Mahat / Buddhi
“the great principle / intellect”
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 7 anchored passages
buddhi · mahat · intellect · the great one · the great principle · the intellect
in the texts
Sāṃkhyakārikā
The 'great one' or intellect, the first evolute of prakṛti and the faculty responsible for discrimination between self and nature.
Since it is the mahat / buddhi (intellect) that accomplishes for the puruṣa (self) the full experience of everything, it is also that same [intellect] which discriminates the subtle distinction between prakṛti / pradhāna / mūlaprakṛti (the primary nature) and the self.
From prakṛti / pradhāna / mūlaprakṛti (nature) [arises] mahat / buddhi (the great one);
Since mahat / buddhi (the intellect), together with the [other two] internal organs, penetrates every object, therefore the threefold [internal] instrument is the doorkeeper, and the remaining [external organs] are the doors.
Sāṃkhyatattvavivecana
The 'great principle' (mahat), identified with intellect (buddhi), first evolute of pradhāna and locus of virtue, knowledge, dispassion, and lordliness.
by the word "great" (mahat) the {{buddhi / mahat|intellect}} of Hiraṇyagarbha is meant.
Within the twenty-three principles, excluding the five [gross] elements, and merging the I-maker into the intellect, the [resulting] seventeen[-fold aggregate] is termed the subtle body, since, like fuel for fire, it is the locus of the manifestation of the Self.
'I shall perform [my] duty'—[such] determination is the mark of the intellect.