Manas Buddhi Chitta Ahamkara - Part 14

Exploring the Four Spokes of Mind

Ten Indriyas

In traditional Yoga philosophy and practice, the human being is seen as being like a building with ten doors.

Five are entrance doors, and five are exit doors. 

Consciously, actively and intentionally witnessing these ten senses as they function is an important part of Yoga meditation, and meditation in action.

• Karmendriyas: The five exit doors are five means of expression, which are called karmendriyas. (Karma means action. Indriyas are the means or senses)

• Jnanendriyas: The five entrance doors are the five cognitive senses, which are called jnanendriyas. (Jnana means knowing. Indriyas are the means or senses)

From the above diagram, it is clear that the actions are directed by the inner world (MANAS or the lower mind), actions are performed by the 5 karma indriyas.

It does not stop there. The impact of actions are carried back as impressions and carried through the 5 jnana indriyas and in the earlier post, we clearly learnt that the impressions thus carried back  get stored in the sub conscious mind - Chitta. This flow, we will clearly understand as we go through the four functions with the help of a self explanatory diagram. 

Now, let us understand the four functions of the mind with the help of a diagram, after we have understood about the ten indriyas above.

MANAS

The internal world explained in the context of ten indriyas is Mind, which is influenced either by Buddhi or Chitta or Ahamkara.

The external world is the world of objects/ human beings/ relationships to which the Actions / Karma emerge from the Mind. 

The Mind is propelled by Buddhi/ Chitta/ Ahamkara to act in a particular way.

As learnt in an earlier post about the four functions of mind with the example of a factory where the Chitta and Ahamkara are the foreman, the higher intellect or Buddhi is the GM of the factory, it is to be understood that Manas or Mind is the direct supervisor who actually does the action, influenced by one of the 3 factors – Buddhi( GM with greater intellect) or Chitta or Ahamkara( workers with no or very less discriminative intellect).

Thus the supervisor Manas undertakes actions((produces items in the factory) through the karma indriyas ( machines in the factory) as explained in the above diagram and the results of the actions  flow towards the external world (the products sold to customers). 

Manas does a wonderful job of carrying out directions, but it is not supposed to be the key decision maker in the factory. That is the job of Buddhi. If Buddhi is clouded, then Manas has a habit of continuing to question, seeking good instruction. Then it often listens to whoever is speaking the loudest in the factory, which is the wants, wishes, desires, attractions, and aversions stored in the memory bank of Chitta. 

Here, the declaration of the shruthis is to be re visited- " Manam Eva manushaynam karanam bandha mokshayoh". As is very clear from the above diagram and the exposition of the same, it all depends on what the manas dictates to the senses ( 5 senses of action) which actually determines the quality of actions performed by a human being's senses and in turn, determines the quality of impressions carried back as a result of the actions, by the  5 senses of cognition- Jnana indriyas, to the memory bank- chitta.

Thus the impressions manifesting to samskara, then to vasana, then to vritti, then to further actions and these actions determining/ shaping up the karmas carried by the human to his next birth- is it not now clear that thus, the manas is the single most factor which either liberates or binds a human being to this samsara ( through his karmas).

A good way to cultivate the witnessing of Manas is to be mindful of actions and speech, as well as your senses of smelling, tasting, seeing, touching, and hearing. 

By observing these, you come to see how Manas is the one behind these actions and senses. Thus, Manas is like the supervisor of the employees in a factory. Manas is not the boss, but the supervisor, who is giving the direct orders to the active and cognitive senses. 

Love.