Antaḥkaraṇa

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Antaḥkaraṇa is a Sanskrit term used in Theosophy with a special meaning that differs from the one present in the Hindu philosophy. In the latter, the antaḥkaraṇa refers to the mind and its faculties. In Theosophy, it is the link between the lower and the higher mind.

H. P. Blavatsky, in the Theosophical Glossary defines it as follows:

Antahkarana (Sk.)., or Antaskarana. The term has various meanings, which differ with every school of philosophy and sect. Thus Sankarâchârya renders the word as “understanding”; others, as “the internal instrument, the Soul, formed by the thinking principle and egoism”; whereas the Occultists explain it as the path or bridge between the Higher and the Lower Manas, the divine Ego, and the personal Soul of man. It serves as a medium of communication between the two, and conveys from the Lower to the Higher Ego all those personal impressions and thoughts of men which can, by their nature, be assimilated and stored by the undying Entity, and be thus made immortal with it, these being the only elements of the evanescent Personality that survive death and time. It thus stands to reason that only that which is noble, spiritual and divine in man can testify in Eternity to his having lived.[1]


In Theosophy

In the sevenfold constitution of human beings described in the Theosophical literature the fifth principle (counting from the physical body upwards) is called manas, commonly translated as "mind". This principle is dual, comprising the higher mind (the spiritual mind, or reincarnating Ego), and the lower mind (the sensual mind, or the psychological ego). According to H. P. Blavatsky, the antaḥkaraṇa (also spelled by her as "antaskarana") is an aspect of the lower mind that does not get entangled with kāma (the animal soul), but retains its original purity. For this reason, it serves as an "imaginary bridge" between the lower and higher mind:

The Antaskarana is therefore that portion of the Lower Manas which is one with the Higher, the essence, that which retains its purity; on it are impressed all good and noble aspirations, and in it are the upward energies of the Lower Manas, the energies and tendencies which become its Devachanic experiences. The whole fate of an incarnation depends on whether this pure essence, Antaskaraṇa, can restrain the Kāma-Manas or not. It is the only salvation. Break this and you become an animal.[2]

The antaḥkaraṇa in Theosophy is not seen so much as a structural principle, so to say, but as a temporary one, which is active when the lower mind aspires towards the higher:

In order not to confuse the mind of the student with the abstruse difficulties of Indian metaphysics, let him view the lower Manas or Mind, as the personal Ego during the waking state, and as Antaskaraṇa only during those moments when it aspires towards its higher half, and thus becomes the medium of communication between the two. It is for this reason that it is called “Path.”[3]

According to the Law of Correspondences there is a correlation between inner principles and outer organs. Within the human brain, it is said that the pituitary gland or hypophysis is connected to antaḥkaraṇa:

The fourth of these cavities is the Pituitary Body, which corresponds with Manas-Antaskaraṇa, the bridge to the Higher Intelligence; it contains various essences.[4]

In his Occult Glossary, Gottfried de Purucker uses the word antaḥkaraṇa in a wider sense:

Antaskaraṇa (Sanskrit) Perhaps better spelled as antaḥkaraṇa. A compound word: antar, "interior," "within"; karaṇa, sense organ. Occultists explain this word as the bridge between the higher and lower manas or between the spiritual ego and personal soul of man. Such is H. P. Blavatsky's definition. As a matter of fact there are several antaḥkaraṇas in the human septenary constitution - one for every path or bridge between any two of the several monadic centers in man. Man is a microcosm, and therefore a unified composite, a unity in diversity; and the antaḥkaraṇas are the links of vibrating consiousness-substance uniting these various centers.[5]

In Hinduism

In Hindu philosophy, the antahkarana (Skt., often translated as the "internal organ") refers to the psychological apparatus of the individual. In the Vedāntic literature, the antahkaraṇa is organised into four parts:

  1. Ahamkāra (ego) — the origin to the psychological 'I' associated to the body and its senses.
  2. Buddhi (intellect) — the principle that is able to discern truth from falsehood and thereby to make wisdom possible.
  3. Manas (mind) — the faculty of doubt and volition; the lower or instinctive mind, seat of desire and governor of sensory and motor organs.
  4. Citta (memory) — the part that deals with remembering and forgetting


Artistic representations

Callicott Antahkarana 1.jpg


Theosophical artist Burton Callicott created a beautiful rendition of this concept in his pastel Antahkarana. It hangs by the Meditation Room in the L. W. Rogers Building at the Theosophical Society in America headquarters.


Notes

<references>

  1. ↑ H. P. Blavatsky, Theosophical Glossary (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1918), 22.
  2. ↑ H. P. Blavatsky, Collected Writings XII, Instruction No. V (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 710.
  3. ↑ H. P. Blavatsky, Collected Writings XII, Instruction No. III (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 633.
  4. ↑ H. P. Blavatsky, Collected Writings XII, Instruction No. V (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1980), 697.
  5. ↑ Gottfried de Purucker, Occult Glossary (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1996), 5.
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