| vrtti | behaviour, fluctuation, modification, function, state of mind |
| sarupyam | identification, likeness, closeness, nearness |
| itaratra | at other times, elsewhere |
At other times, the seer identifies with the fluctuating consciousness.
When the seer identifies with consciousness or with the objects seen, he unites with them and forgets his grandeur.
The natural tendency of consciousness is to become involved with the object seen, draw the seer towards it, and move the seer to identify with it. Then the seer becomes engrossed in the object. This becomes the seed for diversification of the intelligence, and makes the seer forget his own radiant awareness.
When the soul does not radiate its own glory, it is a sign that the thinking faculty has manifested itself in place of the soul.
The imprint of objects is transmitted to citta through the senses of perception. Citta absorbs these sensory impressions and becomes coloured and modified by them. Objects act as provender for the grazing citta, which is attracted to them by its appetite. Citta projects itself, taking on the form of the objects in order to possess them. Thus it becomes enveloped by thoughts of the object, with the result that the soul is obscured. In this way, citta becomes murky and causes changes in behaviour and mood as it identifies itself with things seen. (See III.36.)
Although in reality citta is a formless entity, it can be helpful to visualize it in order to grasp its functions and limitations. Let us imagine it to be like an optical lens, containing no light of its own, but placed directly above a source of pure light, the soul. One face of the lens, facing inwards towards the light, remains clean. We are normally aware of this internal facet of citta only when it speaks to us with the voice of conscience.
In daily life, however, we are very much aware of the upper surface of the lens, facing outwards to the world and linked to it by the senses and mind. This surface serves both as a sense, and as a content of consciousness, along with ego and intelligence. Worked upon by the desires and fears of turbulent worldly life, it becomes cloudy, opaque, even dirty and scarred, and prevents the soul’s light from shining through it. Lacking inner illumination, it seeks all the more avidly the artificial lights of conditioned existence. The whole technique of yoga, its practice and restraint, is aimed at dissociating consciousness from its identification with the phenomenal world, at restraining the senses by which it is ensnared, and at cleansing and purifying the lens of citta, until it transmits wholly and only the light of the soul.
(See II.20; IV.22.)
| vrttayah | movements, modification |
| pañcatayyah | fivefold |
| klista | afflicting, tormenting, distressing, painful |
| aklistah | untroubling, undisturbing, unafflicting, undistressing, pleasing |
The movements of consciousness are fwefold. They may be cognizable or non-cognizable, painful or non-painful.
Fluctuations or modifications of the mind may be painful or non-painful, cognizable or non-cognizable. Pain may be hidden in the non-painful state, and the non-painful may be hidden in the painful state. Either may be cognizable or non-cognizable.
When consciousness takes the lead, naturally the seer takes a back seat. The seed of change is in the consciousness and not in the seer. Consciousness sees objects in relation to its own idiosyncrasies, creating fluctuations and modifications in one’s thoughts. These modifications, of which there are five, are explained in the next sutra. They may be visible or hidden, painful or not, distressing or pleasing, cognizable or non-cognizable.
The previous sutra explains that the consciousness involves the seer with the objects seen by it, and invites five types of fluctuations which can be divided and subdivided almost infinitely.
Thoughts, when associated with anguish, are known as painful (klista) conditions of the mind and consciousness. For example, a live coal covered with ash appears to be ash. If one touches it, it burns the skin at once. The live coal was in an incognizable, or aklista state. The moment the skin was burned, it became cognizable, or klista. As anguish predominates in pain, the pleasing state cannot be identified with it, though it exists side by side. The pleasure of sex ends in the agony of labour pain at the time of delivery, to be followed by all the cycles of joy, worry and sadness associated with parenthood.
Even highly evolved souls, who have reached a certain spiritual height, as in 1.18 which describes a non-painful, blissful state, are cautioned by Patañjali in 1.19. He warns that, though the yogi remains free while the virtuous potencies continue to be powerful, the moment they fade away he has to strive again, a painful end to the attainment of the spiritual pinnacle. Alternatively, the pains may be hidden, and may appear as non-painful for a long time, until they surface. For example, cancer can remain undetected for a long time until it reaches a painful and tormenting state.
Cognizable pains and anguishes are controlled or annihilated by the practice of yoga, and by willpower. Incognizable pains are prevented from rising to the state of cognition by freedom from desires (vAsanas) and by non-attachment (vairagya), in addition to yogic sadhana.
In II.12, Patañjali uses the words drsta (visible) and adrsta (unperceived, invisible). These may be compared to klista and aklista. Nature causes the five fluctuations to appear in their affictive klista forms, whereas purusa tends to bring them to the aklista state. For example, the klista form of memory is bondage in psychological time, the aklista form is the function of discrimination. Both the painful and non-painful states can be visible or hidden. The known, visible pains and pleasures can be reduced or eradicated. In painful states the ‘non-pains’ may be hidden, and consequently the virtues are difficult to recognize or perceive. Both these states must be stopped by yogic practice and renunciation. In sutras I.23, 27, 28, 33–39, and in II.29, Patañjali underlines the means of reaching the zenith of virtue, which is freedom and beatitude.
The citta acts as the wheel, while klista and aklista states are like the two spokes of the wheel which cause fluctuations and modulations in one’s self. The vrttis in their klista and aklista manifestations are not separate parallel entities, but feed and support each other. For example, the dullness which is the negative aspect of sleep supports the wrong perception of the other modulations of consciousness, whereas the positive experience of sleep (the passive, virtuous state experienced immediately on waking, when the ‘I’ is silent) gives a glimmer of a higher state, encouraging the efforts of right knowledge and discrimination. If the wheel is at rest, the spokes remain steady, and the citta becomes free from vrttis.
(For afflictions, see I.30, 31; II.3, 12, 16, 17.)
| pramana | valid knowledge, experienced knowledge, correct knowledge which is studied and verified, proof, or evidence |
| viparyaya | inverted, perverse, contrary |