"The Fall of the Human Intellect" by Shri Parthasarathy ji is a crisp and short book of 140 pages, and it took me almost 3 months to finish. This is such a kind of book that needs time to contemplate and reflect upon the points discussed. More importantly, given its condensed nature, it requires deeper explanation and analogies to connect to the topics.
I'm grateful to YouTube for bringing this book and Vedanta Academy to my attention. I signed up for the book discussion sessions organized by Vedanta Institute Kolkata. The weekly sessions conducted by Ramaswamy ji have been insightful with beautiful explanations and correlations drawn based on the topics from the book. He brings in a lot of clarity through references from scriptures and personal anecdotes.
The book reading experience, aptly supported by lectures from two scholars of Vedanta, has helped me understand the topic of "Intellect", factors that have led to its deterioration, and the impact we are facing because of its downfall - both from an individual and society point of view, and ways to develop one's intellect.
From the point of view of the book, the author has provided convincing arguments on the derangement of our intellect and why it is an important problem to address in our society. He sets the foundation by explaining how our Self expresses itself through multiple roles, resulting in various personalities. He then takes us on a journey to help us understand how the mind wreaks havoc when not governed by the intellect. Our likes/dislikes, desires, and anxieties take precedence, leading to attachment and bondage.
Intellect plays a vital role in looking at life objectively, in thinking, deciding, and making life choices, and in the way we relate to the world. There are too many valuable takeaways in the chapters that stress the role of intellect. For eg, the author talks about the lack of individual assessment in humans. We bucket ourselves into groups and judge our character and personality based on the group(s) we belong to. This is similar to how we name all tigers as aggressive. The author argues that each individual has a unique fingerprint of vasanas or tendencies and every human helplessly manifests his own nature.
The differences between mind and intellect, intelligence and intellect, knowledge and wisdom are well explained.
The language is simple and easy to understand without any complex jargon. He has also used multiple references (poems and stories) from English literature to drive home certain key points. I so wish this book was more descriptive as the topics discussed need more coverage and detailing.
A few of my favorite phrases:
"Unrestricted indulgence kills the enjoyment that you seek".
"One needs an intellect to notice the absence of intellect."
"Concentration is the technique exercised by the intellect to hold the mind on the present occupation without allowing it to slip into the past or future".
"Knowledge has to be drawn out of students. Not thrust into them".
"A person possessing a strong intellect acts cautiously to keep his desires contained within the wealth acquired".
The learnings and takeaways from this book can be greatly enhanced if you sign up for the book discussion sessions organized by Vedanta Academy in various cities/countries, along with reading the book at a slow pace.