Essays on the Gita, First Series (Arya Publishing House, 1922)

There are, says the Gita, t\yq _iypes — iiltelligence^in the human being. The first Js r pnrentra ftd, poised, one, homogeneous, directed singly toward^ the TruA ; uni ty is its c h ^cte ristic, concentrated fixity is its very being. In t he oAer Aere is im singlejwill, no unified intelligence, but only an endle^ number of ideas many-branching, coursing about, that is to say, in this or Aat direction 2in pursuit of the desires which are offered to it by life and by the environment. Bud^, the word used, mea ns, properly speaking, the mental powenof ufideii^t andj ng; ^t_it is evidently u sed by t he Gito in, a laige philosophic se nse for the wh ole acti oSLiif the di^iminaJiii^ _and decidi ng min d which d^ermines both the direction and use of our thoughts ancTlhe direction and use of our acts ; t hought, n^hgence, ji ^gment, perceptive choice and aim are all included in its functioning: for the characteristic of the unified intelligence is not only concentration of the mind that knows, but especially concentration of the mind that decides and persists in the decision, vyavasdya, while the sign of the dissipated intelligence is not so much even discursiveness of the ideas and perceptions as discursiveness of ^the aims and desires, therefore of the will. Will, then, and know ledge Jire_the two functions of th e Buddhi. The unifie d, intellig^ t will is fixed *in the eiiTightened soul, it is centrated in^ inner self -kno wledge ; the mafiy- branching and multifarious, busied with many things, careless of the one thing needful is on the contrary subject to the restless and discursive action of the mind, dispersed in outward life and works and their fruits. “Works are far inferior,*' says the Teacher, “to Yoga of the intelligence ; desire rather refuge in the intelligence ; poor and wretched souls are they who make the fruit of their Wj ^rhs the object of their thoughts and activities."