Chain of Thoughts – vrttis
If you have noticed, your mind keeps moving from one thought to another continuously. And in this process your feelings keep changing. In this blog, we are going to look into this from YOGA’s perspective.
The first few words we come across when someone defines Yoga are
Sutra I.2 – ‘yogas citta-vrtti-nirodhah’
Yoga is the stilling of the changing states of the mind.
What does it really mean – to achieve the goal of yoga, samadhi, we need to still the continuous changing states of our mind. But before we start working on stilling the mind, I think we can start with, understanding what the changing states of mind, vrttis, are. After all, once we understand what we need to still, we are one step closer to achieving the goal of yoga.
(A disclaimer: I am also on the path of learning and experiencing what yoga philosophy is, following blog is just based on my understanding of Patanjali Yoga Sutras and learnings through my own experience.)
So, let’s start with – What are vrttis?
vrttis are sequence of thoughts, ideas, mental impression of experiences or cognitive act performed either by the mind, intellect or ego (collectively citta). The verbal root vrt means to revolve, turn, proceed, move and underscores the always active, sequential rambling aspect of the mind. The constantly moving image, thought, idea or state of the mind is known as vrttis.
For eg: an amazing moment, feel good factor, an argument, an image of an object/being, smell of an object etc. As your mind keeps moving from one thought or idea or an image to another, you will notice the state of your mind constantly changing from happy to sad or to anger or questioning or… and the list goes on. When our mind keeps constantly changing based on the sequence of thoughts or idea, it’s very hard to stay focused and realize who we truly are. All the impressions, thoughts or ideas are a product of prakrti– matter, and therefore they are different from purusa, the soul. So, to be able to realize the soul (our true self) as a separate autonomous entity, we need to restraint the vrttis.
TEST – If you would like to check this for yourself, close your eyes and keep changing your thought, mental impression of an object or idea and see how your feelings will keep changing. First, think of a good memory and then a bad experience. You will notice how your mind moves from feeling happy to feeling sad or angry. These are the fluctuations or changing states of mind that we are referring to here. It’s not you who is feeling it, it’s your mind. And because we think we are our mind, we think it is ‘I’ that is feeling it.
Sutra I.4 – ‘vrtti sarupyam itaratra’
Otherwise, at other time, the seer is absorbed in the changing states of the mind.
As stated in the above sutra, when a person (the seer) is not practicing yoga, he is absorbed in the changing states of his mind. He doesn’t know how to discriminate what is his mind and what is the true self, soul. Purusa, true self or soul, doesn’t change its nature simply because it is being misidentified with the physical body or the changing states of the mind. Purusa is omnipresent and non-changing.
The citta (cumulative of mind, ego and intellect pronounced as ‘chitta’) serves the soul, by presenting it object of experience in form of vrttis. When these ever changing states of mind are presented to the soul, it becomes conscious of it. But the citta mistakenly identifies with them and thereby gets affected by them.
Example – If you look at yourself in a dirty mirror. You feel that, it is you who is dirty. Once you clean the mirror, you realize that it’s not you but just the reflection that was dirty. Similarly, the purusa is present in the citta and witnesses what the citta is reflecting on to it. So it misidentifies with the reflection as its own feeling. And in the process doesn’t realize that it is different from the citta and is actually formless and content less.
When we are not aware of the distinction between consciousness and the mind, we wrongly attribute the states of the mind to be the self. Due to mind’s ignorance, the soul appears to be absorbed in the lights, sounds and emotions of the external world and forgets its own true nature as pure consciousness. purusa, the soul, is just a witness of what is happening due to the vrttis of the mind.
Now that we have an idea of what are vrttis. Let’s look at how they affect us.
Sutra 1.5 – vrttayah pancatayyah klistaklistah
There are 5 changing states of mind, and they are either harmful or non-detrimental to the practice of yoga
As the mind is never static, the vrttis are continuously created and they keep the consciousness busy with the external world, prakrti. In the process, the purusa or soul is drawn away from its true self.
The klista (detrimental) vrttis are created by the five klesas (obstacles) – avidya (ignorance), asmita (ego), raga (attachment), dvesa(aversion) & abhinivesah (clinging to life). These klesas are a hindrance on the path of yoga, as they strengthen the gunas (qualities) – rajas & tamas and as a result that satva guna is weaker. Plus the klesas cause an action and reaction duo which creates more karma (act) and adds to karmasaya (the stock of all the karmas) and thus samsara (the cycle of action & reaction). Among all klesa, avidhya is the root cause of all the other kleshas.
When under the influence of klista (detrimental) vrttis, the mind is controlled by the sense object and thus gets absorbed by the external world. It gets attracted (klesha – raga) or repelled (klesha – dvesa) by the sense objects and thus result in creating action, karma, which initiates the reactive cycle, the cycle of action and reaction,also known as samsara. Karmas are created by these vrttis which in turn are created by kleshas.
Lets take an example here – Due to avidya (ignorance), our mind searches of happiness in materialistic things. Let’s say for now a saree. You may look at a saree and like it (raga) or dislike it (dvesa). This is how the base root klesa creates klista (detrimental) states of mind (vrttis). Now in the process of searching for a nice saree, we tend to move away from finding the actual truth from within. Let’s say, you found the best saree in the world – you look at it, flaunt it, you wear it to a function. Now at the function you see someone else wearing a saree that you like more than your saree. Now check your feelings related to the saree you are wearing. Have they changed?. In short klista vrttis never let you be settled, content or happy. And usually they are feelings related to the materialistic world or prakrti.
Aklista vrttis, on the other hand, are sattvic in nature and are born out of insight. They lead to liberation. These vrttis help to control the rajas & tamas guna (qualities) which in turn controls the detrimental vrttis resulting in not creating any more karmas. The feeling of desirelessness gets stronger and takes the mind inward. As the mind moves inward, the citta in the sattvic nature gets aware of the purusa, true self.
Let’s go back to the above example – Now let’s say you were not bothered by what you wear and how much you have spent on your outfit. When you are attending the function, you will be more aware of the experience and en.
Till now we know what vrttis are and how they affect us. Next are the number of vrttis.
Sutra 1.6 – pramana-viparyaya-vikalpa-nidra-smrtayah
The 5 vrttis are right knowledge, wrong knowledge, imagination, sleep and memory
The five vrttis are pramana (right knowledge), viparyaya (wrong knowledge), vikalpa (imagination), nidra (sleep) and smrtayah (memory). More on this in my next blog. I will paste the link here once it is ready.
By now I hope, I was able to explain vrttis & how they affect us. Now let’s look at what happens, if we are able to still our mind.
Sutra 1.3 – tada drastuh svarupe vasthanam
When the stilling of mind is accomplished, the seer abides in its own true nature.
Once you have accomplished stilling of the mind through abhyasa (practice) and vairagya (non-attachment), you are freed from the associations with the states of the mind. The soul can now abide in its own nature, the highest state of pure consciousness, asamprajnat samadhi.
Let’s understand this with an example –
When a red flower is placed next to a crystal, the crystal reflects the red color of the flower and in the process it appears to be red. Now if you really see, the true nature of the crystal hasn’t changed, it is just reflecting the flower’s color.
Similarly purusa which is an autonomous entity, only reflects external objects and internal thoughts, vrttis, but is not affected by them. It is separable from the citta (mind, ego and intellect) with its vrttis placed in the vicinity. Just like the flower & crystal, the citta shows different experiences to the purusa and purursa only reflects these and in the process misidentifies with them. But the true nature of purusa doesn’t change.
Let’s now look at a real life example – If you woke up in the morning and felt grumpy (vrtti, state of the mind) . It is the mind that is feeling it and not the true you. But since we think we are our mind ( klesa – avidya, ignorance), we end up saying I am feeling grumpy. If you realize that you are pure consciousness and are devoid of changing based on your state of mind. You will be able to handle the situation much differently then indulging in a materialistic action (for eg: eating a yummy snack to feel better).
Hope this example helps in understanding this concept better.
To reiterate – when we achieve stilling of the mind, the citta stops reflecting experiences on purusa and then we become aware of our true self. This helps in achieving the goal of yoga, which is samadhi.
Before I end this blog. Another example to explain vrttis.
Another real life example.
Let’s say Mr. Malik wanted the top end model of the latest Jaguar car. He has done all the research. He works hard to arrange for the payment. He thinks of it night and day. When he thinks of his future car he feels happy but when he thinks of arranging the money he is stressed. Finally the day arrives, he gets the possession of the car. On the day of the delivery of the car, he feels happy. Few hours later let’s say the stock market crashes, immediately his feelings about the car changes.
This is how the citta keeps us busy with the maya / prakrti. You noticed the continuous change in the state of mind (vrttis). The entire time the mind kept Mr. Malik busy with the thought of how much happiness that particular car will bring him. But the minute things went downhill, his mind changed the thought and in the process now Mr. Malik is stressed again. Same car, same person, same mind – the thoughts and feelings around it is continuously changing.
As a practitioner of yoga, as your practice(abhyasa) deepens and you achieve stilling of your mind (citta). The presence of an experiential object in your life will not make a difference. You will realize that presence or absence (vairagya – dispassion) of an object, relation or experience will not alter how you feel. And then you are ready to see your true self.
I will leave you with a small exercise – think of any situation and try detaching yourself from it. See if your feeling changes regarding the same situation.
Reference – Patanjali Yoga Sutra – by Edwin Bryant
