Manas

The deliberating, doubting function of the antahkarana — the mind that weighs and queries.

Overview

In Vedanta’s finer-grained psychology, “mind” is not one thing. Manas is specifically the doubting, deliberating function: the part of the inner instrument that holds open questions, considers options, oscillates between possibilities. It is paired with buddhi, the deciding function that brings deliberation to a close.

Manas is one of the four components of the antahkarana and a part of the subtle body. It is not the atman — it is a tool through which atman’s consciousness operates. When Arjuna’s mind collapses in the first chapter, it is the manas that is convulsing; Krishna’s teaching in chapter 2 is addressed to the buddhi to steady it.

Related concepts

• antahkarana — the whole inner apparatus
• buddhi — the decisive counterpart
• chitta — the storage function
• ahamkara — the I-maker
• sukshma-sharira — where manas lives

In the Gita

• 02-13-15 — part of what travels with the embodied one

Lecture evidence

• Ep. 4 [09:20]: Swami names manas, buddhi, chitta, ahamkara as the four functions of the inner instrument.