intelligence
Thinking woman
Questions & Answers

Development of Intelligence and the Meaning of Humility

Question: I would like to know how intelligence evolves. Can you give an example of how this takes place?  Answer: Intelligence is the faculty that makes decisions and comprehends situations. It is by intelligence that we determine whether things are good or bad, wrong or right, moral or immoral. Primarily, intelligence develops when we face

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Rasa Lila performance
Questions & Answers Vedic Psychology

Interactions between the Ātmā and the Mind

Question: Who feels pain and pleasure in the conditioned stage? Is it the soul or the mind? Answer: The mind feels it. Question: From where does viveka or the faculty to choose between wrong and right come? Does it come from the buddhi or ātmā? Answer: It comes from buddhi. Question: Does the soul have intrinsic

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Articles by Satyanarayana Dasa

Are We Biased to Believe?

Many years ago, while studying Nyāya and Vedānta, my Nyāya teacher said:   tattva-pakṣa-pāto hi dhiyāṁ svabhāvaḥ “The nature of the intellect is definitely biased towards truth.” At the time, I did not understand the deep implications of this statement. Recently, while teaching Sāṅkhya-kārikā (64), I came across the same statement in Vācaspati Miśrā’s commentary. I

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Gaudiya Vaishnavas General Questions & Answers Sadhana

Mahamantra and Diksha Mantras

Question: As practicing Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas, we chant the Hare Krishna mahāmantra. Did Śrī Caitanya and His associates chant the Hare Krishna mantra? In Caitanya-caritāmṛta or other biographies of Śrī Caitanya, the mahāmantra is not mentioned as the mantra that was chanted. The mahāmantra is itself a legitimate mantra as per Kali-saṇṭāraṇa Upaniṣad, so I have

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