Antahkarana Chatushtaya (अन्तःकरणचतुष्टयम्)

Antahkarana (Samskrit: अन्तःकरण), corresponds to what is called the mind as per Advaita philosophy. It is the internal instrument that enables one to know, feel, and act. The mind constitutes the totality of mental states and the processes that give rise to them. Both Yoga and Advaita Vedanta consider mind as physical. It is the composite of awareness and response systems. Since Antahkarana, a component of the sukshma sharira, has four functionalities viz., manas (मनः), buddhi (बुद्धिः), ahamkara (अहंकारम्) and chitta (चित्तम्), it is described as Antahkarana Chatushtaya.

परिचयः॥ Introduction

Antahkarana is a term for mind, is an internal organ, functionally distinguished into (1) the buddhi (executive system) (2) ahamkara (self-referencing system) and (3) manas (central processing system which is subdivided into manas and (4) chitta in Advaita) connected to the sensory-motor system (jnana karma indriyas). In Advaita vedanta, while functions of buddhi, ahamkara and manas are similar to those in Yoga, the Antahkarana being four fold, includes chitta as having the function of smriti or recalling.

Samkhya Yoga conception of mind may be taken to represent broadly the central view in the Indian tradition not withstanding minor differences. As in Samkhya, mind is the instrument of knowledge, emotion, and volition in Advaita. Again, mind is different from consciousness. In both systems the mind is conceived as going out to the objects to have perceptual experience. One significant difference between Samkhya Yoga and Advaita Vedanta in their notion of the mind is that in Advaita consciousness is alone real and that mind is not ultimately real. Its reality is confined only to the illusory phenomenal world (vyāvahārika sattā). In Samkhya, both consciousness and mind are real.

The Upanishads describe four components of the Antahkarana, or Antahkarana Chatusthaya, having the following functions

1. Chitta - storehouse of samskaras or vasanas
2. Buddhi - the decision making faculty
3. Ahamkara - the ego or I-sense
4. Manas - the information synthesizing faculty

वृत्तिश्चतुर्विधा ॥ Four Kinds of Mental States

Vedanta Paribhasha, a seminal text of Vedanta, by Dharmarajadhvarindra, defines the four-fold modifications of Antahkarana as follows.

साच वृत्तिश्चतुर्विधा-- संशयो निश्चयो गर्वः स्मरणमिति। एवं सति वृत्तिभेदेनैकमप्यन्तःकरणं मन इति बुद्धिरिति अहङ्कार इति चित्तमिति चाख्यायते। तदुक्तम्- मनोबुद्धिरहङ्कारश्चित्तं करणमान्तरम् । संशयोनिश्चयोगर्वः स्मरणं विषया इमे । (Veda. Pari. 1)

That (mental) state is of four kinds: doubt, certitude, egoism and recollection. Owing to this diversity of states of the mind, though one, is designated as the manas, the intellect, the ego, and the chitta. It has been said - the manas, buddhi, ahamkara and chitta constitute Antahkarana or the internal instrument. Doubt or indecision (संशय), certainty or decision (निश्चय), egoism or I-sense (गर्वः) and recollection or memory (स्मरण) - these are respectively their objects.

As it cannot operate on external objects except through the organs of sense and action, it is said to be an internal instrument or Antahkarana. One may note that Samkhya system calls the buddhi, ahamkara and manas as antahkarana, the inner organ in contrast to the five sense organs and organs of action which are external organs or bahyakarana. Perception involves the coordination of the external sense organs and the internal organ (Antahkarana).

Origin and Components of Antahkarana

Tattvabodha, by Shri Adishankaracharya, succinctly summarizes that Antakarana is formed from the total sattvik aspect of the five elements or panchamahabhutas.

एतेषां पञ्चतत्त्वानां समष्टिसात्विकांशात् मनोबुद्ध्यहङ्कार चित्तान्तःकरणानि सम्भूतानि ।

They are governed by the antahkarana devatas (अन्तःकरणदेवताः)

बुद्धिः ॥ Buddhi

निश्चयात्मिका बुद्धिः । बुद्धेर्ब्रह्मा । (Tattvabodha)

The buddhi (intellect) is of the nature of decision, and the presiding deity is Brahma. It is a faculty of discrimination, which distinguishes between what is right and wrong. It is considered to be the chief instrument in one's cognitive activity.

Vedantasara mentions,"बुद्धिर्नाम निश्चयात्मिकान्तःकरणवृत्तिः।" (Vedantasara.65)

Here buddhi (intellect) is a modification of the internal instrument (Antahkarana) which helps in determining the real nature of the object.

मनः ॥ Manas

सङ्कल्पविकल्पात्मकं मनः । मनसो देवता चन्द्रमाः । (Tattvabodha)

The manas is of the nature of indecision. Sankalpa and vikalpa are binary states of mind either in relation to thought or action. When a person makes a resolve or intent (samkalpa) about an object or to perform an action or seeks another alternative against the original intent (vikalpa) or action - then it is said to be a function of manas, a state where there is no firm resolve. The presiding deity of the manas is the moon. Manas constitutes the general indeterminate thinking. It is also the state where perception or gathering information from the outer world through the five senses of cognition or Jnanendriyas happens.

मनो नाम सङ्कल्पविकल्पात्मिकान्तःकरणवृत्तिः। अनयोरेव चित्ताहङ्कारयोरन्तर्भावः। (Vedantasara. 66-67)

Chitta and egoism are included in the intellect and manas respectively.

Here the translation of manas as mind is not applied as Antahkarana which is of composite functionality is used to refer to mind (unless explicitly stated in Psychology section below).

In AdvaitaVedānta, the basic features of manas are capabilities for cognitive differentiation and integration and for doubting and deciding. Also used for the aggregate of citta, buddhi, manas, and ahaṁkāra; the sensory mind; it is the perceiving faculty that receives the messages of the senses; the inner sense.

चित्तम् ॥ Chitta (Citta)

चिन्तनकर्तृ चित्तम् । चित्तस्य वासुदेवः । (Tattvabodha)

Chitta (memory) is of the nature of thinking or recollection, ruled by the deity Vasudeva. The objects perceived by the manas through the five senses of cognition are stored in the Chitta/memory as impressions. Hence chitta is the storehouse of Karma and samskaras (impressions). In Vedantasara, Sadananda Yogindra describes Chitta as one of the Antahkarana vrittis which is involved in memory and recollection. Chitta is treated as one of the modifications of Antahkarana.

अनुसन्धानात्मिकान्तःकरणवृत्तिः चित्तम्।। (Vedantasara. 68)

Meaning: Chitta (referred to as Memory) is that modification of the inner organ which remembers.

Chitta is the mind (as per Yoga) or an aspect of it (as per Advaita) comprising of not only the cognitive processes and the ego but also instinctual tendencies inherited from previous lives and the effects of past actions in this life (vāsanās and saṁskāras).

अहंकारः ॥ Ahamkara

अहंकर्ता अहंकारः । अहंकारस्य रुद्रः । (Tattvabodha)

Ahamkara (ego) is of the nature of doership governed by Rudra. It is the sense of I-ness, or the faculty of identity. It is the identification of ourselves with the outer world, which comes with Dehatma-bhava or identifying ourselves with the body.

अभिमानात्मिकान्तःकरणवृत्तिः अहङ्कारः। (Vedantasara. 69)

Egoism (Ahamkara) is that modification of the inner organ or instrument which is characterized by Self-consciousness.

The ego is thus, the self-referencing function of the mind, feelings, and thoughts about self at empirical level. Egoism or self-conceit; the self-arrogating principle “I” that is projected by the mind rather than the real self. It is awareness of oneself, or of individuality.

Equivalent of Antahkarana in Other Shastras

The basic difference between the Sāṁkhya-Yoga and the AdvaitaVedānta conception of mind on the one hand and Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika on the other is that the latter considers the mind a sense organ. In Yoga the mind is conceived more as a function and a process. Even in Advaita, notwithstanding the fact that the mind is called antaḥkaraṇa (internal organ), it is described essentially as a set of cognitive functions. In Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika, the mind, called manas, is not the cognizer. The cognizer is the self (ātman). While the self is all-pervasive and the ultimate agency that has the experience and is the enjoyer and doer, such experience is facilitated by the mind (manas) which is in contact with the other senses. It would seem that the mind (manas) in Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika is restricted to the manas aspect of antaḥkaraṇa in Sāṁkhya and Advaita. Ātman (self) in Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika appears to take on some of the other functions attributed to antaḥkaraṇa in Yoga and Advaita.

अन्तःकरणवृत्तिः॥ Antahkarana Vrtti

In Vedanta Paribhasha we find a lucid explanation defining Antahkarana vrtti or modifications of the mind as follows

तत्र यथा तडागोदकं छिद्रार्न्निर्गत्य कुल्यात्मना केदारान् प्रविश्य तद्वदेव चतुष्कोणाद्याकारं भवति, तथा तैजसमन्ततःकरणमपि चक्षुरादिद्वारा निर्गत्य घटादिविषयदेशं गत्वा घटादिविषयाकारेण परिणमिते स एव परिणामो वृत्तिरित्युच्यते।

Summary: Now, as the water of a tank, issuing through a hole, enters in the form of a channel to a number of fields, and just like them (the agricultural fields) assumes a rectangular or any other shape, so also the luminous mind (Antahkarana), issuing through the medium of the eye etc., goes to the space occupied by objects such as a jar, and is modified into the form of a jar or any other object. That very modification of the mind is called a state (Vrtti).

According to the Vedanta philosophy when an organ perceives an object the mind transforms itself into the object. When, for instance, the eye sees a pot the mind projects itself through the eye and takes the form of the pot. When the Antahkarana becomes absolutely sure of the existence of the pot then it is known as Buddhi, but when it cannot determine whether it is a pot or something else, then it is called Manas. Similarly when the Antahkarana remembers an object it is denoted as Chitta. Lastly when it establishes the relationship of "I" or ‘mine' with the object as, for example in, ‘I know the object', ‘I am happy' or ‘mine is the happiness’, it is known as Ahamkara.

The Process of Perception

In modern parlance, the perceptual process involves the mind (antaḥkaraṇa in its buddhi function) going out to the object via sensory channels. In perception the buddhi makes contact with the object via the sensory channels. This gives rise to modifications in the buddhi and vṛttis arise in the mind. Vṛttis are processed by the manas, which with its selective attention subjects the vṛttis to analysis, assimilation, and discrimination. Vṛttis thus become determinate and definitive; and are broken into subject–predicate relationship. This is the process by which the objects are reflectively apprehended. When, at the next stage, vṛttis are appropriated by the ahamkara, which is the self-referencing system, they become associated with the person. Then one has the self-apprehension of the objects. With such self-referencing made possible by the ahaṁkāra and the determinate form given by the manas, vṛttis find themselves back in the buddhi with all the manifest modifications. Advaita makes a distinction between (a) the perception of an object and (b) the perception of object as object. The former involves the identity of cognitive (pramāṇa) and object consciousness (viṣaya caitanya). In the perception of the object as object, there is in addition to the identification of the object, an identification with the person who has that perception. For example, the person identifies that the rose is red, but he also knows that he knows about the redness of the rose. Here the vṛtti is referred to and appropriated by the jiva (the empirical self).

Antahkarana and Psychology

Mind, in conventional psychology is often considered as the software and the brain its hardware. Questions arise whether it is matter, energy or a field or an emotional state. The neurobiological approach tries to explain the mind as a by-product of physico-chemical processes involving the billions of neurons in the human brain and its various components are the thought process, emotions, intelligence and awareness.

The tendencies of the mind (Antahkarana) as the inner instrument (manas + intellect + mind + ego + heart) impact the daily life and hence it is imperative for a person to understand these states of the mind. Is the term "Manovijnana" an accurate translation of psychology? Because in the West, the term" "psyche" has a history of its own and is used in cultural-scientific-philosophical temperaments. While in India, the manas is a part of the Antahkarana which constitutes the intellect, the memory and the ego along with manas. Therefore, while the term 'Antahkarana' may possibly be a near translation for psychology, there are still practical difficulties in defining Indian psychology. The psychological aspects within Antahkarana must be defined in such a way that they do not encroach upon the realm of spirituality and yet enable one to analyse and teach how to evaluate problems in life in general. In the Vedas, the Upanishads, Sahitya and the Darshanas, many qualitative and analytical facts are given about manas, which require further discussion in the context of the Antahkarana.

The process of perception in Advaita, as seen in the previous section, involves the mind “going out” to the object via senses and taking the form of the object. This way of looking at the perceptual process would sound odd because the commonly held view in psychology is that it is the stimulus object that initiates the perceptual process. The stimulus emanates energy patterns in the form of electromagnetic waves that impinge on the sensory part of the nervous system and arouse a sensation in the brain. Then the person has the perceptual experience of the object. In other words, the flow is from the object to the brain via the sensory system. In Advaita, it is quite the reverse. The mind flows out, as it were, to the object of perception via the senses.

What does it mean to say that the mind flows out to the object? What sense does it make to assume that the mind initiates the perceptual process? It clearly makes little sense to assume that the mind actually travels out to the object leaving the body. The flowing out function of the mind implies no more than the assertion that what is primary in the perceptual process is the person and not the object of perception. It refers to the freedom of the person to choose her own object of perception. Objects with no functioning minds cannot have a choice to choose a relationship with a subject. A subject with a functioning mind, however, has a choice to enter into or withdraw from a relationship with an object.

Further, flowing out does not mean any travel because mind is physically subtle and nonlocal. Flowing out therefore means establishing a perceptual relationship by which the mind undergoes transformation and perceptual experience is a consequence of such transformation. Perceptual process is more like a search light that turns the attention to a particular object; and the emphasis here is on the attention required to focus on the object rather than on the intensity of the stimulus. Once again, this approach is a consequence of the relative importance given to the subject over the object in Indian psychology.