The difference between knowledge and intelligence || On Upanishad (2016)

Questioner: Can I say that intelligence is greater than knowledge, or vice-versa?

Acharya Prashant: They are incomparable.

To say one is greater than the other, you have to bring them to the same plane, have the same unit, the same benchmarks, and the same scale to compare them. They are in different dimensions.

Knowledge is the stuff of mind; Intelligence is the sublimation of mind. Knowledge is the whole movement of mind; Intelligence is the settlement of mind.

Both have their respective places. But obviously, if you want to ask which of these is more fundamental—it is intelligence.

Intelligence is not intellect. Intelligence is not how clever you are. Intelligence is that which enables you to simply see. See the simple even in the complex. See the straightforward and the obvious even in that which is totally complicated. That is intelligence. Intelligence is that which reduces the whole clutter and wipes away the dirt.

In that sense, intelligence is a kind of emptiness. A lack of corruption. Something that is very intrinsic to you. An innate ability, a characteristic which has not been obfuscated or covered by conditioning.