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A long time before neuroscience had come up with the terms "mind wandering" and "attention networks," the Indian sage Patanjali had actually been delineating the workings of the mind. His Patanjali Yoga Sutras mind teachings have one of the earliest and fullest explanations of mental processes, distractions, and achieving peace of mind, and are still equally applicable to the modern fast-paced and stimulating life.
This guide explains the Patanjali Yoga Sutras mind teachings in simple terms and describes their link with traditional yoga practices and present-day discoveries in neuroscience about the workings of the brain.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Explained Simply
The Yoga Sutras are a set of aphorisms, or "strands," consisting of 195-196 statements written by Patanjali in the early centuries CE. Although the Yoga Sutras are short, they present all the workings of a complete philosophical system with respect to ethics, practice, and consciousness, with all its auspiciousness - the eight limbs of yoga.
However, before talking about the limbs of yoga, Patanjali starts with one significant sentence about the human mind. This sentence introduces the true purpose of his teachings.
Chitta Vritti Nirodha: Patanjali's Definition of Yoga
The second sutra of this book has Patanjali defining yoga with the famous phrase that has been passed on for centuries through the generations: yogas chitta vritti nirodhah. This phrase, chitta vritti nirodha, is understood as "yoga is the stilling of the movements of the mind."
By dividing the phrase into three parts, we can understand Patanjali's meaning.
- Chitta - the mind or consciousness that consists of such processes as thinking, recalling one's memories, and perceiving
- Vritti - the movements in the mind field that are constantly appearing
- Nirodha - the prohibition of these movements
This way, Patanjali does not define yoga as a set of exercises; he says that yoga means reaching mental silence.
The Five Fluctuations of the Mind
Patanjali's concept of "vritti" is not ambiguous at all. He classifies the various fluctuations of the mind into five types, which almost cover all possible inner activities of the mind. These types are:
- Correct cognition - proper knowledge substantiated by factual data.
- Wrong cognition - incorrect judgment.
- Fancy - an idea that is based on words rather than reality.
- Sleep - absence of conscious experience.
- Memory - recalling previous experience.
The knowledge of these five categories is essential for controlling the mind through yoga.
Why the Mind Creates Suffering: The Five Kleshas
The Patanjali Yoga Sutras mind teachings reveal an important layer of knowledge regarding the problem of why the mind suffers. In the later parts of the text, the author discusses the following five causes of the mental struggle, known as the kleshas: ignorance, egoism, attachment, hatred, and fear of loss and death. These obstacles lead to a distorted perception of reality, thus keeping the mind in an almost constant state of reaction.
This proves to be an important point of view in Patanjali's philosophy of mind. Normally, it is expected that all our thoughts are objective cognitions, but due to the kleshas, the perception is distorted.
From Theory to Practice: Yoga Sutras Meditation Teachings
Patanjali goes beyond merely revealing how restless the mind is, as he also lays out how to deal with this restlessness. The Yoga Sutras meditation teachings focus on the process of moving thought through the later stages of yoga: pratyahara (drawing back of senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (understanding).
The concept here is to push your awareness from the external world inward, gradually, rather than expecting to achieve relaxation immediately. Patanjali describes this process as gradual and cumulative - it is more similar to training your muscle than flipping a switch.
What Modern Research Says About Mind Training
The Yoga Sutras came well before the initiation of neuroscience, yet research conducted today has shown something relevant to the Patanjali Yoga Sutras mind idea of vritti, which stands for mental fluctuation. The research published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience was based on a scientific experiment that has been conducted in a form of neuroimaging and has shown how experienced meditators differ from non-meditators. According to the results of the research, the proper functioning of the brain networks associated with mind-wandering and self-referential thought was not even correlated with those networks working for the purposes of focused attention.
This might not be enough evidence for any miraculous information set forth by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras; however, it can be used to show how the teachings of Patanjali can be connected with the phrase expressed in the introduction.
The use of the Yoga Sutras in popular yoga publications follows this pragmatic approach. Yoga Journal's summary of the Yoga Sutras presents Patanjali's teachings as a tool for mental hygiene; yoga practitioners should discover their habitual behavioral responses to avoid eventual suffering. This clearly demonstrates that ancient yoga texts on mind control have a great influence on contemporary instructors' interpretation of the meaning of yoga: it is seeing the purpose of yoga practice as getting clarity of mind, not as demonstrating how well the postures are performed.
Practical Takeaways for Your Own Practice
Applying the Patanjali Yoga Sutras mind principles in your day-to-day life does not require extensive study or mastery of the technique. You won't have to memorize the 196 sutras of Patanjali to embody his philosophy. Here are some easy tips to help you start:
- Pay attention to which of the five vrittis (perception, misconception, imagination, sleep, memory) the ideas you have belong to, instead of responding unthoughtfully.
- Use the poses and the breath control techniques as a means of preparing for silence.
- Take out a few quiet minutes every day for practicing withdrawal of your mind from the stimulus of the world outside via pratyahara.
- Get back to studying one or two sutras of Patanjali instead of trying to do it with all the 196 sutras at once.
The longer you practice using the philosophy of Patanjali's yoga, the more evident it becomes that yogic practice was created primarily as a mental discipline, with physical yoga being just a tool for achieving that goal.
Study the Yoga Sutras in Depth at Rishikesh Yoga Ashram
Learning about the Patanjali Yoga Sutras mind teachings is a great way to initiate your journey, but traditionally these concepts are studied in a manner that involves guided reading rather than solo reading. With our 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh, you will have the opportunity to enroll in specially designed philosophy classes for a better grasp of the Yoga Sutras and meditation within the same batch of upcoming yogis.
The 300 Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh will deepen your knowledge of philosophical concepts and meditation that you acquired in the previous course.
FAQs
1. What does "chitta vritti nirodha" actually mean?
The term "chitta vritti nirodha" refers to yoga as defined by Patanjali. It is generally understood as "yoga is the control of the fluctuations of the mind." It describes the act of stilling the activity of the mind, not a particular pose.
2. Are the Yoga Sutras only about meditation, or do they cover physical practice too?
The Yoga Sutras state that yoga relates to the body as a whole and needs to go through "the eight parts of yoga," containing moral values, body exercises (asana), breathing control (pranayama), and stages of meditation. Though it refers to physical practice, physical activities serve as a means of mental clarity.
3. What are the five vrittis Patanjali describes?
Right perception, wrong perception, fantasy, sleep, and memory. Patanjali mentions that all kinds of thoughts fall into these categories.
4. Is there scientific evidence that meditation actually changes the mind's activity?
Indeed, neuroimaging studies have proved that the brain's functioning of meditation practitioners reveals that there exist different forms of activity among brain networks involved in mind-wandering and focused attention in meditation practitioners, in comparison to those who never trained in meditation.
5. Do I need advanced yoga experience to study the Yoga Sutras?
No. The philosophy of Yoga is available for beginners and is usually studied early in the 200-hour teacher training course in parallel with the basic asana and pranayama practices.
