By Swami Harshananda
Nirmāṇacitta literally means ‘mind created by the yogi’.
The Yogasutras of Patañjali[1] contains some startling revelations, one of them being the ‘nirmāṇacitta’.[2] When a yogi is advanced very highly in the spiritual path, he discovers through his intuitive inner eye, that he still has some sañcitakarma about to fructify as prārabdhakarma. This can delay his kaivalya or liberation. Hence, using his special yogic powers he can create simultaneously a few suitable bodies through which he can experience and exhaust this karma. The citta or the mind in each of the bodies thus created is called ‘nirmāṇacitta’.
Patañjali makes it clear that though each of these nirmāṇacittas acts differently through the different bodies to exhaust that karma, the original or basic citta is that of the yogi which controls them.
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore