Evolution of the principles and the thirteenfold instrument

SK 22

From prakṛti / pradhāna / mūlaprakṛti (nature) [arises] mahat / buddhi (the great one); from that, the ahaṃkāra (I-maker); from that, the set of sixteen; and from five of that set of sixteen [arise] the five gross elements.

SK 23

mahat / buddhi (Intellect) is [marked by] determination. [Its] virtue, knowledge, dispassion, and lordliness — these are its sāttvika form; the reverse of these is [its] tāmasa form.

SK 24

The ahaṃkāra (I-maker) is self-conceit. From it a twofold creation proceeds: the set of eleven [organs], and the fivefold set of tanmātra (subtle elements).

SK 25

The sāttvika set of eleven proceeds from the modifying (guṇa (sattva, rajas, tamas) (vaikṛta)) ahaṃkāra (I-maker); the tanmātra (subtle elements) [proceed] from the elemental [tāmasa] I-maker, the source of the elements; and both [proceed] by [the impetus of] the taijasa [rajasic I-maker].

SK 26

The cognitive organs are called eye, ear, nose, tongue, and skin. Voice, hands, feet, the organ of excretion, and the generative organ they call the action-organs.

SK 27

Among these, the mind partakes of the nature of both [classes of organ]; it is the deliberating [faculty], and is also a sense-organ because of its shared characteristics [with them]. Their manifoldness, and the variety of external things, arise from the particular transformations of the guṇa (sattva, rajas, tamas) (guṇas).

SK 28

The function of the five [cognitive organs] with regard to sound and the rest [their objects] is held to be bare awareness; and [the functions] of the five [action-organs] are speaking, grasping, moving, excreting, and [generative] enjoyment.

SK 29

The function of the three [internal organs — intellect, I-maker, mind] is [each] their own distinctive [function], and this is particular to each. Their common function [of the instrument as a whole] is the five vital airs beginning with prāṇa (breath).

SK 30

With regard to a present object, the function of the four [intellect, I-maker, mind, and a single sense] is declared [to occur] both simultaneously and successively; but with regard to an unperceived [past or future] object, the function of the three [internal organs] is preceded by that [perception].

SK 31

[The organs] each undertake their own function, prompted by mutual intention [to cooperate]. The puruṣa (self)'s purpose alone is the [final] motive; the instrument is not made to act by anything [external to nature's own purposiveness].

SK 32

The instrument is of thirteen kinds; it carries [in objects], holds [them], and illuminates [them]. Its effect [the operation upon objects] is tenfold: what is carried, what is held, and what is illuminated.

SK 33

The internal instrument is of three kinds; the external is tenfold, [serving] as the object-field of those three. The external instrument [operates in] the present time; the internal instrument [operates in] all three times.

SK 34

Of these, the five cognitive organs have for their objects [things both] specific and non-specific [gross and subtle]. Speech has sound for its object; the remaining [action-organs] have the five [gross objects] for their fields.

SK 35

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.

SK 36

These [organs], like lamps, mutually distinct [yet cooperating], being particular modifications of the guṇa (sattva, rajas, tamas) (guṇas), illuminate the whole object [meant] for the puruṣa (self) and present it to the mahat / buddhi (intellect).

SK 37

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.