10. It is best to investigate into the mind by the nature of its acts and operations, which tend to be the causes of the repeated births of mankind.
11. It is by its nature, that the mind has its power of thinking, and leading all the organs and members to their several actions, as it is ascertained by the seekers of salvation.
12. Men learned in the sástras and eloquent in speech, have given various appellations to the mind, in different systems of philosophy, according to its various perceptive faculties and different functions and operations in the body. (Gloss. It is called the mind (mana) from its power of minding (manana); it is termed internal sight (pasyanti) from its seeing inwardly; it is the ear (srotra) from its hearing—sravana from within, and so on).
13. Whatever nature the mind assumes by the fickleness of its thoughts, it receives the same name and nature for itself, as the same fleeting air receives from its exhaling of different odours.
14. So the mind delights itself with the thoughts of its desired objects, and assimilating itself into their natures.
15. It receives the same form in which it delights, and which it assumes to itself in its imagination.
16. The body being subject to the mind, is moulded in the same form of the mind; just as the wind is perfumed by the odour of the flowerbed, through which it passes (and the fragrance it carries).
17. The inward senses being excited, actuate the outward organs of sense in their own ways, as the exciting motion of the winds, drives the dust of the earth before their course.
18. The mind exerts its powers in the action of the external organs in the performance of their several functions; just as the flying winds drive the dust in different directions.
19. Such are the acts of the mind which is said to be the root of action, and these combine together as inseparably as the flower and its fragrance.