The wise, O Rama, speak of the mind as a tainted entity, fallen from true reality—a mass of countless imaginations and a collection of ever-changing states. They ponder deeply, yet even among those who know truth, there is uncertainty: is the mind insentient, or does it possess consciousness? No definite conclusion emerges within. The mind, it is said, is neither fully inert nor wholly conscious. It is that faded perception, lingering between the extremes. This form, which appears in the twilight between existence and non-existence, clouded and indistinct, is the very cause of the world’s unfolding—it is called the mind. Its nature lacks a permanent, single form or certainty; from this shifting state, the world itself has arisen. This imagination, oscillating between inertness and consciousness, with its faded essence, is what we call the mind. The impure flow of consciousness, marked by various stains and differences, is also named the mind; it is neither purely inert nor purely conscious. Many names have been given to it: ego, mind, intellect, soul, and more. Just as an actor assumes different forms, the mind too takes on various names as it undergoes countless actions. Like a person who, according to his role, acquires different titles by virtue of his deeds, so does the mind, depending on its function, acquire diverse names. O Raghava, the terms for the mind that I have described are spoken differently by others, with hundreds of imagined distinctions. People, projecting their own preferred reasoning, have created a multitude of names and descriptions for the mind, intellect, senses, and so forth. For one, the mind is considered insentient; for another, it is alive. Ego and intellect are likewise defined differently by various thinkers. O delight of the Raghu lineage, I have explained that ego, mind, and intellect are one in essence, though others imagine them as separate in creation. The Naiyayikas conceive them in one way; the Sankhyas and Charvakas in another. So too do the Jaiminiyas, Arhatas, Buddhists, Vaisheshikas, and others with varied views, such as the Pancharatras. Yet, all must ultimately reach that supreme state of the Self, just as travelers from different places and times all arrive at the same city. Because of ignorance of the highest truth and mistaken understanding, they merely dispute, each wishing to assert their own opinions. Debaters praise their own path with elaborate reasoning, each like a traveler extolling his route, shaped by the diverse places and times from which he comes. Raghava, the doctrines they proclaim are false, devised by minds shaped by their own imagined meanings, each possessing its own peculiarities. Just as one person, performing acts of bathing, giving, receiving, and eating, attains variety in agency, so too does the mind exhibit such diversity. Because of its manifold activities, agency is ascribed to the mind under various names—such as the tendencies of the living being, actions, and their designations. This entire experience is only the mind; for one without mind, even though he sees, he does not truly see in this world. Upon hearing, touching, seeing, smelling, or tasting what is auspicious or inauspicious, one with a mind perceives inner joy or sorrow. The mind is the cause of objects, like light is for forms; one whose mind is bound is bound, and one whose mind is free is liberated. Know that the mind called ‘dull’ is best for the dull; and understand that the mind is dull for one whose consciousness is dull. This mind that has arisen is neither conscious nor inert; from it, this world, with its manifold pleasures and pains, has emerged. Indeed, when the mind is of a single form, saṃsāra dissolves; the cause of confusion is turbidity, and through confusion, the world appears. The mind, which is not inert, is not the cause of saṃsāra; nor is the inert, like a stone, the cause of saṃsāra. The mind is the cause of objects, just as forms are revealed by light; apart from consciousness, what is this world to the unconscious? Therefore, O Raghava, in this world, nothing is truly conscious or inert; the entirety of all beings dissolves completely. Through various states and activities, the mind assumes manifold designations; becoming one, it attains diversity, just as time does through the seasons. If, for those who are said to be without mind, ego and the actions of the senses disturb the body, let there be other entities such as the jīva. But the distinctions in the mind that have been posited in various philosophical views are sometimes asserted by some debaters and denied by others. O Rama, these powers do not oppose each other, nor do they ever surpass one another; for all powers exist in the divine, which is all-pervading. Whenever even the slightest trace of inert power arises in that pure awareness, then diversity appears. Just as a thread arises from the spider, the inert emerges from the conscious; in the same way, from the ever-awakened, supreme Brahman, nature arises. Due to the force of ignorance, various notions have come into existence; thus, terms like mind and its modifications have different meanings among disputants here. When this impure awareness first arises, it is called by names such as individual soul, mind, intellect, and ego; in the world, it is indeed referred to by these various designations, and there is no dispute about this. O Brahman, all this display is said to be of the mind alone, for it is understood from the meaning of the scriptures that the mind itself is action.