Bhagavagd Gita - Session 23- Track 2308

The animals are not rational beings because they don’t have understanding of ‘essence’; they don’t have understanding of ‘universal’. In the case of even a small human child very soon he will understand what is ‘universal’ and what is ‘essence’. Once you show him one piece of cloth; two pieces you try to show him two pieces of clothes one after the other after he will understand himself this is also cloth. There is a capacity of ‘universal’ understanding. This capacity of grasping the essence, grasping the universal is a very special faculty of intelligence, which is called buddhi. So, manas and buddhi are distinguishable in this sense. That manas is ‘sense-mind’, there is concreteness, there is experience; whereas here there is no experience and yet understanding; there is abstraction and yet you understand. The speciality of this capacity is also what is called “discrimination”. How do you distinguish one from the other? It is only by universality. It is only when I understand “universal cloth” that I can say that this cloth is different from the wall, because I understand the universal wall; universal cloth and universal wall having been understood, I can discriminate between this piece of cloth and this piece of wall. Without the understanding of universality, I cannot discriminate.

So, understanding of the essence, of universality and of discrimination is a special faculty, which is called buddhi; and every human being has got this capacity; or you might say it is essentially present, may be developed more or developed less. When you scold a child, that “you don’t have intelligence, you don’t understand: buddhi nehi hai tumhara”. What do you mean actually? It only means that he is not able to discriminate; that means that he has not understood ‘universal’; he has not grasp the ‘essence’. When you say: ‘this boy is very intelligent’. What do you mean? That he is able to grasp the essence very quickly. You just do one sum, he understand the principle and after he applies in hundred of sums very easily, because he has understood the essence of it. The child who does not understand the essence immediately, he is called unintelligent, although he has some intelligence because by some further examples, he is able to understand universal involved in it. The more you give to the child the experience of universal, of essence, of discrimination, the more intelligent he becomes. All intelligence is nothing but maturity of the understanding of the ‘essence’, ‘universal’ and ‘discrimination’.

Now, this capacity is there in the world, you might say in the human consciousness, it is inherent: inherent means it is there even though it may not be developed, it may require to be developed; but that development is always a question of further refinement. There are people who understands, who can grasp differences of colours, there are some others who cannot understand, although they see colours and differences of colours, but they don’t understand so many colours, they mix up one colour with the other. Or even if you ask him to describe so many colours that he has seen, he may not be able to describe them; it requires training, it requires development, but basic capacity exists.

So, just as sense experience exists automatically, similarly in all human beings, there is an automatic intelligence of grasp of the essence, universality and discrimination: that is called buddhi.

Then, comes ahaṁkāraḥ, the third element. In the human psychology, whether you like it or not everywhere you find a principle of division and identification with one division against the other, and this identification leading to say, “this is mine, that is thine, this is me, this is you”, this distinction. A mark of distinction which identifies itself with one as against the other is not only discrimination, something more is added: “this is mine, this is yours, this is me, this is you, I am quite different from others”. What is this sense? “All others may be like this but I am quite different”. What is that sense? It is automatic, you don’t need to teach anybody that, “look, you have to learn what is yours and what is mine and what is thine”, it is automatic, even with a child who does not understand this distinction, in some respect he understands it; you give a slap to his cheek, he understands that, “this slap is mine”. So, that minimum discrimination he understands and it is automatic. Just as sense is automatic, concept is automatic; sense of ‘egoity’ is also automatic: this is something that is inherent in our nature. All these are manifestations of Prakriti. In all that is there in the world, in a few words Sri Krishna describes the whole world of our physical and our psychological experience. This is already a savijñānam, quite in detail it is given, but although in two lines:

bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca |
ahaṁkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā || (VII, 4)

This is ‘one’ kind of Prakriti of mind; this Prakriti is different from the Prakriti, which are now described latter on: this is one kind of Prakriti.

Now, in the second one, again two sentences, but so heavy, so difficult…let us see:

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām | (VII, 5)

This is what I call Apara Prakriti (aparā prakṛti): what I have described so far is Apara Prakriti, but there is anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām, but now you understand Para Prakriti, now you understand there is another Prakriti which I have, which is called Para Prakriti. Now, how do you know that Para Prakriti? So He indicates there is one word only again, very brief: jīvabhūtāṁ, it is that Prakriti…

On what is this ‘egoity’ based on? Discrimination?

Yes, that’s right………….