Page 32 - Hinduism

The object of studying prakṛti or acit is to know that our body is made of prakṛti and that we are different from it. The body is made of earth, water, fire, air and ether and it has five sense organs, and is called the gross body or sthūlaśarīra. There is a subtle body called the sūkṣmaśarīra and it consists of manas, buddhi, citta and ahaṅkāra. Though in western Psychology they are classed as mind different from the body made of matter, Hinduism treats them as physical changes in a subtle form. Ahaṅkāra is egoity, buddhi is determination, manas and citta are particular perishing changes in the mind. Śarira is thus subtle and gross and may be called psycho-physical. Nothing is really lost and there is only change from one state to another.
Prakṛti, as Sāṅkhya philosophy says, consists of twenty-four tattvas, namely, mahat (buddhi, citta) ahaṅkāra, the five jñānendriyas, the five karmendriyas making the body, and the five elements or pañcabhūtas and their earlier subtle conditions known as pañcatanmātras which make up the body and the world. Prakṛti has three qualities, namely, sattva, rajas and tamas, Godness or Purity, action and inertia. These three qualities are present in varying proportions in all the twenty- four tattvas.
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