Thought 73: Your Buddhi

Intellect is called Buddhi in Sanskrit. Human beings alone are endowed with intellect (Buddhi). Animals do not have Buddhi. Amongst other things, Buddhi is the faculty of reasoning. The faculty of reasoning is the prerogative of man only – all other living beings are denied this. Thinking and reasoning needs skill. You have to constantly hone these skills to keep them sharp – that is, learn and practice them like any other skill such as music. You have to devote as much effort and time to it as you would to acquire any other skill.

Buddhi is also the deciding faculty within you. The other functions of Buddhi are thinking, reflecting, judging, determining, analyzing, etc. Buddhi creates the Ahankaara (doership); you think that you are a doer (perform Karma). Buddhi distinguishes between the pairs of opposites. It is the center of discrimination (the faculty of distinguishing the right from the wrong, cold from heat etc). Buddhi alone exercises judgment. It alone determines and conveys its decision to the Karmendriyas for execution. Hands, feet, organ of speech, organs of excretion and organs of sex (reproduction) are the Karmendriyas. They execute all the decisions of Buddhi.

Your mind is your background, which you gathered from your family, friends, education, religion etc. All knowledge in a person resides in the mind and Buddhi (Intellect). Actually, what you know intellectually is not the real knowledge. It is book knowledge or indirect knowledge (Paroksha Jnaanam).

Buddhi is conscious of one’s knowledge and accomplishments. To innovate, to create, to discover, to visualize, to imagine, to observe, to conclude, to inquire, to question, to assimilate, etc, are intellectual abilities. Cognition is the primary function of the Buddhi. Based on previous experience, the intellect recognizes, understands and decides the course of action – as soon as it receives the sense perceptions from the mind. It conveys the decision and the course of action to the senses and to the organs of action and to the body - through the mind, of course. That is why Buddhi is called the driver. Buddhi controls the mind and mind controls the senses and the body. This is the internal hierarchy.

The glass sheet, for instance, becomes a mirror only when you coat its bottom with silver. Then only you can see yourself in it. Otherwise, you see others through it but not yourself. Similarly, when you coat your Buddhi with Bhakti, you can see into yourself. Otherwise, you only see others - and that too, mostly you see only what is bad in them.

Intellect is essentially a survival tool. Mere survival is not the goal of human life. Even animals, which are not endowed with Buddhi, manage to survive. Man has to find fulfillment with the help of Buddhi. Spiritual process takes you “from a bundle of conclusions and beliefs to real knowledge and fulfillment”. And this real knowledge is about yourself – which is buried deep within your Buddhi. You are the Aatma – you are not your body-mind complex – which is the real knowledge. When this knowledge unfolds in you, you become fulfilled – and more importantly, you become liberated from Karma and Janma.
The next thought is about “You are the Aatma”