Patanjali Yoga Sutra — Yogaḥ cittavṛtti nirodhaḥ (1.2)

Yoga is control of mental modifications or thought waves.

It so happens that, before the actual battle, it starts in the arena of the mind, the mind fights and gets disturbed. It is interesting to note that, whenever our scriptures speak on Yoga, they invariable focus the discussion on the mind. The yogis’ attempts to understand, to unravel the secrets of mind are much older than the efforts of the scientists. In fact, in yoga, everything revolves around only the mind because the mind controls the body and not the other way round and yoga is all about ‘Mind Management’.

मनो हि हेतुः सर्वेषांम् इन्द्रियाणां प्रवर्तते ॥वाल्मीकि रामायण॥

Mano hi hetuḥ sarveṣām indriyāṇāṃ pravartate ||Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa||

For all kinds of modifications of senses, mind is the cause.

॥Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa॥

This sūtra is, in fact, the definition given by Patañjali Maharṣi for the word “YOGA”, hence considered a very important sūtra. One may ask what the need for restraint of thought waves is. When nothing in the universe is stagnant, nothing is standstill, why mind then? The analogy of a lake would explain better. The thought waves are nothing but ripples in the mind (Lake). When the ripples are present on the surface, the bottom of the lake cannot be seen because of disturbed/muddy water. When the surface is calm and tranquil, mud also settles down and water gets clearer and the bottom is seen easily. Only a deeper insight anchors the mind. Yoga helps the Sādhaka to get such tranquility and his true consciousness (ātman) is revealed to him. Not doing anything, either physically or mentally!? A modern technocrat, who is engaged in creative thinking all the 24 hours of the day, may wonder at this; more he thinks, more creative he could be. More he earns through his creativity, more successful, he is considered to be. Time is money for him. To save time, he is ready to stretch out to any extent. A conventional thinking father, walked 20 minutes to save Rs.200/-. Son, a modern thinker, is ready to spend Rs.200/- to save 20 minutes!

‘Yes’, says Patañjali. When a candle is burning, the Jyothi (light) will be still. Can I say, ‘Light is not doing anything, hence useless light?’ The light need not do anything. The very presence of still light makes all the difference around. Our scriptures declare that no spiritual progress is possible when the mind is agitated or disturbed. Lesser the brain activity, yoga sādhaka dives deeper and deeper into the ocean of spirituality and the associated ecstasy. बलस्य आधारं स्थिरम्। (balasya adhāraṃ sthiram) — the basis of strength is stability. That is nothing but ‘YOGA’. Unfortunately, the mind is always hyperactive. Yoga says, ‘what is galloping should be slowed; what is slow should be stopped; what is stopped should be relaxed and dissolved’. In yoga, the trajectory is silence, the destination is also silence. Lotus blooms in water; whereas mind blooms in silence. Observing silence to reach undifferentiated silence! Beginning itself is the end. It is like drawing a circle where the starting point and the endpoint are one and the same.

On meditation, Swāmi Samartha Rāmadāsji makes a seemingly self-contradicting (but not) statement, “Without becoming a thinker, think of the Unthinkable to become thoughtless!”

In meditation, one is supposed to drop off all thoughts to become thoughtless; stop all kriyas (actions) to become actionless; hence meditation is not thinking at all, not an action at all, or it is not a verb at all, but yet the sādhaka thinks of that:

1. Which is the substratum of all
2. Which is formless yet the cause for all forms
3. Which is unchanging yet the cause for all those changing
4. Which is eternal yet the cause for all that is transient
5. Which is Ādyantarahita (beginning-less and endless) yet the cause of all that has ādi and anta
6. Which is both within and without
7. Which is nearer than the nearest
8. Which is farther than the farthest
9. Which never moves yet makes everything move

10. Which is ever still yet moves faster than the fastest (mind)

11. Which is that power that animates everything

12. Which is beyond thought and speech

13. Which is nameless yet everything that is named

14. Which is without any attributes yet present in everything with attributes

15. Which is Ekam (only one) but present in anekam (everything)

16. Which is infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient

17. Which empties the mind yet one feels the fullness

18. Which is all-pervading, all-pervasive

19. Which is not an object for senses but the subject for the senses

20. Which is not experienced yet it is the ‘Experience Absolute’

Now let us look at ‘Yoga’ according to Bhagavān śrīkṛśṇa:

śrīkṛśṇa says, discharging of mind from its duḥkha saṃyoga (attachment to misery) is yoga. That needs withdrawal of the mind from its outward tendency and such a withdrawn mind (antarmukhi) enjoys the bliss of ātman within itself. Even a hostile and intimidating river becomes quiet on its union with the ocean. A more specific explanation is found in this following verse:

योगस्थः कुरु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा धनञ्जय।

सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योः समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते ||गीता २.४८||

yogasthaḥ kuru karmāṇi saṅgaṁ tyaktvā dhanañjaya.

siddyasiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā samatvaṁ yoga ucyate ||Gītā 2.48||

Meaning: By abandoning all your attachments (saṅga) and with an unperturbed approach towards success or failure, be occupied in yoga unswervingly. Such an approach of equipoise and equanimity of mind is said to be YOGA.

This is the revelation of the secrets of yoga by Bhagavān. According to śrī kṛṣna, perfect poise of one’s consciousness itself is Yoga. We see many instances of perfect poise, balance and dhṛti in certain epic characters like śrīrāma, śrīkṛṣna, Bhīṣmā, etc. śrīrāma was about to be crowned. All glorious arrangements had been made to declare śrīrāma the sovereign ruler of Ayodhya. śrīrāma, yatacittātma, was as calm as ever, getting ready for that magnificent ceremony. But, suddenly the news comes that śrīrāma would not be crowned, instead, Bharata would be crowned as king of Ayodhya and that śrīrāma should get ready for fourteen years of vanavāsa. śrīrāma remained unmoved like an ocean, as calm as ever! Having offered his prostrations to parents, he proceeds to make all arrangements to go to the forest as per the wishes of his step-mother Kaikaya and father Daśaratha.

In Bhagavad Gītā , Bhagavān Śrīkr̥ṣṇa uses different terms to denote perfectly equipoised mind like ‘yatacittātma’ (Chapter 6, śloka 10), ‘triguṇātīta’ (Chapter 14), ‘Karmayogi’ (Chapter 4), ‘Sanyāsi’ (Chapters 4,5 and 6), ‘Sthitaprajña’ (Chapter 2), ‘Bhakta’ (Chapter 12).

Indian scriptures say (see ātma ṣaṭkam of śaṅkara Bhagavatpāda), ‘antaḥkaraṇa’ is the internal faculty of human beings and it has four sub-faculties or segments working in very high coherence called antaḥkaraṇa catuṣṭayas. There is a very highly efficient mode of communication of impressions in the antaḥkaraṇa (these faculties). These sub-faculties of antaḥkaraṇa are:

1. Manas
2. buddhi
3. ahaṅkāra
4. Citta.

Like water flowing from a higher level to a lower level, knowledge flows from known to unknown. Prakṛti which is full of knowledge (Known) is the source of jñāna and thus flows to individual mind (Manas), which is normally with ajñāna. ‘Manas’ is the receiving faculty, in the sense that, through the five sense organs, from the external world, this faculty keeps on receiving the knowledge through five senses, by way of impressions — good or bad — without any kind of discrimination. Whatever the eyes see, we get the knowledge (good or bad), whatever we hear we get the impressions (good or bad) and so on. Thus, this faculty remains non-judgmental or non-discriminative ever. The enormous amount of information or details one gets or accumulates through this mode, without discrimination (‘Buddhi’ that is discussed in the next paragraph) is like riding a wild horse without a rein.

The information, thus received is passed on to the next faculty namely, ‘Buddhi’. This is discriminating and qualifying faculty. Being judgmental, it qualifies the knowledge or impressions as good or bad, negative or positive, vicious or virtue, etc, thus guiding the person in the right direction. That is what our scriptures do to steer us in realizing the purpose of our life.

What happens next? The knowledge thus qualified, is passed on to the next faculty namely ‘ahaṅkāra’, which accepts or rejects the impressions and holds the accepted impressions as its own; and slowly becomes part of the knowledge itself or becomes impression itself. If it chooses the positive impressions, the person will be pious, virtuous personality, on the other hand, if it opts for negative impressions, a vicious personality.

The story never ends here. All kinds of un-rejected impressions are stored in the next faculty namely “Citta.” (But according to Patañjali Citta is synonymous with mind or consciousness and it includes both Manomaya kośa and vijñānamaya kośa). This faculty stores the un-rejected impressions of not only the present life, even the past lives’. The sum total of all these stored impressions is called “Samskāra”, which guides all our present tastes, current actions, ostensible thoughts, etc. In turn, this is also the cause of one’s cycle of birth and death. Thus, one is solely responsible for one’s present state or present life, because, in fact, his present state is the outcome of sum total of what all he has chosen to be, both in the present life and the previous ones (Also read sūtra 4.8 and 4.9). Thus, there is a saying, if you want to know what you have done in the past, look at your body; if you want to know what you will do in the future, look at your mind. Future (bhaviṣya) is built up every moment through our thoughts and actions. The future is nothing but today’s decision and effect of one’s karmas.

There should be a very effective cohesion among these aspects of antaḥkaraṇa. What happens in the absence of cohesion?

A young man was invited for an interview in response to his application for a job. In order to equip himself effectively for the next day’s interview, he bought a new shirt piece and a pant piece to be stitched by one of his three sisters at home. His eldest sister sat continuously for about three to four hours and got them stitched. Though the shirt was perfect, unfortunately, the pant was longer by about two inches. He requested his eldest sister to shorten the pant by two inches. As she was too tired, she got annoyed at the brother and said, ‘no worry, just fold the pant at the bottom by two inches and it will be alright’. He requested the second sister, who also refused to correct the pant size. Similarly third sister also refused. He consoled himself by deciding to fold at the bottom and slept at night. At about 11 pm, the eldest sister thought, ‘Oh poor brother. I should give him a surprise. Let me shorten the pant by two inches tonight itself and he would be happy tomorrow morning’. She shortens the pant accordingly and slept. At about 1.00 am, the second sister got up and felt, ‘the elder sister has not conceded to my brother’s request. I should give him a surprise’. She also shortens the pant size by two inches and slept! The third sister woke up at 3.00 am and she also shortened the pant size by two inches! What happened at the end? Did our young man wear that pant and attend the interview? Individually all sisters are right but collectively all are wrong. That is the effect of non-cohesiveness.

But, in Yoga, what happens to this chain? Yogi knows that he has come here, to this world, not to take anything; but to lose everything. All his baggage of vāsanas (impressions) — good or bad, accumulated over the past innumerable lives is emptied. Since the Yoga Sādhaka restrains the thought waves by his sheer sādhana; he is breaking the very contact of the ‘Seer’ with the ‘Seen’ (this message is made clear in the foregoing aphorisms). Thus, there are no impressions in the four faculties of ‘antaḥkaraṇa’ namely, manas, buddhi, ahaṅkāra, citta and finally is able to erase out the Samskāras, which are the causes for the cycle of birth and death. Such a yogi is ‘Devamānava’, ‘jīvanmukta’ — a liberated soul.

But oddly enough, stronger the sādhaka decides to abandon the thoughts from the mind, stronger he gets attached to that particular thought. A king approached a maharṣi and pleaded that he should be taught the secret of becoming the sovereign emperor of the land. Maharṣi said, ‘yes, it is possible; practice meditation; but one condition — while practicing meditation, don’t ever think of three things namely chappals, a broomstick, and a dust-bin. King said, ‘Oh, I have been practicing meditation for more than 50 years and I never thought of these three things at all. Why should think of these things this time?’ Yes, our king sat for meditation with a strong resolution — not to think of these three things. But unfortunately, the moment our king closed his eyes, only these three things came to his mind! Then what is the solution? How one should meditate? The answer is relaxation. Don’t resolve, instead, relax, have a ‘let go’ attitude.