Tripura Rahasya

Sage Dattatreya 

The sage's son continued,

• When the proclivities still remain in abeyance without being used up, its totality is called avyakta (unmanifested); differences arise only in chitta. There is no difference among individuals in sleep and so it is prakriti, the same assuming the name of chitta when differences manifest.
• Therefore the mind (chitta) is purusha (the individual) when the sentient phase is assertive, and the same is avyakta when prakriti, the insentient phase, is assertive.
• That chitta is tripartite according to its functions, namely, ego, intellect and mind. 
• When influenced by the three qualities, it manifests in greater details as follows: by sattva (brightness), it becomes the five senses, hearing, sight, touch, taste and smell; by rajas (activity) speech, hands, feet, organs of excretion and of procreation; by tamas (darkeness) earth, air, fire, water and ether.
• The supreme intelligence coquettes with the universe in this manner, remaining all the time unaffected, a witness of its own creation.
• The present creation is the mental product of Brahma or Hiranyagarbha, appointed creator by the will-force of the Primal Being, Sri Tripura.