Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c16.185

c16.185

Vāchaspati Misra takes the *Chitta* of Yoga to be the same as the *Buddhi* of Sāṁkhya (Chitta-śabdena Antaḥkaraṇaṁ Buddhiṁ upalakshayati). *Buddhi* or *Chitta* signifies an act, the mental act of apprehension (Buddhiḥ grahaṇa-rūpā). According to the *Bhāsvatī*, this act of apprehension or knowing is blended with the content apprehended, the object known, of which it is a constituent. But the act of apprehension can be by itself, separately, grasped. It further points out that such apprehension or knowing leaves behind it its traces called *saṁskāra* (grahaṇaṁ cha prādhānyāt agṛihītasya upādānaṁ | tasya upādānasya api asti anubhavaḥ saṁskāraḥ). These traces or impressions of previous experience, these *saṁskāras*, constitute an element in the consciousness of objects, in being indirectly in the objects that are remembered; they also colour the ways of knowing or sources of cognition; and they thus influence the operation of the Buddhi (Chitta) (tādṛiśa saṁskārāṇāṁ smṛitiḥ gauṇa-bhāvena upādānarūpe anadhigata-vishaye pramāṇe buddhau vā tishṭhati). *Saṁskāras*, therefore, complete knowledge and give it a form.