Manaḥ / Manas
Manaḥ / Manas (IAST)Translation: "Cognitive Mind"
A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
Sanskrit: मनः
Transliteration: Manaḥ
Translation: "mind; one of the aspects of the internal organ (from the verb root man – “to think”)"
- Mind emerges from the Pure (Sattva) aspect of egoity (Ahaṅkāra).
- Mind stimulates the other senses to attend to their respective objects. Thus, it is an organ of cognition and of action. It is the doorkeeper to the senses. Its specific function is to explicate.
- According to Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika, it is atomic and eternal. It is an instrument of knowing and is inert as any other sense. Its cooperation is necessary for all knowledge. It exercises a double function: it helps the self to acquire knowledge and it narrows its field to a single object or group of objects. Association with the mind is the basic cause of bondage.
- According to Jainism, it is not a sense organ, but the organ of cognition of all objects of all the senses. It is of two types: physical mind (Bhāva), which performs the mental functions proper, and material mind (Dravya), which is subtle matter compounded into the physical mind.
- According to Dvaita Vedānta and Sāṅkhya, the mind is considered as one of the sense organs (Indriya).
- According to Mīmāṃsā, different cognitions are explained by a type of atom called Manas. The mind alone brings about cognitions, aversions, efforts, etc., but by itself it is devoid of any qualities such as color, smell, etc. Thus, it needs the aid of the other organs to cognize these qualities.
Glossary to the Record of Yoga (Sri Aurobindo
Manas – mind, the psychological principle or degree of consciousness that is the basis of the mental world (Manoloka or Svar), the highest plane of the Triloka and the summit of the Aparārdha or lower hemisphere of existence; in its essence, “a consciousness which measures, limits, cuts out forms of things from the indivisible whole and contains them as if each were a separate integer;” the sensational mind, “the original sense [Indriya] which perceives all objects and reacts upon them,” capable not only of “a translation into sense of so much of the outer impacts as it receives through the nervous system and the physical organs,” but also of “a subtle sight, hearing, power of contact of its own which is not dependent on the physical organs;” the principle that governs the realm of Svarga, the lower plane of Svar; the name of a particular Svarga.
The Serpent Power (Arthur Avalon)
"The process of experience is the selection of a special section from out of a general whole, and then being engaged on it, so as to make it one's own, either as a particular object of thought or a particular field of operation. Lastly, as Western psychology holds, the senses give not a completed whole, but a manifold - the manifold of sense. These "points of sensation" must be gathered together and made into a whole. These three functions of attention, selection, and synthesizing the discrete manifold of the senses, are those belonging to that aspect of the mental body, the internal agent (Antaḥ-Kāraṇa), called Manas. Just as Manas is necessary to the senses (Indriya), the latter are necessary for Manas. For the latter is the seat of desire, and cannot exist by itself. It is the desire to perceive or act, and therefore exists in association with the Indriya.
Manas is thus the leading Indriya, of which the senses are powers. For without the aid and attention of Manas, the other Indriya are incapable of performing their respective offices; and as these Indriya are those of perception and action, Manas, which co-operates with both, is said to partake of the character of both cognition and action.
Manas, through association with the eye or other sense, becomes manifold, being particularized or differentiated by its co-operation with that particular instrument, which cannot fulfill its functions except in conjunction with Manas.
Its function is said to be Saṅkalpa-Vikalpa, that is, selection and rejection from the material provided by the Jñānendriya. When, after having been brought into contact with the sense-objects, it selects the sensation which is to be presented to the other faculties of the mind, there is Saṅkalpa. The activity of Manas, however, is itself neither intelligent result nor moving feelings of pleasure or pain. It has not an independent power to reveal itself to the experiencer. Before things can be so revealed and realized as objects of perception, they must be made subject to the operation of Ahaṅkāra and Buddhi, without whose intelligent light they would be dark forms unseen and unknown by the experiencer, and the efforts of Manas but blind gropings in the dark. Nor can the images built up by Manas affect of themselves the experiencer so as to move him in any way until and unless the experiencer identifies himself with them by Ahaṅkāra — that is, by making them his own in feeling and experience. Manas, being thus an experience of activity in the dark, unseen and unrevealed by the light of Buddhi and not moving the experiencer until he identifies himself with it in feeling, is one in which the dark veiling quality (Tamas Guṇa) of Śakti Prakṛti is the most manifest. This Guṇa also prevails in the Indriya and the subtle objects of their operation (Tanmātra)."
Lessons on the Upanishads (Swami Krishnananda)
"There are four functions of the psychic organ. The internal psyche, which is generally called Manas – or mind, in ordinary language – has four functions. In Sanskrit, these four functions are designated as Manas, Buddhi, Ahaṅkāra, and Citta [Antaḥ-Karaṇa-Catuṣṭaya]. Manas is ordinary, indeterminate thinking – just being aware that something is there. That is the work of the mind; that is Manas. Buddhi determines, decides, and logically comes to the conclusion that something is such and such a thing. That is another aspect of the operation of the psyche – Buddhi, or intellect. The third form of the mind is ego, Ahaṅkāra, affirmation, assertion. “I know that there is some object in front of me and I also know that I know. I know that I am existing as this so-and-so.” This kind of affirmation attributed to one’s own individuality is the work of Ahaṅkāra, known as egoism. The subconscious action, memory, etc., are called the Citta, which is the fourth function. Thus, Manas, Buddhi, Ahaṅkāra, and Citta are the four basic functions of the internal organ, the psychological organ."
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. 60-62.
- Krishnananda, Swami (1991). Lessons on the Upanishads. Retrieved from https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/upanishad.html. p. 100.
