What is mind?

Defining the concept is a surprisingly slippery task. From time immemorial, philosophers tried to define Mind, but in vain. Traditionally, scientists have tried to define the mind as the product of brain activity: No doubt, the brain plays an incredibly important role. But our mind cannot be confined to what’s inside our skull, or even our body, according to a definition first put forward by Dan Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine, who first came up with the definition more than two decades ago, at a meeting of 40 scientists across disciplines, including neuroscientists, physicists, sociologists, and anthropologists. The definition is “Mind is not simply our perception of experiences, but those experiences themselves. The thoughts, feelings, memories, attention, what we experience in this subjective world is part of mind”

As per the dictionary “the element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel; the faculty of consciousness and thought.” This is similar to what Vedanta describes “Antakarana” inner organ, includes Intelligence, Manas, Chitta and Ahankara.

The Chandogya Upanishad section 7.3 asserts that, “More elevated than Speech, is Manas (मनस्, mind) because Mind holds both Speech and Name (outer worldly knowledges)”.

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad starts the second chapter as a conversation between Ajatashatru and Balaki Gargya on theory of dreams, positing that human beings see dreams entirely unto themselves because mind draws, in itself, the powers of sensory organs, which it releases in the waking state. It then asserts that this empirical fact about dreams suggests that human mind has the power to perceive the world as it is, as well as fabricate the world as it wants to perceive it. Mind is a means, prone to flaws. 

Viveka Chudamani verse 167 states that “The organs of perception along with the mind form the mental sheath which is the sole cause of the “I” and “mine” sense and of the diversity of things. It is powerful and is endowed with the essential faculty of creating differences of names etc.,”

Perception is sensory awareness. Cognition is reflective awareness. Consciousness is awareness-as-such. In Indian psychology, consciousness and mind are fundamentally different. 

In normal perceptions, the mind takes the forms of objects via the channels of the sensory system and the processes in the brain. The brain can also produce/reproduce the perceptions even when the perceptions do not happen. Mind holds such perceptions for the Atma the Soul. Brain functions as a tool of execution and a tool producing advice. Brain, also creates the vritti of the Seed of thought and present in the Mind both Seed of Thought and its vritti. 

Mind is the part of Linga Sarira or Astral Body. Mind is the interfacing instrumentality that faces consciousness on one side and the brain and the rest of the physical world on the other. Brain, during execution functions in both auto pilot mode and execute on command mode of the Soul. Atma the Soul is the Kartha of all Karya, under the influence of the Brain and the Intelligence. You would have recall in multiple verses it has been insisted the importance of “Vsudda Buddhi” and “Intelligence”. These are the tools to help one to get out of Tamas and gain Viveka. “Split Brain”, “Phantom’s Limb” and Object’s view of a person of color blind are the good examples. All the Vedantic examples of “Rope and the Snake” and “Post and the Ghost” are only due to the deluded state of mind.

In short it is like a television monitor to the Atma the Soul broadcasted by the Brain, of Perceptions of Jagat Vishaya and its reactions.