Inner organ

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A different look at Atma (soul, self, monad) Veeraswamy KrishnarajMr.Balasubramaniam has beautifully and exhaustively described the attributes of Self, which in Saiva tradition encompasses and includes all entities. Siva dances and pulsates (Spanda) in the universe and beings according to Kashmir Saivism. That pulsation proceeds from the heart of Siva and propagates through the universe of matter and beings. (Ksemaraja composed Pratyabhijna Hrdaya (the heart of Recognition). When the universe blossoms out, opens out (Unmesa) or expands (PrasAra) from inside His heart, He is called Sakti. Herein I want to bring a different perspective.Tantra and other sacred texts describe the epicentric location of the Self (soul) as the nucleus surrounded by the Mind, Ego, Buddhi, and Chitta. The whole apparatus is called Antahkarana --the Inner Organ.

Mind is the 'Memory Stick' as in the digital camera and collects all impressions projected from the five senses. All these four entities serve the Self or Atma indirectly or directly. Only Chitta has the privilege of direct communication with the Self; other three entities, Mind, Ego, and Buddhi in a linear fashion report to Chitta. In actuality, these four entities are one entity called by different names based on its individual function. When the entity captures images, it is called the Mind, Manas or Lower Mind. When mind is churning or working capturing images, it is called Manas-Virtti. When the images are filtered through Ego or Ahamkara, it is called Ahamkara, whose demeritorious quality is it mistakes the body for the self or soul. Buddhi, the power of discernment is the Higher Mind, equipped with Filters: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Very few images arrive at the Buddhi station of Inner Organ. When Buddhi is churning , it is called

Buddhi-Virrti. Buddhi is a sifter, a sorter, an analyzer, a collator, and a processor of knowledge. It is like gathering intell (intelligence) by Manas and senses, the field agents, and the analyzer of 'intell' is the Buddhi. Chitta is a shuttle that moves knowledge back and forth from the front burner of consciousness or Buddhi to back burner and vice versa. When knowledge shuttles via the shuttle-express (Chitta) to the front of consciousness, you call it Smrti or remembrance; when knowledge is put in storage and not remembered, it is called Apohana (loss or forgetting); but it is available upon demand. Impressions; analytical interpretation; and storage and recall are the respective functions of Manas, Buddhi and Chitta, which work like gears in the car; when one gear is on, the other two gears are disabled. Ego or Ahamkaram is the 'I-doer', which looks at its own important self from the self of others and the world and is a mediator between the

id and the world of objects and beings.Mind, Buddhi, and Ego are one entity with different functions. To borrow a medical term, this is called functional polymorphism. When Mind is churning, Buddhi and Ego do not work; When the entities do not work, they are called Manas-Nasa (= destruction of mind); Buddhi-Nasa (= destruction of Buddhi); Ahamkara-Nasa (= destruction of Ahankara). It is like the gears in the car; all three gears do not work simultaneously; only one works. The sages say that the soul or Atma is the king presiding over the Mind, Ego, Buddhi and Chitta. When they go for battle, the first three die (NAsa) in the battle and Chitta merges with the soul. When there is destruction of ego, mind, and intellect, there is tranquility, there is no egotistical 'I' factor, there is no propagation of thought waves from the mind, and there is no intellection giving rise to extraneous concepts and notions. Under theses

circumstances there is only one EGO, that of God. Under these ideal conditions, Chittam can go to work and meditate on the Indivisible Oneness and merge with it. This is Self-Realization. Chittam is man in his essence. Chittam makes the Inner Man. It is said that one should keep one's Chittam squeaky clean. Chittam is the radiating light of the soul of man. Chittam is Sum of man. You are what Chittam is. When you see an apple, your Inner Organ (Chittam) has to morph itself to the shape, size, color, odor, taste... of an apple; then only you see an apple in its completeness. You see an apple; you (your Chittam) become an apple; you hear music, you become the music. All that happens in your Chittam. Chittam is the seat of deep contemplation. Whatever is contemplated in depth in Chittam, that it becomes; that a man becomes. Chittam becomes the repository of Sattva, Rajas and or Tamas in one mode or any of its combinations, one becoming more

dominant than others. Chittam is a sage, a warrior, a killer.... If Chittam becomes the repository of malignant behavior such as murder, extreme greed etc, they leave a permanent imprint and never leave a person. Chittam is what makes a man a Buddha, a Jesus Christ, a Sankaracharya, a Lincoln, a Gandhi, a Hitler, a Madoff.... (Jan 18, 2009). http://www.bhagavadgitausa.com/TANTRA.htmVeeraswamy Krishnaraj