What is AntahKarana?
Translation:- Antah (अन्तः)- inner, internal; Karan (करण)- operation, activity
Antahkarana, “the internal activities” refers to the internal dialogue that happens in our mind in response to a situation (internal or external) in front of us.
These are the different voices in our heads that we hear. When you need to take a “big” decision then some of the inner voices are for the decision and some are against it. These for and against statements are a result of various activities of the mind like logic and reasoning, memory (of past experiences), perception of the senses, and identity preferences. Your final decision is the result of the interaction between these activities.
The four parts of the mind/ antahkarana
These internal activities called Antahkarana are divided into four parts
- Manas– The sensory mind, gathers the information in a particular situation with the help of the senses.
- Chitta– The storehouse of memory, impressions, and patterns.
- Buddhi– The intellect, logic, and reasoning.
- Ahamkara– The I-maker, the ego (in spiritual terms, we are not referring to the modern meaning of ego which correlates to arrogance and being self-absorbed), identity, preferences, individuality, and willpower.
Connecting the four parts of the mind together
Let’s look at an example to understand how these four parts of the mind interact with each other to create those voices in the head.
You were feeling good and energetic at night and decided that you will do some exercise in the morning. You set an alarm for 5 AM. The alarm goes off in the morning.
The senses (Manas) are feeling lethargic and influencing your decision of not wanting to wake up.
The pleasant and unpleasant sensations of exercising stored in form of memory and impressions (in Chitta) will be in the background influencing your decision to do the exercise or not.
The intellect (Buddhi) will apply its logic and reasoning to decide whether to get out of bed or press snooze. You weigh the perceived benefits of exercising against the desire for rest.
The identity (ahamkara) that you have created for yourself tells you whether you are a loser, a winner, or a fighter.
These above-mentioned activities will interact with each other and come up with a decision, either to wake up or to go back to bed. Whichever voice in the head is the strongest will win.
How to apply this knowledge of Antahkaran in practice?
This approach of watching the mind is an excellent method of analytical meditation. It can be useful to decide the course of action, resolve an issue, or analyze an idea.
The more you practice this, the more you will start to recognize your own patterns and learn how to break them when required.
So the next time you have got a big decision to make or you want to start a new habit that will require some willpower, try to first observe how your mind talks about the issues. Start writing down the thoughts in the following way.
- Manas- Listen to the sensory mind, which roughly translates to what are you feeling. Without going into too much detail write down an overview of how you feel about the decision or situation. The purpose of this is not to fine-tune the detail but to get an overall idea of how you are feeling.
- Chitta- Observe any memories coming up related to the situation or habit. The memories may be pleasant or unpleasant, write them down.
- Buddhi- Apply your logic and reasoning, and write down the pros and cons related to the decision or habit.
- Ahamkara- What kind of identity have you created around these? How are the above issues affecting your life? Are the above issues strengthening your ideas of a winner or a loser? Are you trying to change through the idea of hating yourself? Are you making a selfish decision disregarding the impact on others?
This is a practice and every time you do it you keep getting better at it.
