Manas

Manas is the thinking mind — the inner faculty that processes sensory impressions, generates thoughts, and oscillates between desires and doubts. It functions as the intermediary between the five sense organs (jñānendriyas) and the deeper intellect (buddhi), coordinating perception with response. In daily experience, manas is the restless stream of mental activity that constantly reacts to the world.

In Sāṅkhya and Vedānta, manas is one of the four components of the internal organ (antaḥkaraṇa), alongside buddhi (intellect), ahaṅkāra (ego), and citta (memory-consciousness). It is categorized as the eleventh indriya — a sense organ turned inward — whose nature is saṅkalpa-vikalpa, the ceaseless oscillation between intention and doubt. Mastery of manas through practices like dhāraṇā and dhyāna is considered essential for spiritual liberation.

From the absolute standpoint, manas is a superimposition (adhyāsa) upon pure Consciousness (Cit). It has no independent reality; it borrows its apparent sentience from Ātman, much as the moon borrows light from the sun. When manas becomes perfectly still — as described in the Yoga Sūtras as citta-vṛtti-nirodha — what remains is the Self alone, untouched by thought, beyond the duality of knower and known.