Purpose of Yoga is to Be One With the Self

Patanjali Yoga Sutras - Knowledge Sheet 5

Contd. from knowledge sheet 4

Vrutti sarupyamitaratra

You identify yourself with the modulations of the mind all the time.
- Patanjali Yoga Sutra #4

What this means is that your mind is engaged in the outside world all the time. With eyes open in the waking state you are caught up in all that you see, smell, hear, touch and taste. If not, you return to sleep or to the state of dreaming where you are completely shut off from the world. 

In the sleep and dreaming state, the same memories return but you are never to yourself, calm and quiet. You become the object of your perception. You know, if you see villagers or innocent people or children, when they are watching a movie, they are so totally involved in the movie and nobody exists for them at that time. It is just the movie that exists at that moment. They wouldn’t even know if their legs were hurting or if they had a backache. They do not feel pain. They do not feel their body at all. 

What happens? Your consciousness assumes the form of that movie, of that vrutti. You know, once in a village, somebody was watching a movie and the people saw that the hero was being tortured by the villain. People, actually, stood up with sticks and stones and said, “Come on, I am going to hit you,” and rushed towards the stage. Our consciousness assumes the form otherwise. 

The whole purpose of yoga is to be one with the Self, to bring integrity and make you whole. Abiding in the form, in the nature of the seer is yoga. Whenever you experience joy, ecstasy, bliss, happiness in life — knowingly or unknowingly — you are abiding in the form or in the nature of the seer. Otherwise, at other times you are with the different activities of the mind. You become one with the different activities. The modulations of the mind are of five forms. 

Vruttayaha panchatayyaha klishtaklishtaha

The modulations of the mind are five-fold, painful or not painful.
- Patanjali Yoga Sutra #5

There are certain vruttis or modulations of the mind, which are problematic. Now, what are those?

Pramanaviparyayavikalpanidra-smrutayaha

Wanting proof, wrong understanding, imagination, sleep and memory.
- Patanjali Yoga Sutra #6

Five modes of consciousness arise in your Self. What are they? Find out in the next post, next Wednesday.

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(This is part of a series of knowledge sheets based on Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's commentaries on Patanjali Yoga Sutras.)