Citta
Citta (IAST)Translation: "Mind"
A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
Sanskrit: चित्त
Transliteration: Citta
Translation: "consciousness; mind; thought; apperception (from the verb root cit – “to perceive, observe, know”)"
- In Kashmir Shaivism, the limitation of the Universal Consciousness manifested in the individual mind. It is the mind of the empirical individual. In Rāja Yoga, Citta means mind, and in Advaita Vedānta, it refers to the subconscious.
- In the Vaibhāṣika system, it is Saṃskṛta-Dharma, born out of the interaction of the senses with their objects.
- In the Yogācāra system, it is the Mano-Dharma. It is the primary Dharma and essentially the only Dharma.
- In the Yoga system, the intellect (Buddhi), ego (Ahaṅkāra), and the senses (Indriya) are often called Citta.
- According to the Sāṅkhya, the mind (Citta) has five processes: Pramāṇa, Viparyaya, Vikalpa, Nidrā, and Smṛti.
Glossary to the Record of Yoga (Sri Aurobindo)
Citta – the “primary stuff of consciousness” which is “universal in Nature, but is subconscient and mechanical in nature of Matter”; the “pervading and possessing action of consciousness” in the living body which forms into the sense-mind (Manas); it consists of a lower layer of passive memory in which “the impressions of all things seen, thought, sensed, and felt are recorded”, and a higher layer (also called Manas-Citta) of the emotional mind where “waves of reaction and response... rise up from the basic consciousness”; also short for Cittākāśa (the ether [Ākāśa] of the Citta or basic mental consciousness, a mental Ākāśa defined as the “ether of the pranic Manas”, whose contents are experienced especially in Antardarśī Jāgrat and Svapnasamādhi).
The Serpent Power (Arthur Avalon)
Citta in its special sense is that faculty (Vṛtti) by which the Mind first recalls to memory (Smaranam) that of which there has been previously Anubhava or Pratyaksa Jñāna — that is, immediate cognition. This Smaranam exists only to the extent of actual Anubhava. For remembrance is the equivalent of, and neither more nor less than, what has been previously known; remembrance being the calling up of that. Citta, again, is that faculty whereby the current of thought dwells, thinks and contemplates upon (Citta) the subject so recalled by Smaranam, and previously known and determined by Buddhi. For such, meditation (Dhyāna) is done through the recall and fixing the mind upon past percepts and concepts. According to Vedānta, Buddhi determines but once only, and the further recall and thought upon the mental object so determined is the faculty of the separate mental category called Citta. Sāṅkhya, on the principle of economy of categories, regards Smaranam and Citta to be functions of Buddhi. In the works here translated and elsewhere Citta is, however, currently used as a general term for the working mind — that is, as a synonym for the Antaḥ-Kāraṇa.
The Science of Yoga (I.K. Taimni)
Commentary: "This word is derived from Cit or Citi (Part 4, Verse 34) one of the three aspects of Paramātman called Sat-Cit-Ānanda in Vedānta. It is this aspect which is at the basis of the form side of the Universe and through which it is created. The reflection of this aspect in the individual soul which is a microcosm is called Citta. Citta is thus that instrument or medium through which the Jīvātman materializes his individual world, lives and evolves in the world until he has become perfected and united with the Paramātman. Broadly, therefore, Citta corresponds to ‘mind’ of modern psychology but it has a more comprehensive import and field for functioning. While Citta may be considered as a universal medium through which consciousness functions on all the planes of the manifested Universe, the ‘mind’ of modern psychology is confined to the expression of only thought, volition and feeling."
"Citta, as pointed out in Part 1, Verse 2, is the universal principle which serves as a medium for all kinds of mental perceptions. But this universal principle can function only through a set of vehicles working on the different planes of the Solar system. These vehicles of consciousness, or Kośa as they are called, are formed by the appropriation and integration of matter belonging to different planes round an individual centre of consciousness and provide the necessary stimuli for mental perceptions which take place in consciousness. Patañjali has used the same word, Citta, for the universal principle which serves as a medium for mental perception as well as the individual mechanism through which such perception takes place. It is necessary to keep this distinction in mind because one or the other of the two meanings is implied by the same word—Citta—at different places."
"The mind, in order to know any object, has to be affected in two ways. Firstly, it must be modified or coloured, at least to some extent, by the object which is to be known, and secondly, it must be simultaneously illuminated by the consciousness of the Puruṣa which is eternally present in the ultimate background. Modified in this double manner, the mind is capable of knowing everything in the phenomenal world, using the word ‘knowing’ in its most comprehensive sense. The significance of the word Sarvārtham which means literally ‘all-including’ or ‘all-apprehending’ lies in the fact that the word Citta does not stand merely for the medium through which the human intellect finds expression. It stands definitely for the all-inclusive medium through which phenomena of every kind, right from the physical to the Atmic plane, are perceived. Even the thinnest veil of ‘matter’ which on the Atmic plane obscures the consciousness of the Puruṣa and involves him in manifestation is associated with the finest grade of mind. Citta is thus co-extensive with Prakṛti and both are transcended simultaneously when Puruṣa attains Self-realization in Kaivalya."
References:
- Grimes, John (1996). A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English. Albany: State University of New York Press
- Hartz, Richard. Glossary to the Record of Yoga (Sri Aurobindo). Retrieved from http://wiki.auroville.org.in/wiki/Glossary_to_the_Record_of_Yoga
- Avalon, Arthur (1950). The Serpent Power: Being the Shat-Chakra-Nirūpana and Pādukā-Panchakā. Adyar, Madras: Ganesh & Co. (Madras) Ltd. p. 64.
- Taimni, I. K. (1975). The Science of Yoga: The Yoga-Sūtras of Patañjali in Sanskrit with Transliteration in Roman, Translation in English and Commentary: Theosophical Publishing House. p. 14, 340-341, 372.
