Spiritual Intelligence Book Awdhesh Singh
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Practising Spiritual Intelligence: For Innovation, Leadership & Happiness

By Awdhesh Singh​

Spiritual Intelligence refers to the intuitive knowledge of the self, others, situations and techniques to achieve the desired objectives. Hence it can be called the soul of all intelligences. Spiritual Intelligence enhances our power to inspire others by transforming their souls in such a way that their desires and aspirations are aligned in a single direction. Soul is beyond all reason and intellect. It is, in fact, the source of mind and intellect. One who knows his soul knows the universe, since soul is nothing but the microcosm of the universe. This book on Spiritual Intelligence by Dr. Awdhesh Singh explains this body-soul continuum and suggests practical steps to evolve through the body-senses-mind-intellect to reach our soul. Welcome to this new path of spiritual evolution.

“Convincing and lucid, deftly handles the subject by lacing it with humorous anecdotes.” – Dr. E Sreedharan

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Reviews From Amazon

Excellent book for youths

Only courageous and experienced writers can write such books in 21st century.. Thank u Awdhesh sir.
A book ‘Secret Red book of leadership’ written by same writer is very realistic book. Hats off writer.

Preeti

Very engaging book on spiritual intelligence

I want to thanks a million ton to Dr. Awdhesh singh for writing such a wonderful book..i cant resist myself to read the book..very engaging..in my very busy schedule i spent time and it was worth. I m reading this book second time and going to order few other books from the same author.

Vivek o waghmare

Nicely written with real life examples

I m beginner in spiritual knowledge and this book is very helpful for me to understand the concepts. It invoked the spiritual interest in me. This book makes an eye opening for me. I suggest this book to all, especially for the youngsters.

Adhi Ram

Exploring spirituality in simple terms

It’s great experience to read this book. Most recommended book to those who want to know the meaning of spirituality at easiest possible way. Heartfelt thanks to Awdhesh Singh for the inspiration.

Pratik Patel

This Book is for strengthening your soul

If your soul is dead, fatigued, if you have lost all your energy to work, you feel burnt out and depression has hit you. Then read this book for strengthening your soul. This book tells you how your mind controls your body to wake up with the right energy.

Sachin Naik

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1.1 Defining Intelligence

“Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.” – Albert Camus

Who does not know the meaning of intelligence? We know it because we all have intelligence in varying degrees. Some people are more intelligent than others. One who is short of intelligence is called dumb, fool, stupid and even idiot. 

On his first day at the store, the young salesman was lectured by his boss: “Don’t forget, the customer is always right.”

Not long after, the boss noticed a customer enter the store and leave immediately without buying anything. This happened with successive customers.

“What is wrong?” the boss asked the salesman. “Why aren’t the people buying anything?”

“Well”, said the young man, “They all say the prices are too high and tell them they are right.” [1a]

We know the difference between an intelligent man and a stupid man in the same way as we know the difference between wealthy and poor man. Yet unlike wealth which can be quantified and measured, intelligence remain hidden and unknown unless it is revealed. That is why; it is so difficult to define intelligence which is unseen and unknown gift to all the living creatures by the Unseen and Unknown Supreme.  Since intelligence is too important a matter to be left in the hands of few, everyone try to understand intelligence and become intelligent. Yet the psychologists, who are the experts in conducting the scientific study of mental functions, have failed to arrive at any consensus on defining intelligence. 

In 1921, a classical symposium was convened by the editors of the Journal of Educational Psychology to discuss three questions [1] 

(a) What is intelligence?

(b) How can it be best measured?

(c) What are the most crucial next steps in research? 

Among the 17 leading researchers who participated, 14 different answers were given.

Sixty-five years later, in the year 1986, another effort was made to understand intelligence by asking the same questions. Hence, 27 experts from all over the world were asked to address the issue of intelligence [2]. Yet any consensus on intelligence could not be arrived at and the results achieved were no different than that of 1921. The experts of the 1986 forum offered two dozen definitions of intelligence[3].  

Even now, the experts are not even sure, as to whether or not, intelligence is a single ability or multiple-ability. One group of scientists called lumpers view intelligence as a single capacity while the other category of scientists called splitters view it as divided into many separate mental abilities [4]. For example, Spearman [5] believed that intelligence can be explained only by a pervasive overall mental ability that can be called as “g” factor for general intelligence factor. However, most of the experts consider intelligence as multiple traits.

 Stemberg [6][7]gave Trairchic theory of intelligence which divides intelligence into three traits i.e. analytical intelligence, creative intelligence and practical intelligence. Gardner [8] gave the theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI), which divided it into eight different types of intelligences i.e. Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial, Bodily-kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal and  Naturalist (ability to understand natural and man-made systems). 

One group of investigators headed by J. P. Guilford found that the structure of intellect was composed of 4 contents, 5 operations, and 6 processes. Each of these was mixed and matched to come up with 120 different combinations of abilities [9]. In fact he increased the number of abilities to the final 180 factors responsible for intelligence. [10].

The disagreement over the concept of intelligence does not end here. Some experts believe that creativity is the most important component of intelligence; otherwise even the greatest scientists like Newton and Einstein could not be called intelligent. However, others argue that creativity should not be part of intelligence as it can’t be measured. 

Then there are other types of intelligences like Emotional Intelligence (EI) as understanding the emotions of others is found to be an important attribute of all successful men. The root of emotional Intelligence can be traced thousands of years back in the time of Plato, a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, born around 4th century BC who said, “All learning has an emotional base.”

In the 1930s, Edward Thorndike described the concept of “social intelligence” as the ability to get along with other people. Subsequently, Humanistic psychologists such as Abraham Maslow described how people can build emotional strength.  In 1985, Wayne Payne introduces the term emotional intelligence in his doctoral dissertation entitled “A study of emotion: developing emotional intelligence; self-integration; relating to fear, pain and desire”. Later on in 1987, in an article published in Mensa Magazine, Keith Beasley used the term “emotional quotient.”  It has been suggested that this is the first published use of the term, although Reuven Bar-On claims to have used the term in an unpublished version of his graduate thesis. The concept of emotional intelligence became popular after publication of psychologist and New York Times science writer Daniel Goleman’s book “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ”. [11]

We also find concepts of fluid intelligence (inherited ability to think and reason) and crystallized intelligence (accumulated knowledge-information acquired from experience of a lifetime), proposed by other scientists, as distinct traits of intelligences [12].

The more we study “intelligence”, the more we get confused. Let us now “know” intelligence from experience rather than from definitions.   

Once upon a time, there were four friends in a village. One day, the four friends set out on a long journey. One day, during their journey, they had to cross a dense forest. While passing through the forest, they saw a heap of bones lying under a tree. On seeing the heap, one of them said, “Friends, this is a good opportunity to test our skills. I think these bones are of a certain animal. Let us bring it to life using the knowledge we have acquired.”

The first friend said, “Fine. I will use my skills to assemble the bones into a skeleton”. Then he chanted some mantra and ordered all the bones to come together forming a skeleton. When the skeleton was ready, the second friend chanted some other mantra, commanding flesh and blood to fill the skeleton and skin to cover it. Now, it looked like a lifeless lion.

As the third friend stood up to do the final act of putting life into the lifeless body of the animal, the fourth friend shouted, “Stop! This looks like the body of a lion. If it comes to life, he will kill all of us.” The friend, who was to put life into the body of the animal said, “You are a fool. What do you know in the field of learning and knowledge? Do you think I will lose this opportunity to test my learning? It would be better, if you keep your mouth shut.”

The fourth friend shouted, “Wait a minute” and quickly climbed up a tree nearby. The three friends laughed on the act of their friend. The third friend put life in the lifeless body of the lion. The lion sprang to life and killed all the three learned men.  [13]

 No prize for guessing who amongst them was most intelligent? The answer is known not by any IQ Test but simply by using our commonsense. One who is stupid, fool, dumb or idiot can’t be intelligent even if he acquires all the knowledge of the world. The knowledge which was possessed by the first three friends was extraordinary but they were too stupid to know even the simple truth about the tiger which even the most ordinary man like the fourth friend knew. That is why even a super computer can’t be called intelligent even if it possesses many times more information than the most knowledgeable person of the world. 

Understanding Intelligence

Let us now use our commonsense and not be lost in the maze of the definitions thrown by the experts for “intelligence”.  Consider Intelligence as an attribute of living beings like love, anger, compassion which we all know but can hardly be defined just like millions of words can’t explain the taste of a mango to a person who has never tasted a mango.

One of the simplest and widely accepted definitions of intelligence was proposed by David Wechsler, which defines intelligence [14] as follows:

“Intelligence is the capacity to understand the world and the resourcefulness to cope with its challenges.”

 A distinguished panel of experts [15] defined intelligence as following:

“Intelligence refers to individual’s ability to understand complex ideas to adapt effectively to the environment to learn from experience to engage in various forms of reasoning to overcome obstacle by careful thought.”

 In simple words, “intelligence means the ability to understand the problem and find solution of the problem”. The definition is simple enough but does not explain

  • How to understand a problem?
  • How to solve a problem?

Broadly, there are two types of problems. The first types of problems are those which are absolutely new while the second types of problems are those which are routine or repetitive. In reality, the problems are mixed of the two which has some portion of uniqueness and some portion of repetitiveness. Each problem is unique only in a way that every person is unique though he or she derives all the attributes from the parents and ancestors. 

These solutions of routine problems are documented and well known to the people who study the relevant subjects. Hence, if we have the knowledge of the previous problems and their solutions, all we have to do is to match the present problem with the problems whose solution already exist and we have the solution ready. This job can be done even by a computer which is fed with all the problems and solutions. This type of problem solving can be seen in the examinations of schools and colleges where the students just cram the questions and answers and then they reproduce the answers from their memory. In such a test no one can beat computers which can provide word-by-word answer of the problem and may score hundred percent marks. D.H. Lawrence, the famous British Poet, Novelist and Essayist said very wisely,

“All that we know is nothing, we are merely crammed wastepaper baskets, unless we are in touch with that which laughs at all our knowing”

Often, the crammers who excel academically fail in the real life because the real world is constantly in the state of flux. Everything is changing every moment and no problem is repeated ever. So even if you are taking dip in the same river everyday, the water that washes your body is absolutely new. The problems that we encounter in real life are absolutely new unlike academic problems which remain the same even for generations. Even if the problems are same, the situations have changed as we are dealing with different set of people, in a different organization, in a different time. Even the problem solver i.e. we ourselves are not the same as the person who solved similar problem in past as each individual have different capability and aptitude.   

Therefore, the real life problems can’t be solved by using old knowledge and methods. We need to know a new type of intelligence which can be used to understand and solve the real-life problems of the world.

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