The Intellect:
The world looks on in shock and incredulity as one respected leader after the other explodes onto the headlines with yet another scandal. President Bill Clinton, Senator Edwards, Tiger Woods, Madoff, Martha Stewart, Rajaratnam, Governor Spitzer. Governor Schwartznegger and the Head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
A President of the USA, 2 Governors, 1 a Head of the IMF and quite possibly the next President of France - what happens to these people at the moment when faced with temptation? Confronted with choice of right or wrong at the instant of deciding whether or not to fulfil the insatiable desire of “I want” vs “don’t go there “. To do, or not to do? As a Psychiatrist I am asked why people who have made it to the top make poor choices and destroy everything they've worked for.
It is not possible to be succinct about the complexities and details of the drives and functioning of a human being. Sigmund Freud described two basic drives - sexual and aggressive, and how they determine how we function. Initially Freud presented the Topographic theory and subsequently modified it to describe the Id, the Ego and the Superego. There is another theory which I have used with great success in my practice with many of my patients in the last 40 years . This was taught to mankind through scriptures dating thousands of years ago. It explains how the human functions and what differentiates him from animals or other species.
Essentially , the theory states that materially each person is comprised of three components: the Body, the Mind and the Intellect. What differentiates humans from all other species is the existence of the Intellect which allows us to use reason and analysis to arrive at a decison regarding which action is the appropriate one. Humans therefore can make choices as far as their actions whereas all other animals act according to pre-determined instinctual and genetic drives, without regard for consequences or result.
Plants, insects, animals and humans all have Bodies. when a human is born he has a body, and his Mind and Intellect is still not functioning. So essentially he is still just like a lower species. His Body has 5 organs of Sense, and 5 organs of action. The Body is purely sensual - "its demands are insatiable like fire", the Gita says. No matter how much wood you throw in the fire, it consumes that and is ready for more. The 2 organs of action that get most humans in trouble are the Voice Box and the organs of reproduction.
As the person gets older, his Mind starts to develop. The Mind is only concerned with desires. It keeps throwing up more and more desires, it is fickle and constantly moving, never still. It has been likened in Hindu scripture to a rodent and also to a monkey . A rodent is never satisfied with what it has, it only looks for what it does not have. Even at its own peril. We all see squirrels getting run over by cars as they scurry to gather nuts, even though their nest may be full. Our minds are like squirrels - we forget what we have and keep looking for what we don't have. Monkeys are constantly in motion - they either jump from one tree to another, or, while stationery in one place, they are always fidgeting and moving. Our minds keep jumping from 1 subject to the other and if we force the mind to be stationery and concentrate, while on one subject, it is 'fidgeting' with other thoughts.
So as the child constantly develops, he recognises sense objects and his mind starts down the path of desire. The mind recognises that its partner, the body, also gets immediate (albeit temporary ) pleasure with certain things such as food, love, mothers lap, caressing, a soft lullaby, etc. The mind begins to desire those things. Its organs of action develop by the age of two ( that's why the Terrible Two's ) so he can now avail himself of many of the sense objects by using his legs to crawl to the object ( organ 1 - ambulation) then his arms to grab the object and put it to his mouth (organ 2 - hands) His organs of excretion are operating at birth but he learns through toilet training to control his organs of excretion ( organ 3) if he does not get his way, he screams through his voice box ( organ 4 - the one that will often get him in trouble as he gets older and cannot control - by use of his Intellect - the mind's desire to say certain things)
Organ 5 is the most dangerous in terms of how much trouble it can cause because its close interaction with all 5 senses and with the mind. A sense object is more desirable if it titillates more sense organs, and less if it only touches 1 sense organ. For example music is heard only by 1 sense organ - the ear. Fragrance only by the nose. Hence these sense objects are nice but not very difficult to avoid because only one organ asks for them . So if you were to want to "fast" by not listening to music or not smelling, it would be a much easier that being abstinent from sexual activity. A woman is stimulating to every single sense organ of a man( or a man to a woman ). In addition, depending on the emotional attachment, the mind is also very stimulated by 'love and feelings' and if the person of the opposite sex is intellectually stimulating then even the Intellect screams out for more contact. Thus, for certain people, a sexual person is far more difficult to stay away from than even food, which stimulates far less.
As the child ages to 6 or so, he has been told enough times by his parents, older siblings, teachers, and others what is right and wrong. His Intellect thus starts to develop and learn "good, bad" ,"right, wrong" - and cause and effect. He learns that his actions have consequences. He learns to deny himself the desires to do certain things at first because he knows he will be punished, and later because, as a human who can make choices, he can reason, deduce, intellectualise and know whats right and wrong. At this point he can strengthen his Intellect and say "NO" to his mind and Body when they demand satisfaction or contact with a sense object such as ice cream, candy, toys etc.
By a certain age, the human Intellect was said to have developed completely. That point, when a child is able to control the demands from his mind and body by weighing the pro's and cons through the use of his Intellect, was known as the time when the individual was truly born as a human! A " second birth" or he was "born again". This point was celebrated in many religious communities by a ritual .
Unfortunately, for many of us, we have never been taught to use our Intellect fully because the new motto has been to teach the child that he is 'Number One' and he should 'look out for himself'. In olden times, religious leaders and sages taught that one way to strengthen the Intellect is to put others before ourselves....think of them, not your self, don't be selfish.
It seems as if the modern day mantra of our culture is all about “me-ism” - take care of yourself and don't worry about the other guy. We totally indulge our children,spoiling them into a false sense that the goal is to “have everything they want”. We allow them to not do what they don't want to; because of this children do not fully develop their Intellects, they are not born-again, the rituals are often held to celebrate their "coming of age" more as an expensive party with elaborate gifts with no real understanding of the symbolism behind these age-old rituals. This results in persons not developing their Intellect fully; which really means that he is still an animal, for all purposes. If we follow this logic then it explains why the Head of the IMF would act like an animal, or a Governor of a State would father a child with another woman etc etc. For isn't that the behavior of animals? It is also the behavior of a human operating without an Intellect.
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