sahana vatatu saha nau bhunaktu saha viryam karavavahai tejasvi navadhitamastu ma vidvisavahai om shanti shanti shanti om shanti shanti shanti anayoreva cittahankarayorantarbhavah anusandhanatmikantahkaranavrttih cittam First, we understood what the mind is and then - That this mind's vritti - vrtti is that which engages in sankalpa-vikalpa (thoughts and counter thoughts) The mind is one that engages in thoughts and counter thoughts Now, whatever is known through this mind and intellect - Anything that the mind knows, it's opposite (vikalpa) is formed at the same time So, everything that comes in the mind-intellect That which stores it all is called the chitta and ahankara Chitta means the store house of all the memories And ahankara is the notion of "I know this" This thought, this experience of "I know it", "I saw that", "I heard that" "I did that", "I know this" "I" - symbolizes the ahankara (ego)- but this is the ego linked to "What I know", "What I saw" "What are my memories about" So, sankalpa-vikalpa of the mind and the decision making capability of the intellect All that is stored in our chitta And in that chitta, "I know" - This ahankara (ego) arises because of the association between these two So, memories in the chitta and ahankara function in tandem They are not separate from each other We can say that they complement each other And we can also say that they exist because of each other If your mind hadn't know anything, then no memories would form in the chitta Then the notion "I know" would not arise "I exist" "I know this" "I exist", "I know this" - So, whatever gets formed on the screen of your memories How did it form? It's input happened through your senses of knowledge and the chitta stored it And ahankara says, "I know this" Now the chitta is described beautifully in this verse: anusandhanatmikantahkaranavrttih cittam All that is known by our mind - The one that thinks over it again and again And then labels it as good or bad, desirable or undesirable This is done by chitta Now, the choices of your mind depend on your environment, your nurturing, your family The place where you lived, it's conditioning It forms a large composite, such as - A screen is formed so that whatever comes out will come out through that Meaning, colored by your mind and colored by your choices So, deep down it stores all memories according to it's labelling For example You saw a mango and immediately the memory of mangoes you ate in childhood will surface The mango that your brother stole - that memory will also surface The tree your climbed to pluck a mango - that memory will also surface The nice, big mangoes you saw somewhere - that memory will also surface So, a chain of thoughts emerges from our chitta Mind is just like a pond in which you threw a pebble and a ripple gets formed But will there be only one ripple? It causes a second, third, fourth.....ripple and so on... All the way....several ripples will form You can't even see them all Endless ripples form This flow that gets formed This investigative flow that gets formed It arises from your chitta Now, if we only talk about the mind - The eye saw a mango The mind knew it is a mango The intellect said... - but how will the intellect confirm which variety of mango is it? This comes out of your memory bank, from your chitta So, this investigative vritti of the antahkaran is called chitta You cannot find such an accurate description and definition of chitta anywhere else So what is chitta? 'anusandhanatmikantahkaranavrttih' is chitta Like, mind is 'sankalpavikalpatmak mannah' - this is the mind And 'buddhirnama niscayatmikahvrittih' The decision-making vritti is called buddhi (intellect) So, that which takes a decision is the intellect That which only engages in thoughts and counter-thoughts is the mind That which investigates is the chitta And anayoreva cittahankarayorantarbhavah Now, our memories and our knowing - who experiences the memories? - I do Who takes the decision? - I do What thoughts did the mind engage in - who did that? You will say, "I did" So, this "I" that keeps arising, this stamp of "I" is the ahankara (ego) Let me reiterate When you talk about egotism Like we say for example, "this person is very egotistic about his education" What is this education and where is it stored? Everything you studied was through mind - where is it all stored? In the chitta And "I know that" - this notion arises "The body is beautiful" - arising in the mind, where does this thought go? In the chitta So, "I am beautiful", "I am strong" - without chitta this ahankara is nothing And the mind All inputs are going in through the mind and the intellect takes decisions But understand that the decisions of the intellect can be wrong Like, people believed for a long time that the earth is flat The religious sects approved this There are two religious sects that say the earth is flat Their followers believe that the earth is flat It is square shaped, it is not round They have an unwavering conviction But was this belief correct? They say, "there is nothing right or wrong but if our religious text says this, it must be true" "We don't believe in logic, we just believe our religious book" In Vedanta, this is called foolishness See, in Vedanta you are never asked to blindly believe in anything But it provides logical and rational explanations and asks you to experience it for yourself Now, your mind engages in thoughts and counter-thoughts - this is your experience But the association of intellect with these thoughts and counter-thoughts, to explain that - A little nudge has been given that this decision-making is happening through the intellect Nothing more than this - Vedanta will never say anything unreasonable that is contrary to your experience That doesn't match your experience It will be completely clear, accurate, logical and that knowledge which is in your experience Vedanta will never say something that you will find strange So, the mind, intellect, chitta and ahankara (ego) What is this describing? Moving on to the next verse ahankarah abhimanatmikantahkaranavrttih When chetana knows that "I know" Now, all this drama is happening in your antahkaran itself Vritti of the mind - thoughts and counter-thoughts, decision-making Storage in chitta Where memories are formed And the notion, "I know this" So, I can also say that - at this time, when you say "I" Then this "I" is mainly the ego of antahkaran (ego) and not the Real Self Whatever we know - Whatever our mind-intellect knows, in that knowing a firmness comes - It gets confirmed that "this is the truth" - why? Because "I know this" This seal, this stamp of "I" - That which gives this stamp, is called ahankara (ego) ete punarakasadigata sattvikamsebhyo militebhya utpadyante These five tanmatras - From their satvaguna part - Be careful Only from their satvaguna part, this emerged From the combination of satvaguna part of the five tanmatras - Mind, intellect, chitta and ahankara emerges Not from their rajoguna or tamoguna parts Something else happens from that This creation that is happening - they are explaining it's process So your mind, intellect, chitta and ahankara It emerges from the satvaguna part of tanmatras etesam prakasatmakatvat sattvikamsa karyatvam This is prakash-swaroopa Prakash-swaroop means knowing happens through them These have the ability to know So, knowing or the ability to know is called prakash-roop Where there is no ability to know, we will call that inert If tamoguna was dominant Like in your body There is no ability to know in the body Knowing happens in the mind If someone puts a needle in your skin, the hand doesn't feel that - the mind feels it And if we put the nervous system, i.e. the brain to sleep - With anesthesia Then even if the hand is chopped off, you won't even feel it So, the hand has no ability to know The hand is not prakash-swaroop Prakash-roop is your mind, intellect, chitta and ahankara Why are we saying satvaguna? Because there is knowing There is chetana present There is a light present What light? The capability to know exists So, we will move forward step by step Now, this mind that knows The intellect that takes a decision The chitta that stores everything And "I know all this" - the one that believes this - the ahankara So, the mind, intellect, chitta and ahankara You can consider them as four entities or just use one word - Antahkaran - it means the same thing When the antahkaran associates with the Real Self forms the vigyanmay kosha iyan buddhirjnanendriyah sahita vijnamaya koso bhavati When ignorance associates with I, the Chaitanya-swaroopa - it forms anandmay kosha But when the mind, intellect, chitta and ahankara also gets associated - this is vigyanmay kosha ayam kartrtva bhokrtva sukhitva duhkhitva adyabhimanatvenehalokaparalokagami vyavahariko jiva ityucyate Now, this vigyanmay kosha comprising of mind and intellect - What happens through this kosha? All experiences of pleasure happen in it All experiences of suffering happen in it too
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