Listen, O Rama, to the nature of the mind as revealed by the sages. The mind is that which is always filled with thoughts such as “I am not the self-luminous consciousness; I am a miserable being.” This certainty, ever pervaded by conceptualization, is known as the very nature of the mind. There exists a state, unmoving and radiant, that shines forth among all beings, poised between existence and non-existence. When this state becomes inclined toward conceptualization, it too is recognized as the nature of the mind. Without the power of conceptualization—without its activity—the mind does not arise in this world, just as one without attributes cannot be called qualified. Action and mind are inseparable, just as heat and fire cannot exist apart; so too are the self and the mind intimately connected. By its own essential nature, the mind acts through intention and the law of cause and effect, manifesting a body of intention and displaying manifold variety. Wherever a tendency is planted—just as a creeper is rooted in a particular spot—that place becomes the field for its fruits, and accordingly, the results are reaped there. The vibration of the mind is called the seed of action, which then comes to be experienced. The various activities that arise are like the branches of a tree, bearing diverse fruits. Whatever the mind pursues, the organs of action set out to accomplish; thus, action itself is considered to be nothing but mind. Mind, intellect, ego, thought, action, imagination, transmigration, latent impressions, ignorance, effort, and memory—all these are but modes of the mind. Along with them are the senses, nature, illusion, activity, and many other forms, as well as the countless varieties of sound and beauty. These are the causes of confusion in worldly existence. By a chance conjunction, and abandoning the marvel of pure, unbounded awareness, these various modes arise in consciousness as it follows the objects of perception. But how, O Brahman, do these imagined diverse objects, these modes of consciousness belonging to the supreme awareness, come to be established? When consciousness, which is by nature pure thought, appears completely tainted and arises as a particular notion, that is called the state of mind. When it becomes fixed upon the investigation of objects, it is called intellect, capable of definite understanding. When, through mistaken identification, it assumes a separate existence, it becomes the ego, the cause of bondage in the cycle of becoming. When, like a child, it moves from one thing to another, abandoning inquiry, it is called thought (citta). When, due to mere vibration, the result of that movement reveals subtle action, that result is called action. When, by chance, certainty about a single reality is abandoned and something is imagined as desirable, that is called imagination. When there is conviction regarding something seen before, unseen, or previously created, and it is desired within, that is called memory. When the traces of objects once enjoyed remain within, even after the experience has ceased, that is called residue. Though the pure essence of the self exists, a second perception appears to arise; when the unborn and non-existent seems to exist, that is called ignorance. This ignorance flashes forth to obscure the self, causing forgetfulness of its true state; through a web of false conceptualization, this impurity is imagined. Through hearing, creating, seeing, enjoying, smelling, and reflecting, it delights Indra and is thus called the sense organ. For all the array of visible things, the underlying, unmanifest supreme self is called nature, the substratum of the world. That which swiftly leads being into non-being and non-being into being, creating countless distinctions between the real and the unreal, is called maya, illusion. By actions such as seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling, and doing, it is called activity in the world, having taken on the relation of cause and effect. When consciousness, following its objects, becomes tainted and assumes the nature of manifest forms, these are considered its various modes of operation. Once it has departed from its natural state and assumed the condition of mind, it becomes firmly established through countless independent imaginations. Consciousness, now marked by the stains of sentience, caught in the web of dullness, and filled with distinctions, is itself agitated by its own imaginations. In the world, it is called the individual soul (jiva), mind, consciousness (citta), and intellect (buddhi). The wise describe this tainted one, fallen from reality, as a mass of various imaginations and a collection of ever-changing states. O Brahman, I find no definite conclusion within myself as to whether the mind is insentient or conscious. O Rama, the mind is neither fully inert nor has it attained true consciousness; it is that faded perception, neither wholly inert nor wholly aware, which is called the mind. That form which appears in the clouded space between existence and non-existence is the cause of the world, and this is known as the mind. The state that lacks a permanent, single form or certainty is called the mind, and from this the world arises. That imagination which swings between inert and conscious perceptions, whose nature is faded, is called the mind. The impure flow of consciousness, marked by various stains and differences, is called the mind, O Rama; it is neither inert nor purely conscious. Many diverse names have been assigned to it: ego, mind, intellect, soul, and others as well. Just as an actor assumes different forms, so too does the mind take on various names, O Rama, as it undergoes different actions. As a person acquires different titles according to the roles he plays, so too does the mind, depending on its functions, receive different names. Thus is the nature of the mind, mysterious and manifold, the source of all worldly experience.