Intelligence is fully yours, and yet you cannot own it

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question (Q): Is it incorrect to refer to intelligence as my intelligence?

Acharya Prashant (AP): In love if you do that, it’s wonderful. You are saying, “Is it incorrect to refer to intelligence as my intelligence?” If you are referring to intelligence as my intelligence in love, then it’s wonderful, but if you are referring to intelligence as my intelligence in possession, then it is not correct. Intelligence is one, manifests itself as different. You have all the right to call it my intelligence; it is surely yours, but not exclusively yours. It is surely yours, but not exclusively yours; it is like a father with thousand kids. Every kid has the right to say “My father”, but no kid has the right to lay ownership over the father. “Exclusively my father”. No, that won’t do.

In love you can say “My father” alright, but my father does not mean that he belongs to you, that you have possessed him. Your intelligence is very much yours, but not only yours. That is the reason, sometimes I advice not to use phrase ‘My intelligence’ because the kind of creatures we are, the moment we say ‘My intelligence’, what do we do?

Listener 1 (L1): Possession.