The Concept of Mind in Ayurveda

The study of mind is called as Psychology. The profounder of Ayurveda were probably the first who gave detailed description of mind and body relationship. They clearly stated that, the concept of mind and body are two separate entities.  The word Manas is came out from the Dhatus and it forms the the meaning of this is through which we are collecting the knowledge and objects that is called as Manas.

The various concepts have been propounded by different systems of Indian philosophy. These can be classified as

1. Mind as a material substance
2. Mind as the association of experience
3. Mind as an instrument of perception
4. Mind is a form of behavior
5. Mind as a immaterial substance
6. The mind is of intermediate magnitude

It is connected with all sense organs of the body I.e it is an instrument for all our experiences. According to Chakrapani , manas is a separate sense organ, by reason of the fact that it has many functions which are not possessed by any of the sense. Charaka also mentions mind as the sixth sense (Sada indriya) , the mind is called natindriya because it is not a cause of knowledge of external objects like the other sense. It is directly responsible for pain and pleasure and it is superior to all the senses.

A healthy mind in a healthy body. Mind is a fact of human beings, the development of the mind in man makes him superior to all over living beings. Mind perceives all the sense objects, while rest of the sense organs are restricted only to the specific objects. The mind appears diverse because of the diversity of its objects for example mind may sometimes takes religious things and appear religious and at different instance it may take bright lustful thought and many appear lustful.

In upanishada also the mind is considered as a sub matter. It controls all the sense organs, hence mind is considered as centrally acting internal entity. Mind is the product of food that we take, in Bhagvad Gita it is mentioned that the temperamental types namely Satwika, Rajas and Tamas are produced by the types of the food we consumed. In ayurveda more importance has been given to the subject regarding the purity of diet. Manas functions during working and dreaming.