Mind Revisted

Mind

"Yoga is the inhibition of the functions of the mind," says

Patanjali. The functions of the mind must be suppressed, and in

order that we may be able to follow out really what this means,

we must go more closely into what the Indian philosopher means by

the word "mind".

Mind, in the wide sense of the term, has three great properties

or qualities: cognition, desire or will, activity. Now Yoga is

not immediately concerned with all these three, but only with

one, cognition, the Samkhyan subject. But you cannot separate

cognition, as we have seen, completely from the others, because

consciousness is a unit, and although we are only concerned with

that part of consciousness which we specifically call cognition,

we cannot get cognition all by itself. Hence the Indian

psychologist investigating this property, cognition, divides it

up into three or, as the Vedanta says, into four (with all

submission, the Vedantin here makes a mistake). If you take up

any Vedantic book and read about mind, you will find a particular

word used for it which. translated, means "internal organ". This

antah-karana is the word always used where in English we use

"mind"; but it is only used in relation to cognition, not in

relation to activity and desire. It is said to be fourfold, being

made up of Manas, Buddhi, Ahamkara, and Chitta; but this fourfold

division is a very curious division. We know what Manas is, what

Buddhi is, what Ahamkara is, but what is this Chitta? What is

Chitta, outside Manas, Buddhi and Ahamkara? Ask anyone you like.

and record his answer; you will find that it is of the vaguest

kind. Let us try to analyse it for ourselves, and see whether

light will come upon it by using the Theosophic idea of a triplet

summed up in a fourth, that is not really a fourth, but the

summation of the three. Manas, Buddhi and Ahamkara are the three

different sides of a triangle,' which triangle is called Chitta.

The Chitta is not a fourth, but the sum of the three: Manas,

Buddhi and Ahamkara. This is the old idea of a trinity in unity.

Over and over again H. P. Blavatsky uses this summation as a

fourth to her triplets, for she follows the old methods. The

fourth, which sums up the three but is not other than they, makes

a unity out of their apparent diversity. Let us apply that to

Antahkarana.

Take cognition. Though in cognition that aspect of the Self is

predominant, yet it cannot exist absolutely alone, The whole Self

is there in every act of cognition. Similarly with the other two.

One cannot exist separate from the others. Where there is

cognition the other two are present, though subordinate to it.

The activity is there, the will is there. Let us think of

cognition as pure as it can be, turned on itself, reflected in

itself, and we have Buddhi, the pure reason, the very essence of

cognition; this in the universe is represented by Vishnu, the

sustaining wisdom of the universe. Now let us think of cognition

looking outwards, and as reflecting itself in activity, its

brother quality, and we have a mixture of cognition and activity

which is called Manas, the active mind; cognition reflected in

activity is Manas in man or Brahma, the creative mind, in the

universe. When cognition similarly reflects itself in will, then

it becomes Ahamkara, the "I am I" in man, represented by Mahadeva

in the universe. Thus wee have found within the limits of this

cognition a triple division, making up the internal organ or

Antahkarana--Manas, plus Buddhi, plus Ahamkara--and we can find

no fourth. What is then Chitta? It is the summation of the three,

the three taken together, the totality of the three. Because of

the old way of counting these things, you get this division of

Antahkarana into four.