money, your intellect tells you to miss this opportunity.
The offer to go to city X tomorrow is the most relevant offer. This is because it takes you to the same city you want to go and in addition to that, it offers you the luxury to avail the second offer also; as you’ll have Rs. 600 with you, after you purchase the ticket for Rs. 400. With this money, you can purchase the travel bag and you can still have Rs. 100 with you. This is why this offer is the most relevant according to your situation. However, as you simply can’t afford to miss this train today, you choose to stay away from this offer also.
Since there are no emotions involved in all these choices and everything deals with needs generated by intellect; it should be easy to understand this example, for intellectual people. Moving ahead, we have reached this conclusion that offer three is the most relevant one followed by offer one and then followed by offer two. This may look perfect till this point but it is going to change completely, from here on.
Let’s now try to understand why do you have the need to refuse all these offers? Whether it is the most relevant offer or it is the least relevant offer, availing any one of them leads to the same as well as unwanted result in this situation; which is that you’ll miss this train today; which you simply can’t afford to do. Since the end result delivered by all of them is the same, they become equally relevant or so to say, they become equally irrelevant in this situation. It may not look convincing to some of you, but this is how it is.
Kindly understand that the relevance of all these offers should be considered only if you’re going to avail at least one of them. On the other hand, if you’re not in a position to avail any of these offers and many other such offers for that matter, what is the point in taking so much time to find out which one is more relevant among them?
If you keep thinking about them while in train; when you didn’t avail any of them; your intellect is creating illusions. This is because these offers became things of past as soon as you moved on. Hence they’re not there in reality at this time and you’re only creating them in your illusions. Therefore, any such offers should be considered for relevance, only if you’re going to avail one or more than one of them; and not otherwise.
A person with intellect alone may keep wasting time to find out the order of relevance of these offers even if he’s not going to avail any of them or even when he’s moved on and he’s in train. On the other hand, a person who has conscience along with intellect may not even think twice about these offers as they’re all equally irrelevant to him, at this stage. This is what your conscience does, it helps your body, intellect and heart operate in a smooth manner and stay away from unnecessary burdens.
I’m not against the use of intellect and what I’m trying to convey is that everything has a proper place and it should be used at that place only. The primary objective in each and every situation should be assessed first and only then, the entity best suitable to achieve that objective should be used. The primary objective of going to Haridwar was to enjoy bathing in Ganges and it was not to talk about Ganges, as that could have been done back at home.
Accordingly, any type of thought that prohibits the achievement of this objective is equally irrelevant. The relevance of a thought about Ganges should only be considered in comparison when a debate or discussion is going on, related to this topic. If such is the case, the information shared by my friend may certainly prove relevant.
However, this information is equal to crap at this time because this is not the time to think, this is the time to feel and live in the moment. When it comes to feel and live in the moment, only your heart knows how to do it and hence the command in all such situations should be passed on to your heart, of course under the guidance of your conscience as your heart has a tendency to go too far, in many situations : )
In a different situation, suppose a team of researchers approaches this river in order to conduct some research related to the water of this river. Suppose one of these researchers is an intellectual type and another one is primarily an emotional type though he may still possess significant amount of intellect as otherwise, he may not become a scientific researcher to start with.
As this team approaches this river, the intellectual one may be purely interested in scientific facts and other such information related to the water of this river, which may prove useful for the purpose of their research. On the other hand, the emotional person may partly conduct this research and he may partly be busy in enjoying the beauty of this river. If his emotions put pressure, he may even start taking bath in this river, while he’s on duty and he should be conducting research instead of bathing in this river.
You see, the river is the same but the situation has changed. In the first example, the primary objective for approaching this river is to enjoy bathing in this river and hence heart should be used in this case. On the other hand, the primary objective for approaching this river in the second case is to study its water. Accordingly in this case, the use of intellect is justified and the interference of heart should not be allowed or it should be kept to the minimum. It may not look like a big issue to some people if the emotional type enjoys the beauty of this river on duty and he even takes bath in it, the issue is much bigger than you may imagine.
Himanshu Shangari