The inner instrument
From the joined sattva parts of these five elements, the inner instrument came to be: mind, intellect, ego, and reflecting-mind. The mind is intention and doubt. The intellect is the power of decision. The ego is the maker of 'I.' The reflecting-mind is what turns a thing over. The deity of the mind is the moon; of the intellect, Brahmā; of the ego, Rudra; of the reflecting-mind, Vāsudeva.
From the combined sattva of these five elements, the inner instrument (antaḥkaraṇa) arose: mind (manas), intellect (buddhi), ego (ahaṅkāra), and reflective mind (citta). The mind wills and wavers; the intellect decides; the ego makes the sense of 'I'; the citta dwells on things. Their deities are: the moon for the mind, Brahmā for the intellect, Rudra for the ego, and Vāsudeva for the citta.
- antaḥkaraṇa
The four are called manas, buddhi, ahaṅkāra, and citta. What does the teaching mean by giving four names?
- Four separate substances live side by side within the body
- One subtle inner instrument, named differently as willing, deciding, owning, or recalling comes forward
- Four selves take turns inhabiting a single person
- Four deities reside in the heart in place of the Self
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Why does this passage call what arose an inner instrument rather than the inner self?
- Because the mind is too small to be the Self
- Because an instrument is something used, and so stands on the side of what is known, not the knower who uses it
- Because the Self has not yet been created at this point
- Because only the intellect, not the mind, can be the Self
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The inner instrument
After the five elements and the organs of perception, the teaching reaches inward and names what does the knowing. From the gathered sattva of the same five elements, sattva being the clear and light quality among the three, the one fit for knowing, the inner instrument comes to be: the mind, the intellect, the ego, and the reflective mind. The word to keep is instrument. What arose is not the inner self but the fine apparatus the self uses, as the eye is used for seeing and the hand for holding. An instrument is always something other than the one who takes it up.
The four are told apart by what they do. When the inner instrument turns a matter over, willing one thing, doubting another, holding it open and unresolved, it is called the mind. When it stops the wavering and settles the matter, this and not that, it is called the intellect. When it rises as the maker of the sense of I, claiming the body and the deeds as mine, it is the ego. When it dwells on what has been met and keeps turning it over, it is the reflective mind. These are not four substances lodged side by side. They are one subtle thing, named differently as one or another of its works comes forward.
The presiding deities are given in the same breath: the moon over the mind, Brahmā over the intellect, Rudra over the ego, Vāsudeva over the reflective mind. Even the powers that lend thought its movement are set down here within the listing, on the side of what is known. Nothing in this whole catalogue is left standing as the knower. The mind, the intellect, the ego, the reflective mind, and the very deities that quicken them, all of it is placed before the one who witnesses it.
This is why the passage sits exactly here, on the path of inquiry. The student has been led, patiently and without drama, through the body and the senses, and now through the inmost apparatus that thinks and decides and says I. Each thing is met, named, and seen to be an instrument, a thing used and so a thing watched. The seeing itself is not on any of these lists. Whatever you can observe deciding, doubting, claiming, recalling, you are the one observing it, and that one the catalogue never reaches.
Watch the mind decide, the ego say I, the reflective mind go back over the day. Who is it that is watching all of this?
In the commentaries
The word that governs this whole listing is karaṇa, instrument. What arises from the gathered sattva of the elements is named the inner instrument, not the inner self; it is the fine apparatus the Self uses to know, decide, own, and recall, and an instrument is by definition a thing other than the one who wields it. So the four are described by what they do: the mind weighs a thing this way and that and stays in willing and doubt; the intellect settles the matter and decides; the ego rises as the maker of the sense of I; the reflective mind dwells on what has been met and turns it over. These are functions of one subtle substance, not four separate things, named differently as one or another activity comes forward. The presiding deities are given in the same breath, so that even the powers that animate thought are placed within the known, on the side of what is witnessed.