Science of the Rishis: A Daily Rhythm

Part III: Mastering the Mind: Why Intellect Should Serve, Not Rule

ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY AGAINST INTELLECT? SHOULD ONE NEVER USE ONE’S HEAD AT ALL?

I AM NOT ABSOLUTELY against intellect. It has its uses but they are very limited, and you have to understand their limitations. If you are working as a scientist you will have to use your intellect. It is a beautiful mechanism, but it is beautiful only if it remains a slave and does not become the master. If it becomes the master and overpowers you then it is dangerous. Mind as a slave to consciousness is a beautiful servant. Mind as a master of consciousness is a very dangerous master.

The whole question is of emphasis. I am not absolutely against intellect — I use intellect myself, how I can be against it? Right now, talking to you, I am using it. But I am the master; it is not my master. If I want to use it I use it. If I don’t want to use it, it has no power over me. But your intellect, your mind, your thinking process continues whether you want or not. It does not bother about you — as if you are nobody at all — it goes on and on; even when you are asleep it goes on working. It does not listen to you at all. It has remained in power for so long that it has forgotten completely that it is only a servant.

When you go for a walk you use your legs. But when you are sitting there is no need to go on moving your legs. People ask me, “Osho, for continuously two hours you go on sitting in the same posture. You don’t even move your legs once.” Why should I move? I am not walking! I know you, because even if you are sitting on your chair you are not really sitting. You are moving your legs, changing your positions, postures, doing thousand-and-one things, tossing and turning — a great restlessness.

The same is true about your mind. If I am talking to you I am using the mind. The moment I stop talking my mind stops too, immediately! If I am not talking to you my mind has no need to go on working, it simply goes into silence. That’s how it should be. It should be natural. While asleep I don’t dream; there is no need. You dream only because so much work has been left undone in the day that the mind has to do it. It is overtime work — you have not been able to finish in the day.

And how can you finish anything? You are doing thousand-and-one things simultaneously. Nothing is ever finished; everything remains incomplete — and remains incomplete forever. You will die, but nothing will be complete. Not even in a single direction your work will be complete, because you are running in all the directions, you have become many fragments, you are not integrated. The mind is dragging you into one thing, the heart is dragging you into another, the body wants you to go somewhere else, and you are always at a loss whom to listen. And the mind is also not one, you have many minds — you are multi-psychic. There is a crowd of minds in you. There is no unity, ho harmony. You are not an orchestra — nothing is in tune; everything is going on its own; nobody listens to anybody else — you simply create noise not music.

Intellect is good if it functions as a servant of the whole. Nothing is bad if it is in its right place and everything is wrong if it is in the wrong place. Your head is perfectly good if it is on your shoulders. If it is somewhere else then it is wrong.

Working as a scientist, intellect is needed. Working in the marketplace, the intellect is needed. Communicating with words, talking to people, the intellect is needed. But it is a very limited use. There are far greater things where intellect is not needed at all. And where it is not needed it goes on functioning there, too; that’s the problem. You should be capable… a meditator becomes capable, he becomes very fluid, flexible, he does not become idiotic. He uses his intellect, but he uses his intuition too — he knows that their functions are different. He uses his head, he uses his heart too.

Theory: Servant or Master? The True Role of the Intellect in Daily Life

Mindful Workplace (Sattva): Mouna (Intentional Silence & Mental Off-Switch) – The mind only stops when you give it permission. Speech and mental chatter consume immense vital energy (Prana).

• Workplace Practice: Digital & Conversational Rest Stops. Implement strict quiet periods in your day. Do not feel compelled to comment on every thread, chime into every casual debate, or constantly check Slack/Teams. When a task ends, intentionally close the mental tab – stop talking, stop typing, and let the intellect return to silence.