Question: What really is intelligence? Is it something part and parcel of the soul? Is one given a different intelligence in different births, or is it something eternal?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
Material intelligence is one of the energies of Krishna — a subtle material energy, just as earth, water, air etc are gross material energies.
When the spirit soul comes to the material world, just as he is provided with a gross body, he is also provided with a subtle body which constitutes the mind, intelligence and false ego. Krishna identifies all these gross and subtle matter as His separated material energies or inferior energies. The soul is a superior energy of Krishna, and it can manipulate the inferior energies. (Bg 7.4-5)
The subtle body carries the soul from one birth to another through different species of life, and in these different births the intelligence is sometimes more developed, and sometimes dull or dormant, according to the body one achieves by past karma. Material intelligence helps the soul to forget his real identity and to exploit material nature for one’s own attempted sense-gratification.
Spiritual intelligence, on the other hand, is of a different kind. It is the intelligence by which the soul can once again come back to Krishna. To those who have once again turned their attention to Krishna and are constantly trying to serve Him, the Lord directly gives them spiritual intelligence. (Bg 10.10)
