In our Sadhana 2 class of Atma Darshana Yogashram, teacher Smt. Devashri-ji is nowadays explaining the Manomaya Kosha. While the discussion was about Chitta, I decided to check in an ancient work purported to have Adi Shankara's Vivaranam on Patanjali Yogasutras. Here is a scan of the explanation of the word Chitta.
The sutra is
॥ योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः ॥१.२॥
I give my translation of the above shown Sanskrit passage:
चित्तं हि प्रख्याप्रवृत्तिस्थितिशीलत्वात् त्रिगुणमिति।
What we term as Chitta is the mental personality of man, made up of his three gunas of
Prakhya (Sattva), Pravritti (Rajas) and Sthiti (Tamas). Their combined effect defines his character, made up of all his accumulated tendencies and behaviour patterns.
Sattva represents his manifest nature of intelligence, speech, and so on, Rajas represents his interactions and activities, Tamas represents his perceivable set of constraints and limitations. The resultant combination is unique in each individual and defines his or her personality. This is what is called Chitta, according to Adi Shankara's commentary on this sutra.
The discussion on Manomaya Kosha goes into the aspects of Manas, Buddhi, Chitta, and Ahankara. Each influences the other three components, and as a combination we have the Manomaya Kosha. This is the psychological layer of a human being, more intrinsic than the outer two layers of Annamaya and Pranamaya (which I can loosely translate as the physical body and the physiological/energy activities).
Here is a link to this chapter as explained by Guruji Swami Niranjananandaji in the book, Yogasutras 7.
You can read it online after registering yourself here:
Page six.
Hari Om Tat Sat
Postscript
Indeed this subject of Chitta has exercised my mind for a few days. Today I have been able to collect many pieces of information scanned from books by Adi Shankara.
Here is a link for you to read!
Now I quote the line from the great swamiji Chandrasekhara Bharati of Sringeri who has written a bhashya on Adi Shankara's Vivekachudamani. Here is the relevant portion (also archived in that folder linked above).
The key sentence is
स्वार्थानुसन्धानगुणेन स्मरणवृत्येत्यर्थः चित्तमिति कथ्यते
"Owing to one's propensities to fulfil one's desires and wants, recalling from /driven by one' s memory = past experiences, one's mental activity can be described as the term Chitta.
This is explained in detail by Swami Paramarthananda (Tattvabodha) as well as Swami Chinmayananda (Vivekachudamani). Read for yourself! You can open the pages in the link given above.
Hari Om Tat Sat
