Mahat (Buddhi) in the Śāntiparva

God, The Almighty, having thus created the creatures and added the spices of qualities like Goodness, Darkness, Ignorance, Time, Consciousness of functions and mind. All these constitute the sixth. Understanding is in the interior of the body below the crown of the head and above the soles of the feet. The senses of man are five and mind occupies the sixth. The understanding occupies the seventh position and kṣetrajña or the Soul has been given the eighth. The formation of ideas is in the realm of Mind. The things are differentiated and their truth is ascertained by understanding. The duty of the heart is to know and separate the pleasant and unpleasant. The unity of three forces is the reason for the cause of acts. The senses are inferior to the objects of the senses. The mind is higher than these objects. Understanding is inferior to the soul as it occupies the superior position. Mind is the essence of the ideas formed by the understanding by itself, within itself. Understanding sticks on the different aspects and modifications as the differentiation of senses influences it. For example when the sense of hearing takes place it becomes the organ of hearing so also the organ of touch, the organ of vision, organ of taste and organ of smell. Understanding disguises itself and appears in different modifications. This process is known as senses, the invisible soul presides as chief over these. Understanding, dwelling in the body assumes three states cheerfulness, grief and it accepts neither joy nor sorrow. The main function of understanding is to create elements. Besides it goes beyond those three states in such a mighty and firm way as the ocean which stands against the powerful currents of the rivers which fall into it. The one who avoids acts after proper performance and is really happy with the existent that is the supreme soul who is seen in all created beings and he who is far away from the three qualities, gets hold of an understanding and the senses created by the soul. The powerful soul has to apprehend them always. As a witness the soul sees the qualities and punctually works them up. This is the mark of differentiation between understanding and the soul. The common feature of both is subtlety.^[1]

The Impressions of their respective objects are caught up by the senses for which they exist. The function of mind is doubt. Ascertainment is the quality of understanding. The soul occupies the position of an inactive witness. Understanding is governed by the attributes Sattva, Rajas, Tamas, Time and Acts. The senses and the five attributes are the components of understanding. The organ which understanding uses for a purpose, the corresponding sense is ascertained. For e.g. When understanding sees, it becomes eyes, when it smells, it becomes nose and when tastes, it becomes the tongue and so on. Understanding has the quality of being modified into various kinds and that too frequently. The wish of understanding turns into mind. The creations of Understanding are the foundation which is formed by the five senses along with the mind. These are termed indriyas or organs. The blemish in the senses will leave their scar on Understanding. The essence of understanding being Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, it passes through these three states. Understanding being mighty does not have any refuge. The origin of life is the effects of the unity of qualities. Understanding created in the body is the cause of other acts. The true nature or form of existence cannot be grasped by anyone. The element of the residence of fish is different from the water it resides. But there is a bond between water and fish. So also is goodness and individual soul. There is unity between them but difficult to apprehend. Similar is the case of the gnat born of a rotten fly, it does not belong to the fig as in reality it is different from it. To the common man the gnat and the fig are united. So also the individual soul and the qualities of goodness.^[2]

The qualities are the product of understanding. The soul is the inactiveness of it. But the union between these, that is the soul and understanding, is eternal. As said earlier understanding creates the qualities but soul does not. Then the difference of these two can be seen in their nature. But whatever difference exists they are united. The yogi whose soul is freed never experiences or never affected by the imperfections of the three qualities as the water fowl. The water fowl though always in water does not get its wings wet. The spider who is an adept in the weaving of the web with delicate strings, so also is understanding which creates all these attributes intricately. The attributes are similar to the threads of the spider’s web.^[3] The soul is able to see an object clearly as if in the light of a lamp, when a person puts reins over the attributes.