Chitta is essentially the material the mind is made of. It is the structural aspect of the mind. Chitta is conceptualized as a universal medium through which consciousness functions on all the planes of the manifest universe; it is the medium through which the individual Soul [Sans. jivatma] materializes in the individual world, lives, and evolves in this world until it has perfected and unified with the Supreme Soul [Sans. Paramatma]. The closest English word for chitta is intellect [Sans. buddhi]. Buddha has described chittas as successive, discrete, evanescent, complex cognitive events which form the apparently continuous stream of consciousness; each of these complex units involves consciousness itself, as the basic awareness of an object, and a constellation of associated mental factors (Pali chetasika) exercising more specialized tasks in the act of cognition (Bodhi 2000, p. 88). So if the mental state is the chitta, the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions associated with that particular mental state are the chetasikas.

Vrittis are temporary mental states (thoughts, feelings, impulses, etc.) that manifest in the medium of chitta or mind stuff. As mentioned in Chap. 1, Patanjali defines vrittis as the patterns or fluctuations of chitta. If we look at the mind, we find that vrittis or mental states (such as worry, happiness, and the like) appear and disappear every moment. They pass away and are replaced by new and different vrittis or mental states each moment.

These are the deep impressions engraved in one’s memories from past experiences or past deeds [Sans. karma]. While the abode of vrittis is in the surface aspect of chitta, that of the samskaras is deeper. In that sense, samskaras are engraved memories. Being the superficial aspects of the chitta, the vrittis can be destroyed relatively easily, whereas samskaras are much deeper and need long practice of meditation for their annihilation. According to the Yoga Sutras, the samskaras burden the meditator’s mind, obscure his vision, and come in the way of obtaining a glimpse of the Reality. Hence, samskaras must be destroyed (burnt) completely, through the meditative insight [Sans. jnana; Pali nanna) to make the meditator’s mind (consciousness) pass into the realm of Reality.

In contrast to the chitta (which is the structural material of the mind) and the vrittis (which are the functional aspects of the mind), gunas are the qualitative aspects of the mind. Chitta takes in the forces or qualities of gunas and projects them as vrittis (thoughts, feelings, etc.). The three basic dispositions of gunas are (a) tamas [Sans. inertia or darkness], rajas [Sans. activity or restlessness], and sattva [Sans. wisdom or balancing factor]. Chitta is always trying to get back to its natural, internal, and pure state (described as Soul/internal self which is the locus of one’s experience and essence of one’s existence), but the sense organs [Sans. indriyas] constantly draw it out and thus prevent the self–realization. Guna and vrittis are the terms of Yoga Sutras (Patanjalian) and conceptually similar to the Buddhist term chetasika (associated mental factors). In the Buddhist literature, chitta is considered a state of mind or the prime material that constitute one’s consciousness/mind, whereas chetasikas (like the gunas and vrittis) are the concomitants of chitta or the associated mental factors that color the chitta and give it its distinctive character (Bodhi 2000, p. 88).

This denotes both the individual soul [Sans. jivatma, the contracted self) and the Supreme Soul [Sans. paramatma, the expanded or Universal Self]. As mentioned in Chap. 1, Samkhya (dualistic) philosophy considers that the individual soul consists of two entities: the purusha [Sans. real/true self, the Atman] and the prakriti [Sans. matter]. Prakriti is the primordial nature, the material substratum of the creation, and consists of the three gunas mentioned above. The highest Yogic philosophy asserts that the soul is pure and perfect; it is the highest grade of the mind; it is the basic/fundamental entity in our existence. Being fundamental, the soul is not reducible further and hence called simple [Sans. maula, means which is original], whereas the body and mind are compounds [Sans. gauna, means the derivative; possibly this term has originated from guna]. As mentioned in Chap. 1, Advaita Vedantic (nonduality) philosophy considers the soul (Universal Self or purusha) the same as the nondual Brahman. Vedanta further asserts that (mis)taking the prakriti as the purusha is an illusion or great mistake. When the power of discrimination has been attained, the person sees that everything in this world, mental and physical, is a compound and, as such, can’t be the purusha. When the purusha (Universal Self) realizes that being the fundamental entity in existence depends on nothing in this universe, when the purusha realizes that freedom or liberation is its very nature and that it doesn’t need anything to attain perfection, that very moment, the purusha becomes liberated from the conflicts or illusions created by prakriti and attains the state of liberation [Sans. mukti, kaivalya].

It is important to understand the difference between these two terms. Wheeler et al. (1997, p. 335) clarifies that awareness represents the general capacity that an individual possesses for particular kinds of mental representations and subjective experiences that are not directed at anything. Awareness is defined as the reflexive perception of the act of registering the presence of things in the environment which are actually registered in the individual’s sphere of knowledge. Awareness is not just the mere detection of things in the environment. For example, a camera or computer can detect light, movement, and objects that it is focused upon. However, the video camera is not aware of these things. Philosophers have argued that awareness requires an object to be aware of and a subject that is in fact aware. Therefore, the requirement for awareness is that there is something or someone who is actually aware. Awareness may be equivalent to the subjective experience such that there is a subject or individual who is able to have an experience of something else external to that individual. Consciousness, on the other hand, is described as our continuous stream of awareness of all the thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions. Consciousness is conceptualized as a constellation of attributes of the mind such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, and the ability to perceive a relationship between oneself and one’s environment. Consciousness is related to awareness in that consciousness represents an awareness of the self as the object of awareness. Thus, awareness is more general and consciousness is subjective awareness or self-awareness which is more personalized. So one can see that in consciousness (self-awareness) the individual is both the subject and the object of the experience. In Yoga, consciousness is used in a sense that is different from the consciousness in the neurological sense. While consciousness might be derived from the neurological processes, Yogic philosophies consider it as a form of energy which constitutes the primary substantive part of the universe. In these traditions, consciousness is generally referred to the various grades of the human mind and the attending mental states (Sivananda 1994, p. 112, 131). This Yogic consciousness (Y-consciousness) includes the mind with its various grades of expression, from the lower/coarser (Sans. manasa) to higher/finer (Sans. buddhi) and to the highest/finest (Sans. Atman, soul) (Aurobindo 1999). Similarly, the various stages of samadhis are deemed the much higher levels of consciousness or mental states. These philosophies clarify that meditation is a process of purification (in Buddhist traditions, it is rightly called the Path of Purification [Pali Visuddhimagga], in which the meditator refines the consciousness/mind in order to be able to realize its subtle/finer expressions). Consciousness is also described interchangeably with self–awareness which is a special type of awareness where the object in focus is the self. The act of being self-aware encompasses the potential to observe the subjective neural representations of the self and to model internally an inferred representation of what others may think about the self (Beitman and Yue 2004). Meditation offers the opportunity to create and function within this self-reflective inner space that enhances one’s power of self-exploration and purifying one’s experiences with the meditative insights about the various levels of realities involved in these experiences.