Yogasutras of Patanjali For Dummies - Shwetasingh PDF

Contents
Why did I write this book? 2
What is Yoga? 3
The origins of Yoga and how it has lost its true meaning 5
Chapter 1: How does Patanjali describe Yoga? 7
Chapter 2: What are Samskaras? 9
Chapter 3: How do Samskaras create Vrittis in our Chitta? 13
Chapter 4: What are the kinds of fluctuations of our Chitta? 20
Chapter 5: What is the need to stop these fluctuations? 25
Chapter 6: What happens in the process of Yoga? 31
Chapter 7: How did Patanjali break down the process of Yoga? 34
SHWETA SINGH. ©STRINGTHEORYOFLIFE 1

Why did I write this book when there are translations by
famous teachers already?
Yoga sutras are a wealth of information encapsulated in a book as short and concise
as it. The problem is Patanjali must have written it when the science of Yoga was well-
established and adequately understood. Hence this book is a short compendium of
its core technology. It is like a no-sense, clear-cut technical manual for building a space
shuttle given to a kid studying high school science (the modern person). Even the
detailed, rigorous translations by Sri Swami Satchidananda and B. K. S. Iyengar are
difficult to comprehend. It leaves most people bewildered while others oversimplify
it as the school kid who might try to build a toy rocket in his garage. They think they
grasp just by reading and quoting from it. We have vastly underestimated the place
of Yoga and the impact it can have on our lives because of this insufficient
understanding. It would be the same to reduce all of modern science to a handful of
laws, then try to decode our universe with just them alone. We need to understand
the treasure of Yoga sutras in their full glory. It needs context; a connect with our
modern 21st century lives, in particular. With my book I try to bring Yoga alive with
a story, a narrative. To express the connections between its difficult concepts and our
feelings, desires, sufferings and deep existential questions that haunt our modern
lives.
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So, then what is Yoga?
Yoga is not what the world understands it today. Modern Yoga is an
oversimplification of its true essence. In its full glory, it is the science of human
existence and evolution. Of mutation into a higher specie; an ultra-human.
The time has come for the world to know this truth, Newton’s older laws must be
replaced by Einstein’s revolutionary ones.
Yoga deserves a more central, main-stream position in our modern world for more
reasons than one. Most right-brained people, especially the scientific community
believes modern science is the only way for human progress. They complain
spirituality is ill-defined as it does not satisfy their need for logic and rationality. True
Yoga will burst the myth that we cannot seek or express spirituality in the scientific
method. It can gain a much wider, main-stream focus because of its impeccable logic
and internal consistency. Yoga is a well-defined, rigorous, scientific model with clear
axioms or basic principles. A lucid underlying ideology and goal. Explicit methods for
experimentation as well as practical technological applications.
Apart from being a well-laid out science for living at our peak potentials, Yoga is also
the technology for post-human mutation. An internal technology, with no need for
external, inorganic, artificial crutches. We must grasp Yoga's complete truth right
now, in these times, urgently. Ignorant, we are short-changing ourselves with the
promises of external technology. It is heartbreaking we under-estimate our specie
abilities by assuming artificial intelligence as our future saviour. What a shame we are
unaware of this indigenous technology for trans-humanism, one far more powerful.
It won't cost as much, we won't have to wait and depend on science to progress!
The world has witnessed a marked shift in its collective consciousness in the last few
decades. This is because we are riding the wave upwards on an ascending Bronze age
cycle, en route to a new Golden age. You see, this urge for higher consciousness is not
a choice, it is our evolutionary impulse. The Vedas testify this impulse for mutation

which gathers critical mass to actualise in every Golden age. Man’s consciousness
functions at its peak as most people are consummate, complete Yogis in any Golden
age, living as ultra-humans. However, we Bronze agers function at only a fraction of
that peak consciousness, that supreme cognitive standard. That is why we do not
automatically know, nor comprehend the full truth of Yoga.
Do you see why we must understand Yoga in its highest form? Let us no longer deny
ourselves the treasure which is the birthright of our specie. Let us rush towards
becoming ultra-humans on the fast-track of Yoga. Stop being slaves to external
technologies not even as powerful as our internal one.
Let us spread the word.
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The origins of Yoga and how it has lost its true meaning
Yoga existed long before the birth of the highly physical version of our modern times.
The Veda Agamas, which some believe to be pre-Vedic, mention it in their 'Yoga-
pada'. The Vedas themselves are certainly seven thousand years old. At least. Agamas
are the experimental physics to the theoretical physics of Vedas. Tirumular, a famous
saint is believed to have said, "If Vedas are the path, Agamas are the horse".
It was Patanjali who organised and codified Yoga separately for the first time
somewhere between the 4000BC to 1000BC. Even the Moksha sutras of Mahabharata
which date back to 4000BC mention it. The funny thing is that Patanjali mentions just
one basic seated position or 'asana'. This is because the crux of Yoga is not proficiency
in asanas, but samadhi or absorption. Samadhi leads to the end goal of Yoga which
we call enlightenment, but it really means transcending our human limitations to
become a powerful ultra-human. The end goal of Yoga is a specie mutation to a higher
state of existence. Of perceiving the universe better and interacting with it with greater
power. To feel with extra senses, know with the extra-mind.
Goraksha Nath of the Nath sampradaya codified it once again in his book, Goraksha
Samhita. Not surprisingly, he mentioned 84 asanas, but explained only two.
It was only with the birth of Hatha Yoga that the focus on the physical aspect of asanas
increased. Swami Svatmarana of the Nath Sampradaya wrote the Hatha Yoga
Pradipika, considered as the manual of modern Hatha Yoga, between 15,000 AD-
17,000 AD. Even he mentioned just 15 asanas.
The Yoga asanas which have taken the world by a storm in the 20 and 21st centuries
are called the Asthanga style of yoga. It comes from Astanga Vinyasa Yoga, a child of
Hatha yoga. Pattabhi Jois codified and popularised it across the western world. Sadly,
it is a misnomer because Astanga which means eight limbed.

In sanskrit, 'ashta' is eight and 'anga' is a limb. Eight limbed was actually the
characteristic of the science of yoga as described by Patanjali. He outlined Yoga as a
progressive, organic biological software that runs in our system to evolve us into ultra-
humans. It has eight principles, four external and four internal. The four external
principles are preliminary preparations, calibrations of the body and mind to achieve
the four inner states, ending in samadhi. Asana is one of the four principles of
calibration and adjustment of the body-mind. It does not have a critical impact on the
end state or end goal of yoga because many saints became enlightened without being
asana masters. Over 300 million people practise yoga, but we hardly hear talk of
radical transformation or enlightenment. Practising asana and that alone will
probably make me an asana champion, but not an accomplished Yogi. Asana is for
achieving balance in the body-mind for holding deep meditative states, to make
samadhi happen easier and faster. End of story.
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Chapter 1: How does Patanjali describe Yoga?
Patanjali says “Yoga chitta vritti nirodha” or Yoga is the stopping of all fluctuations
of the Chitta.
What is Chitta?
There is no equivalent word for Chitta in English, it could be roughly translated as
your consciousness (Not that abused word which gets thrown around by one and all
these days).
This is what the Chitta or consciousness does:

A. It notices
B. It perceives
C. It knows
D. It understands
E. It longs for
F. It desires
G. It remembers
H. It sleeps
Chitta grows bottom up from Samskaras

Chitta and mind are different. Our mind is what we consciously or sub-consciously
experience. Chitta goes down to the deep unconscious of samskaras.
Mind = Vrittis + Vasanas + Ahamkara

or
Mind = Conscious mental fluctuations+ Subconscious Urges+ Your Identity
Chitta = Samskaras + Vasanas + Vrittis + Ahamkara + Buddhi

or
Chitta = Impressions or residues of past experiences + Subconscious Urges +
Conscious mental fluctuations+ Your Identity + Yogic Discretion.
Before breaking down each component of the mind and Chitta, let us look at the
foundation of it all. Samskaras are the building blocks of our human mind and chitta.
Let us try to understand what Samskaras truly are.
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Chapter 2: What are Samskaras?
Samskaras are the foundation of one’s psychological, mental and physical system. A
whole collection of them. It is funny that the term ‘samskaras’ has found colloquial
usage in Indian society, with a meaning very different from its original one. We seem
to understand that good ‘Samskara’ is a good value system which we imbibe in our
families. “Oh, they don’t have good samskaras!”, gossip-mongers will often whisper
to each other about the young who party, drink or defy their parents. No, not at all.
It’s sad that the fundamental building block of human life has been devalued like
many other ideas in our modern world.
What are Samskaras really?

They are emotional residues of all your past experiences, in this life or before.
Let us say that you have never been outside your country to a foreign one. You watch,
hear and read about other exotic countries on television and in magazines and
books. You read about the architectural beauties of Europe, which attract you, or the
human right horrors of Sudan, which repel you. In effect, you are having an
experience which is leaving behind impressions, along with a positive or negative
emotional charge. These impressions are the seeds of future desires, where you will
want to visit Europe someday, or you will avoid going to Sudan at all costs. Now let's
say the positive impression about Europe became a strong desire to go there, and you
did. Your desire was experienced. You loved it, and it left further positive impressions
in your mind. You will want to visit again, or you might want to live there in the
future, because the strong positive impressions are now lodged deep into your
psyche. In an alternate scenario, even with a negative impression of Sudan, you are
forced to travel there for work. You find Sudan to be just as bad as you think, or maybe
worse. You have stronger negative impressions in your psyche now, and you could
generalize that impression for the whole of Africa, or somehow to all African
people. You could avoid going to Africa ever again, in fact you might want to avoid
all black people all together. In a contrary scenario, let’s say you went to Sudan and
found out that it is actually a beautiful, peaceful place with friendly people. They are

kind, welcoming and you have a wonderful time in the country, in their company.
The negative impression you carried before your experience will then weaken.
Hence, the impression from an experience becomes the seed for desiring a new
experience. i.e. experience feeds desire and desire feeds experience, in a cyclical loop.
Even though the above-mentioned examples are very simple, the underlying
mechanism for life is exactly the same with far more complex impressions. These
impressions are unmanifest and subtle, the seed for future desires, called as
Samskaras. These samskaras manifest into desires, which physicalize into
experiences, which in turn leave behind new impressions, or new samskaras. The new
impressions may strengthen the old samskara or weaken it.
Samskara’s connection with your experiences in life

A samskara is like potential, latent energy, which manifests into a gross desire. This
in turn converts into experience, like kinetic energy. A samskara must be exhausted,
converting from the potential to the kinetic. As long as there are samskaras, there will
be experiences, for the potential energy will keep urging to convert to the
kinetic. Energy just changes form, from the subtle to the gross, and back to the subtle
again. Remember the laws of conservation of energy? Samskara and experience are
invariant with respect to each other.
Hence, as long as there are samskaras, there will be life, as life is a series of experiences.
A samskara needs a corresponding experience to be exhausted. The tricky thing is that
any experience leaves behind a subtle impression, which will in future rise to manifest
as a new experience, and hence it is a never-ending cycle. A feedback loop. Samskaras-
desires-experiences-samskaras-desires; it never ends.
The dual characteristic of a Samskara

It is the remnant/ residue of an experience which left back a strong or a weak
emotional charge. It is also the latent, unmanifest potentiality of future desire. Till the
time an impression / residue is animated by its emotional charge it remains alive but
dies when devoid of this emotional charge.

A samskara is a residue with an emotional charge. A positive charge on an impression
manifests into a desire for re-experience, or a new desire altogether, a new wanting.
A negative charge on an impression manifests into a fear of re-experience, or into a

new fear altogether, a new repulsion.
Samskara is an emotional residue or hangover of a past experience

Furthering our example about foreign countries, the desire for re-experience would
be wanting to visit Europe again, or a new desire of studying and living in Europe.
In the negative case, fear of re-experience would make one avoid Sudan like the
plague, and a new fear would be assuming that all black people, and all African
countries ought to be feared and avoided.
Thus, you see how our current desires and fears arise from our previous
samskaras. Don’t you also see, how fear is a desire too, a desire to avoid? Fear is a
negative desire, is it not? You could be studying hard to either gain distinction or to
avoid failing, the motivation is always the desire. In fact, the entirety of human life is
spent in exhausting/ actualizing/ consummating of the manifest samskaras of the

individual. Why do I say manifest? Because manifest samskaras are desires whose
time for consummation has come.
Samskaras are thus the impetus, the ammunition, the propellant for the engine of
human life. The end-goal of human life is the exhaustion of all samskaras, unmanifest
and manifest. Life is essentially a self-propagating feedback system and will continue
endlessly without conscious intervention. Since samskaras are the impressions of
desires, it follows that exhaustion all desires are necessary for the culmination of
human life, i.e. not of death alone. One does not exhaust all samskaras in death, not
necessarily, we carry them to our new lives. It goes on and on like that.
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Chapter 3: How do Samskaras create Vrittis in our Chitta?
Samskaras are the foundation of one’s psychological, mental and physical construct.
A whole collection of them. First, our samskaras lie in our deep subconscious, the
depth memory- Smriti, as Patanjali, called it. It is an 'extra' part of the psyche-mind, a
many foot deep, undiscovered layer of the iceberg of our psycho-mental complex. Far
from having access to it, neither modern neuroscience nor modern psychology has the
faintest clue about this fundamental layer of existence. Samskaras do not operate in
our conscious experience, so we can barely control them. They get carried over from
our previous experiences, which go as far back to our previous lifetimes. I know that
the idea of 'lifetimes' could repel you, it repelled me too once, and I do not get
convinced easily. Hang on for now, till the logic and soundness of the system reveals
itself to you. Decide after that.
New samskaras are constantly being created from our interaction with the
environment, our family, our situations, but we will soon see how these new
impressions are only a result of the old impressions already seeded in our psyche-
minds. We will see that the old samskaras manifest and new one’s form in an
inadvertent, cyclical process. An unending feedback loop. Until one becomes aware
and intervenes.

Vasanas: Tendencies / Subtle desires
Some of these unmanifest, potential impressions manifest into tendencies; urges or
subtle desires. They are called Vasanas. For example, I may prefer the beach to the
mountains, or Chinese cuisine to English, despite not having had many conscious
experiences to support that desire. I do not know why I have these urges. Why do
some people have homosexual tendencies while others feel they took birth as a wrong
gender? These unexplained urges have nothing to do with bad exposure nor with a
mental illness. There is no rational explanation for these urges, no memory to match
it against, no experience to explain it! I am sure all of us have such urges, some we
fight and others which we explore. Some of these illogical tendencies lead us down
precarious and destructive paths while others take us to the pinnacle of success. It is
clear in creative geniuses who cannot explain their 'freak' talents or closet
homosexuals who struggle to control their desires. There are many more mundane
examples where tendencies have no logical explanation for themselves. A doctor’s

son might turn into a famous artist, even though the father never had such
inclinations, nor exposed his son to the arts. The question of nature vs nurture vs
Samskaras comes in here as many of these tendencies or urges are not affected by our
upbringing nor genetic inheritance. You need not be a scientist to realise that there
surely is something additional at play apart from the genetic legacy and nurture.
Incidentally, scientists lop off such unexplained characteristics as 'random'.
So, what they can't explain should become self-explanatory by being called 'random'?
Why do siblings, and especially twins, who share identical DNA composition and
upbringing have contra distinct tendencies and preferences? It is baffling how two
siblings can have such varying looks, life choices and traits. One could be inclined
towards science and grow up to be a renowned scientist while the other could become
a killer psychopath! It is difficult to explain these variations with logic alone, and the
scientists' answers of 'randomness' is very dissatisfying.
Don't let Science intimidate you. The word random means 'We have no clue'. You can
take the matter into your hands and know for yourself!
Modern genetics has run into a Mendelian wall, so to say. "There is a lot of non-genetic
stuff going on and further findings could de-couple a person’s DNA sequence from
their traits, calling into question a lot of work scientists have already done", says a
famous geneticist. For an example, scientists once identified 54 genes which
contribute to the aspect of 'height' of an individual, but deeper studies have showed
that only 4-6% of these genes have any substantial effect. They are calling the
unknown factors, the variables apart from known genes, as the 'dark matter of
genetics'. Seen from a yogic perspective, it makes better sense, as each of us carry
samskaras from before, which manifest into our current tendencies.
Vrittis: Traits/ Conscious desires

Some of these tendencies further concretize into our conscious ideas and life concepts.
Our world views, our likes and dislikes, our desires and fears. I say 'some' because
only strong samskaras concretize into vasanas, and even among them, the stronger

ones become vrittis. Even among the impressions and the tendencies, there is a fight
for survival based on strength. However, samskaras which do not concretize remain
in an unmanifest, potential form to flower some other time. Flower, they will, all of
them. Translate into experiences, change forms to exhaust and expend. Unless the
yogic hack is used to strike them at their root. Till there are samskaras, there will be
life and experiences.
This strength depends on the emotional charge that the samskaras carried; positive or
negative, in varying degrees. These concretized Vrittis form the conscious psyche-
mind of the individual.
Without a doubt, influences from the external environment shape our conscious
psyche-mind too, and both go hand in hand. We collect new impressions from the
many experiences we have in the course of our lives. A tragic experience like losing a
loved one could make us cynical and untrusting of the world. A new negatively
charged samskara. Unexpected professional success could make us confident about
our potentials to achieve greater things. A positively charged samskara. In fact, the
tragic experience must have been a manifestation of a pre-existing negative
impression; say a deep fear of loss. The unexpected professional successes could have
been a physical manifestation of a deep-seated belief in one's talents and abilities. So,
you see, a mixture of old samskaras and new make up the contents of our psyche-
minds. Our upbringing, world views imbibed from our parents, and quality of life
experiences form further, new 'impressions' in our mind. These new impressions can
have an additive effect the older ones, or a subtractive one.
Suppose you grew up in acute poverty and felt fear and desperation exude from your
parents throughout your childhood. You would carry these ideas in my mind for
life. You would keep giving strength to these impressions, these samskaras, only if
you did not consciously choose other positive ideas. More favourable cognitions.
These childhood ideas, reiterated and repeated will not only lodge themselves into
my conscious mind, but its impressions will seep deep into your
subconscious mind. To solidify as new impressions, new samskaras. They will turn
into uncontrollable tendencies which will dictate your future, inspite of you.
You might want to become a millionaire and work towards it too, but the unconscious
play of impressions would sabotage your efforts. These deep-seated impressions,
unconscious impressions will dictate you, as you sabotage your own chances of
success. You will want to be rich, but the deep impressions of poverty will not allow
me to do the relevant actions. You might work very hard but fail. The poor results will
confuse you because you have been working to succeed. Maybe your ‘poverty
impression’ forces you to play safe and save instead of taking required risks.
Maybe your 'poverty impressions' do not allow you to dream big, because you do
not really believe in the possibility.
The limitations imposed on your mind by these samskaras will limit you.
The program of the samskaras runs despite your wishes. They samskaras win over
your conscious mind because they are more basic, more foundational.
In an alternate case, let's say as a child you watched your father rise out of abject
poverty. He tried one failed enterprise after another, never backing down,
to eventually succeed. Now you carry these subtle impressions of resilience and
optimism, and this aids you in your own life ventures. So of course, nurturing plays a
big role in the formation of your new samskaras. However, this ‘value system’ picked
up from the environment, family and society, forms only a portion of your psyche-
mind unit. Your older samskaras brought you into this childhood experience of
poverty in the first place. Remember impressions become experiences and these
experiences breed new impressions.

Samskara to Experience (Quality of life). Experience to Samskara.
A feedback loop.
In yet another contradictory scenario, still born in abject poverty, say you
were brought up on ideas of limitations and helplessness. Nobody in your family has
held a decent job or had much money ever, nor do they expect to. However, there are
unexplained, inherent urges inside you which push you to break out of this cycle.
You might have activated samskaras which favour success, optimism, fearlessness
and enterprise. You might grow up to become a millionaire, breaking the shackles of
your limited origins. Haven't we heard countless stories of phenomenal success found
in the most unlikely places? Billionaires, Olympians, geniuses, child
prodigies, leaders whose stories of unexplainable, background defying achievements
leave us awe-inspired!

No nature, no nurture, this is the manifestation of the samskaras carried from previous
lives. For those totally opposed to this idea of 'other lives’, it is amusing how
randomness and chance seems a better explanation. Why, only because the
'randomness' comes from science? Randomness, luck and chance explain little by way
of a framework, a system, a concrete theory. The Yogic paradigm does; it is
comprehensive, has a defined set of axioms, follows a strong logic, with a well-defined
end-state.
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Chapter 4: What are the kinds of fluctuations of our Chitta?
Vrittis roughly translate as the fluctuations of our psyche-mind unit. We experience
'vrittis' consciously, we are aware of these fluctuations of our psyche-mind. We
'know' what we are thinking and conceiving. Or ideating, liking and rejecting,
desiring and abhorring. This conscious psyche-mind unit is about as diverse as there
are people on this planet. No two people can have the exact same contents of their
minds. There are five types of fluctuations of the psyche and mind:
a) Right cognition: Pramana

b) Wrong cognition: Vipraya
c) Conceptualisation: Vikalpa
d) Memory: Smriti
e) Sleep: Nidra
Right cognition: Pramana

This is when we have picked up the 'right' ideas in life, either through outside
influences (new samskaras), or through old impressions (previous samskaras). In
popular opinion, 'right cognition' may be a set of ideas which compel us to achieve
success and prosperity, live responsibly in the family and society.
Display compassion, kindness, altruism and other lofty traits. We have been taught
that these are worthy goals and ideals for our lives. Truth be told, society has
conditioned us to think about 'good values' as those which favour its efficient
functioning. Those which help its maintenance, those that do not upset the apple-cart.
Society does not really care for your wellbeing and happiness as much as it cares about
maintaining and running itself smoothly, know that. Our cultural mores, our moral
frameworks are determined by societal pressures much more than by any real, true
impulse for 'goodness'. Any society, any community even family prefers children
who are not rabble -rousers and rule breakers. Who wants a problem child? Does a
parent wish for one? All communities wish for citizens who protect and preserve
tradition, not those who break rules.

Also, most of these 'good' ideas propel us towards lives of greater comfort and
prosperity, in the end. You are taught to work hard so that you and your family might
be increasingly comfortable and prosperous. What's wrong with that, you could ask.
We all want a life of happiness and well-being, devoid of pain and suffering, don't
we?
Yes, there is nothing wrong with that, if the end-goal of life is comfort and freedom
from suffering only. Sadly, it is not. The purpose of life is not comfort and riches, for
yourself or for others, by service. Either way.
Life has its own goal. You will see.
With this different goal in mind, 'right ideas' or right cognitions must be understood
differently in the Yogic context. The end goal of life is not comfort in this model, at
least not the kind we commonly understand. In the Yogic model of life, 'right
cognitions' are those that align with the eventual, ultimate purpose of life. That
of evolution towards an ultra-cognitive, ultra-sensory blissful state. A state beyond
ideas, beyond the senses.
So Yogic 'right cognitions' could be the same as our worldly assumptions of right ideas
in some cases, and in others it could be poles apart. For example, feeling one's
emotions intensely, again and again is important for the yogic progress. Society, on
the other hand, represses our emotions and looks down on any overt displays of
emotion as either weak or undesirable. Suck it up, society screams at us. Be brave! Get
on with it! These are common responses to an unwanted overwhelm of negative
emotions. However, handling our emotions in this way is counter-productive for the
yogic evolution.
Wrong cognition: Vipraya

This is when we have picked up unfavourable ideas, concepts, either through external
influences or old impressions. Yet again, the definition of 'unfavourable' is not as
straightforward as it seems. Societal and emotional pressures determine the

'unfavourable' ideas for a good life in the external world, as we have observed. I
reiterate that the whole paradigm of morality of our society carries a manipulative, sly
agenda. Society cares more about maintaining societal equilibrium and peace and less
for your true happiness. Maintaining status quo, preserving power structures. The
entire society, in fact the entire world functions like that.
Strangely, ideas which society considers 'wrong' might not necessarily be

unfavourable for Yogic evolution. Also, ideas which favour our Yogic growth might
appear 'wrong' in the societal context. In fact, we are in a tragic situation where our
worldly ideas of 'wrongness' and 'rightness' barely match up with the wrong and right
'samskaras' needed for our true human destiny. For the evolutionary imperative of
our specie. For the ultimate goal of human life.
For example, the world tells us that success means a strong, distinct, powerful
identity. "I want to make a name for myself!", we often hear people say. We are often
encouraged to do so. In the yogic context though, identity is a chimerical delusion,
resting on the foundation of our samskaras, which should not be there in the first
place. The true aim of life is to exhaust or kill all our samskaras. Identity in itself has
no existence, it is an emergent property of our desires and fears, a projection of our
samskaras. It is an illusion, we must realise, at the earliest.
Conceptualization: Vikalpa
This is the realm of the mind where we ideate without words. Without verbalisation.
The realm of metaphors, of images. Of ideas which defy a straightforward, verbal
description, because it is beyond any known experience. Since we have never seen,
felt or described something before, we have no vocabulary for it. It is beyond the pre-
loaded content of the mind; hence, it is a separate category. A different kind of psycho-
mental fluctuation.
Memory: Smriti
It is the storehouse of impressions of all our experiences. It lives in three distinct
realms, in parts. The conscious, the subconscious and the deep subconscious. We can

access memories which lie on the topmost, conscious layer easily. Even though
subconscious memories are not readily accessed, they do come to the surface with
some effort. However, we cannot ordinarily access our samskaras or impressions
which are a part of our depth memory. Generally, we never really 'know' them in our
lifetimes. We might be compelled by them, unawares, but we never really SEE them.
They are the ghost conductors of the orchestras of our lives, always invisible, hiding
behind curtains. We can never really relive those experiences which left behind these
impressions, which play us like a puppet and mould us in strange shapes. They propel
us on paths we might never have imagined for ourselves.
Sleep: Nidra
Sleep is a fluctuation in the conscious part of our mind-psyche unit, common to us all,
but again its states vary. Sleep is dreamless, or it brings dreams.
These vrittis, the fluctuations, the activities of the conscious part of our psycho-mental
complex form its outermost layer. This outermost layer interacts with the world. It
puts out its contents through our desires, our worldviews, our preferences and
cognitions. Interaction with the world produces experiences, in which we TRY to
fulfill, consummate our desires. 'I want to be rich' is a desire which we want to
experience. It is supported by the cognition 'Wealth brings happiness', which is a
samskara, an impression left behind by a previous experience.
Eventually, we all pursue happiness, don't we? The path of greatest pleasure, one
devoid of suffering. This basic truth of life is the main impetus of the yogic science
too; its underlying motive. Only, the Yogic goal of happiness has a magnitude
unfathomable in the ordinary sense. It is of an unprecedented, unimaginable degree,
unmatched by any worldly experience. The Yogic process is not life-denying, self-
denying, in the least, contrary to one kind of shallow public opinion. The yogic process
urges towards the greatest pleasure humans can experience, and no worldly pleasure
compares.

So, the 'I want to be rich' desire comes before any you take any actions in the real
world to consummate it, right? Let's say I achieve fabulous success in my endeavour
and make millions. I feel happy and content. The positive experience of success and
happiness will leave behind an impression which tells me, 'Yes. Wealth does bring
happiness'. This positive impression will now become a new input for the loop of my
psyche-mind unit. These samskaras will now feed another cycle of vasanas, vrittis and
experience and the cycle will continue. This seems good, as positive impressions will
breed more positive impressions and the cycle of pleasure will continue. If only it
worked that way forever! Unfortunately though, it is the nature of the external world,
where pleasure is hardly a permanent phenomenon.
Consider the same 'I want to be rich' desire meeting resistance in two forms.
First, I might fail in my attempts and success might elude me. It will disappoint
me, leaving behind impressions like, 'I am not good enough for success' or 'The world
is an unfair place' or 'Wealth is for immoral people, not me'. Even, 'I am always
unlucky'. These negative impressions act as fresh inputs for the program of my
psyche-mind. These new negative samskaras will create an unhealthy cycle of pain,
frustration and even more disappointment.
In a third scenario the same 'I wish to be rich' desire meets with success, but along
with it comes loss and insecurity. The new samskaras now produced would be
‘Wealth makes me insecure and unsafe’, or 'I might lose this wealth any time, I must
be careful' etc. It will either make me think of wealth as evil, or turn me into an
insecure, troubled miser. Another painful cycle of fear, and loss.
Do you now see how the samskaras build our entire psyche-mind complex, bottom
up? How only the topmost layer of vrittis- our mental fluctuations interacts with the
outside world? This interaction creates experiences which exhaust older, mature
samskaras, along with giving birth to new, fresh ones. Fresh inputs for the never-
ending cycle of life.
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

Chapter 5: What is the need to stop these fluctuations?
The reason we want to stop these fluctuations is because they are the main cause of all
human suffering.
Patanjali classifed human suffering or kleshas into five categories:

1. Wrong cognition: Avidya
2. Identity structure: Ahamkara
3. Attachment: Raga
4. Revulsion: Dvesha
5. Fear of death: Abhinivesha
Wrong Cognition: Avidya

Wrong cognition essentially means misconception. Misconception about the true
nature of life, of reality.
So, is there a right cognition? Are not right and wrong relative?
No, there are highest principles, the highest truths. Meanings may seem relative, but
that is because all these are meanings at some intermediary levels, not the highest
one. Relativity, of all kinds; moral, philosophical, or ideological, exists only at
unevolved, lower mental planes. At the acme, at the consummation of human
cognition, relativity is lost to give way to absolute laws. To the highest principles.
Any deviation from these laws is a misunderstanding, a misconception and causes
suffering.
These highest principles are infallible laws. Absolute and objective, like the laws of
nature. In fact, they are the laws of human nature; the laws of life. Like the law of
gravity or thermodynamics. Clear, well defined, universal and consistent. These laws
exist whether you are aware of them or not. You may not know of the forces holding
together electrons and protons to a nucleus, but they exist, despite your ignorance, or
your inability to see and feel them. Infrared rays on the electromagnetic spectrum exist
even though you cannot casually detect them.
If you refused to acknowledge the law of gravity, it would not stop acting on you! You
would simply victimize your own self.
Suffering comes from ignorance of the laws of existence or misconceptions about them
Let us say you are an alien who does not know about gravity because it does not exist
on your planet. You came to earth and consistently kept working against gravity,
unaware of how it works. Won't you be constantly hurting yourself? You could
formulate some arbitrary reasons for getting hurt again and again, but it won't help.
These arbitrary reasons are your misconceptions which would confuse you. It will all
seem random to you. Since you do not understand the causes and effects of gravity,
won't you feel that uncertainty was haunting even your smallest actions, chasing you
at every turn? What a dreadful world it would be!
Wouldn't you suffer endlessly if you did not understand the law of gravity?
This is precisely how we constantly suffer in life, not aware of the highest principles,
of the laws of life. We are hurting ourselves endlessly because of our wrong
cognitions. Nobody, no majestic, white bearded superhuman in the sky is doing
anything to you, you are simply working against natural laws, don't you see?
You work hard but you fail; you love with all your heart but your heart breaks; you
feel luck never favours you; you curse a God that caused a tragedy. Everything, all
kinds of suffering is simply a failure to understand the laws of nature. Also, because
we do not know about these laws of nature nor their mechanisms, life feels random,
uncertain and unpredictable. That seems to be the fate of us all, perplexed and angry
as we are at the apparent senselessness and purposelessness of life’s ills. We simply
do not know.
A very rudimentary example of a wrong cognition could be, “I sacrifice myself for the
family, I put their needs before mine, hence I am virtuous, and should get its rewards."
You live with that idea picked from your environment, you suffer when you disregard
your needs, and you suffer later because no one seems to acknowledge it. No one
really rewards you and then it makes you resentful, angry and bitter. Society places a
high, noble value on sacrifice, but sacrifice is self-negating and life-negating in its
essence. When you do not take care of your needs, you will be incapable to do so for
others, and it will be a vicious cycle of suffering.
If you are suffering, know you are violating natural laws. Remember that, because
there can be no suffering when you align with them.
What about evil then, you could ask? The gratuitous, undeserved, senseless kind?
That happens to teach you about new laws. No sweet, easy learning here, growth
rarely happens in comfort. The undeserved evil we are so often angry about is a tool
for massive growth. Let's see how.
Your identity is an illusion
Identity: Ahamkara
The identity principle is another major source of human suffering. "I am better than
them". "I am not as competent as her"." I am a liberal". " I am the underdog". It is our
entire personality, both its dormant and active aspects. The stronger the individuality,
the more embellished, more fortified, more powerful the person. More famous, more
sought after, more emulated. What's wrong with individuality, we should aim to have
a strong personality, shouldn't we?

What is wrong about individuality is that it is illusory. Our identities are a tapestry
of our desires and fears, and only them. In fact, desires and fears are the building
blocks, the meat and potatoes, the bricks and mortar of ‘identity’. We think, we feel
and do everything motivated by just two emotions: Desires and fears. We fashion our
identities around them.
The desires for acceptance, love, money, power, fame is in effect the desire for
happiness, are they not? I desire these things/people/phenomena because I think
they will make me happy. I fear rejection, failure, humiliation, pain, loss, because
I fear suffering. I prepare to avoid this suffering by fortifying my identity. I work to
create acceptance and love. Don't you see how my fears feed my desires too? I desire
happiness and I fear suffering, so I want all outer world phenomena which will fulfil
my desire and reduce my suffering. Don't they have an intimate link? Fear is a desire
too, it is negative desire. The desire to avoid.
Desire and fear are the pillars on which the complex, swirling, nebulous organism of
our ‘identity’ precariously rests. Our desires are the source of our suffering, so are our
fears, which are actually negative desires, the desires to avoid.
We now know all fears and desires are gross manifestations of our subtle, invisible
samskaras. These samskaras are deep-seated impressions, with positive and negative
emotional charges. Impressions from good and bad experiences we had in the past. In
the past of our current lives, or even further back in our previous lives. We also know
that all desire, and in turn all samskaras are the source of all our suffering. Hence any
construction which rests on the foundations of desire and samskaras can cause only
suffering. Ahamkara, our identity is exactly that, a terrible source of suffering in our
lives.
Attachment and Revulsion: Raga and Dvesha

Attachment and Revulsion are two of the greatest causes of our suffering, we
sufficiently know of this reality. We do not want to attach ourselves, but it is

involuntary. It is unwitting, it is compulsive. We abhor some experiences in life, and
it is a matter of great suffering to come face to face with them yet again. We prefer
some ideas/people/ phenomena and we want to avoid some. Isn't that natural with
us all?
Tying in intricately with the identity principle, attachment is the desire to re-
experience. An earlier experience left behind a positive impression/ residue with a
positive emotional charge. We wish to have re-experiences, goaded by the positive
impressions of the past. These are the gross manifestations (Vasanas and Vrittis) of
our positively charged samskaras.
Similarly, revulsion is the deep desire to avoid, it is the fear of re-experience. Another
experience left behind a negative impression carrying a negative emotional charge.
The negative emotional charge fuels our desires to avoid re-experiencing them. These
are the gross manifestations (Vasanas and Vrittis) of our negatively charged
samskaras.
Attachment arises from positively charged samskaras; Revulsion arises from

negatively charged ones
Fear of death: Abhinivesha

The fear of death is in a class of its own, and no other fear compares with it. With its
uncertainty, its dreadful, ominous sense of finality. Each one of us fears most this
deep, dark, unknown of life. The lack of any a posteriori knowledge, i.e. knowledge
after experience, puts it apart from all other fears. No one alive can ever tell you what
death feels like, or what happens after death. Yoga, in its most mature manifestation,
in its full embodiment, releases you from this fear of death, from the suffering that this
fear brings. This fear transmutes when its true meaning dawns on you along the yogic
process. You will know that this fear, along with all others is simply a misconception, a
misunderstanding. Travel the path to know, see it for yourself. Embark upon it. Words
are embarrassingly incapable of expressing the true meaning of Yoga. They beggar
description. Unable to capture its full expression, words do the disservice of

oversimplification. These truths are best left unsaid because words reduce them, but
they must be expressed because otherwise they are misunderstood. Ignorance is
worse than reduction. Yoga resolves the fear of death; the greatest unknown.
These are avidya, they are misconceptions. All suffering thus arises from
misconception and Yoga is the way to remove them. Yoga is not the end of suffering
alone. It is not the end of chitta alone, it is to move beyond suffering, beyond ordinary
chitta. When chitta stops extraordinary bliss is felt and extra-ordinary knowledge is
known. A yogi becomes post human, ultra-human, super-human.
That is the goal if human life.
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Chapter 6: What happens in the process of Yoga?
Dissolving the Mind to reach pure Chitta with Yoga
We have now sufficiently understood how the psyche-mind self-organizes and self-
builds, bottom-up, from the raw material of samskaras. Samskaras are the fuel, the
impetus for this cyclical feedback loop. Catching the slippery samskaras by their tail,
deep inside the waters of the psyche and quashing them is the only way to dismantle
the beast. The psycho-mental complex builds up through samskaras, and so its
dissolution must happen that way too.
This dissolution, this dismantling is more like the unspooling of a tape that was
playing over and over again. Like the folding back of a telescope into itself. Like the
collapsing of a whirlpool into itself. Like a dying star that caves under its own
gravity. From this destruction arises a new cognition, like a phoenix from the ashes.
A new cognition, a new lens, a new vision.

For most of us caught in the rigmarole of a full, hands-on life, we do not realize that
our journey is on autopilot. We keep trudging ahead, eyes set on the next goal, the
next desire. We believe that we are consciously, rationally choosing our desires and
logically making plans for life. We believe our intelligence and rationality is guiding
us to choose, decide and desire. Not really. Far from it. That belief is an illusion, just
like our identity is. We are on autopilot, played like a puppet by the samskaras which
lie deep in our depth memory, in our extra-psyche- mind. We are guided by them, by
our ill-understood impulses and tendencies. Public intellectuals and philosophers
have always said proudly, with a righteous sense of control "We are rational
beings!". Barely. That idea is laughable because we are completely under control of
the samskaric feedback loop playing out in the fabrications of our psyche-minds. A
hall of mirrors really, that is what our psyche-mind is. The samskaras are the real
conductor of this grand orchestra, lurking behind the curtains, waving ghost-limbs in
the air, controlling every tempo and beat! We are being delusional when we claim to
be rational beings in control of our minds. Even when we do the 'right things', it is our
impulses that are guiding us. When we use our better judgment to not do something,
like not eat the extra piece of cake while on a diet, our impulses/tendencies lead us,
both good and the bad kind. The good impulse won over the bad one, this time at
least. No, we are slaves of our samskaric loops and there is no true rationality in
that. Rationality or intelligence comes into effect only when we notice the cycle and
urge to break out of it. Till then, till this intelligence is inactive, we live in grand
delusions.
We carry identities which are chimerical delusions, we have misconceptions about

being reasonable and intelligent. Till real intelligence kicks in.
The role of Yogic Discretion: Buddhi

This intelligence is ‘buddhi’ in yogic terminology, but it does not mean intellectual
prowess, as we commonly understand. That again is another misnomer, a
misunderstanding. Buddhi is the activator, the catalyst for collapse of these delusions,
these myths. The myth of our identity, our rationality and our free will. It is the

activator, the first strike to demolish this mythical psycho-mental complex. To
dissolve that wispy, fanciful identity. It is also the activator of our new desires, more
useful ones. Desires unrelated to these chimerical fancies. The desire for emancipation
from these gilded fetters, the longing for a suffering free state, for evolution to a post-
human.
The activator of our evolutionary impulse. The activator of our specie imperative.
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

Chapter 7: How did Patanjali break down the process of Yoga?
The Eight limbs of Yoga and their connection
Patanjali, in his Yoga sutras, outlines the growth of yoga in the human system as an
eight-limbed organism. From the external practices of Yama, Niyama, Asana and
Pranayama to the internal practices of Pratyahara and Dharana, leading to internal
'states' of Dhyana and Samadhi. Notice the difference between internal practices and
internal states. While you can perform a practice, a state happens to you, you cannot
practice it. In fact, you arrive at these internal states by proper configuration. You are
your own experimental apparatus; you must calibrate and configure both your body
and mind, internally and the externally. Only then will samadhi happen in you, it is a
matter of preparation and readiness. Yoga is the science of theory and
experimentation both. The internal and external practices of yoga must go hand in
hand, together, for yoga to take birth and mature in the human system.
Yoga takes birth, and it consummates when the external and internal practices convert
into internal states.

Yama and Niyama: What the modern world knows as Religion
The external practices of Yama and Niyama are the basics, the foundation of the yogic
process. It is greatly embarrassing and frustrating for a consummate Yogi to watch
these two preliminary, basic ideas make up the whole of religion in our modern
world. Modern religion begins and ends at Yama and Niyama. Naturally, the 'God'
which emerges from them is a ridiculous caricature. Laughable. It is no surprise that
the atheists abhor this cardboard cut-out of a 'God'.
Such a God does not and must not exist. Nor should such an inane, retarded ideology
as religion. Only unintelligent fools could have created a monster out of these basic
ideas of Yoga.
Yama is the 'code of conduct', the art of living honestly in society. It allows society to
function well and to maintain itself. As a social being, man is responsible towards his
family and community, he must not hurt and harm others. Simple. Any other posture
of 'holiness' or 'morality' attached to this code of conduct is illusory and dangerous. It
is ridiculous to watch yamas or codes of conduct take such an important part of our
modern religions. It is sad to watch the orthodox watchdogs of Hinduism, Islam,
Christianity and Judaism make adherence to codes such a grave, frightful matter.
Grave enough to ostracize, punish and kill. Grave enough for terrorism and war. It is
heartbreaking because these religious codes mean nothing, in and of themselves.
No moral merit will arise out of dressing, behaving and praying a certain
way. Nothing. Zilch. Zero. Atheists are absolutely right.
The truth is that the guardians of religion who enforce these codes of conduct are
wrong, and many times outright egregious. They are either deluded from fear of a
God which will punish transgressors, or they are simply playing for power. Because
such a God who cares for your posture; what you wear and how you conduct yourself
does not exist. It matters little if you are not doing anything apart from adhering to
these rules

In the Yogic paradigm, you purify your actions through these roughly outlined codes
of conduct to prepare yourself for meditation. They, in themselves do not directly
relate to happiness or morality. Such virtue is a torturous illusion. It will not deliver
you to eternal life and heaven, whatever that means for the retards of religion. It is an
elementary step of the Yogic process, and even though important, it does not have a
decisive impact on the end goal of the Yoga. Bandits and devilish seeming people have
become consummate Yogis too. Outward appearances of virtue do not matter, in fact,
they have become hindrances in the search for truth.
Niyama, rituals and observations, are intended for internal purification. You need to
clean up your body, mind and psyche so they can together hold high states of
meditation. End of story.
Remember, you ritual obsessed religious fanatics, no moral merit will arise form
simply 'doing' rituals. None. As we have discovered, rituals are only 'action
metaphors' to express and propagate the ineffable, intangible internal processes which
were impossible to express and teach through language. Rituals and observations are
important to discipline the body-mind, so it becomes stable enough for deep
meditation.
This will feel counter-intuitive, but Yama and Niyama do not matter to a consummate
yogi, inside whom yoga has reached its peak state. For one who has attained Samadhi,
Yama and Niyama become superfluous. Unnecessary, yet automatic. Natural, not a
matter of following rules. At unevolved Yogic states, Yama and Niyama (modern
religion) is about rules and duty alone. However, at evolved states, when samadhi is
a personal experience, a personal phenomenon, they become at once both unnecessary
and natural.
A man who has seen samadhi becomes moral without trying. Also, that morality is
quite far removed from the morality we recognise in society.
What an embarrassment it is to see modern man’s quest for existential fulfillment
beginning and ending at this step! Don't you see that Yamas and Niyamas are only

elementary preparations, like tilling and watering land on which you have planned a
garden? Yes, that is all that modern religion is. Nothing will come out of it alone.
To imagine that believers and atheists pass verdicts about 'God' at this elementary
level, before they have even readied the soil, watered it, planted saplings or seen their
garden grow! A tragedy of Greek proportions!
It is critical to understand here that the Yogic principles of cognitive renovation and
emotional processing carry in themselves the intentions of Yama and Niyama, and
much more deeply and comprehensively at that. While 'Yama' and 'Niyama' are
majorly about unthinking adherence, cognitive renovation and emotional processing
have a permanent, lasting impact.
Modern religious rituals and codes are like band-aid for wounds that need surgery.
Nothing will result from it.
Asana and Pranayama: What the modern world understands as Yoga

Asana and Pranayama are the other two external practices to discipline your body and
breath as you prepare for meditation. Asana brings harmony and stability to the body-
mind so that high meditative states can anchor themselves. Pranayama brings
discipline to the breath because breath links intimately with meditation.
These two steps are akin to the process of adding fertilizer to the soil and planting
seeds /saplings into it, for our metaphorical garden of Yoga.
Modern Yoga is another tragic irony, like religion. It comprises just the two external
aspects of Asana and Pranayama and them alone. As the modern world understands
it, Yoga reduces mind-body stress, increases health and well-being. Sadly, people who
did not understand enough minimised it this way. They devalued the most significant
and crucial phenomenon for human evolution. They reduced the essence of human
existence, marginalised it to the fringes of modern life.
Pratyahara and Dharana: Shutting down the mind and senses

Prathyahara and Dharana are internal practices that kick-start the engine of Yoga after
you have cleaned and oiled it with your external practices. While the external practices
were about preparing the soil and planting of seeds, these internal practices are about
tending to seed which have sprouted.
Pratyahara is the process of putting your organs of action to rest and withdrawing
your senses of perception. When Pratyahara succeeds, it is a state devoid of all bodily
activity and all responses to external stimuli. It stills the body and pulls
your senses inward. Stilling the body is an easy task compared to controlling
the senses which urge outwards wildly, as we know too well.
After the mind stops working and the senses turn inward, Dharana must take over.
Dharana is the process of cutting away all extraneous thought and perception to focus
on one object/image alone. The purpose of chanting or concentrating on an image is
just that, to focus on that 'subtle' object alone. Concentrating on an object is not an end
in itself, it is the path towards complete mental stillness.
Meditation and mantra chanting has been receiving some attention in 'spiritual' circles
by 'spiritual' people who have minimised and reduced them too. Even the word
spiritual is a sad mish-mash; half-baked, self- righteous and downright annoying. It
represents crystals, tarots, beads, incense, some relaxing music and chanting in our
world today. What a tragedy! For this flavour of spirituality, meditation and chanting
are a tool to relax and feel good. That they can be, and only that, if practiced for those
mere five minutes. "Meditate for five minutes daily and see your life change!", they
advise you. Another hack, another shortcut, another false promise, a constant feature
of our modern world. Does anybody achieve anything worthwhile in the short term?
Never. Don't let this mistaken, smug fashion fool you.
Dhyana and Samadhi: Internal happenings, not practices

Dhyana and Samadhi are the resultant internal states which follow from internal and
external practices. Dhyana and Samadhi happen, you cannot practice or do them. If
you have calibrated and configured well, both internally and externally, if you have
prepared your psyche-mind-body enough, they will just happen. These are states that
overcome you, just like sleep does. Sometimes you try hard to sleep, and then at
others it just overpowers you, no?
Dhyana is a lower kind of meditative absorption, a bridge towards Samadhi, the

highest kind; the end goal of yoga. When the highest Samadhi establishes itself in your
system, again and again, you achieve states of ultra-cognition and ultra-sensory bliss.
Super-knowing and feeling which, you cannot achieve any other way.
Ultra-cognition because the cognition that 'happens' in Samadhi is beyond any mental
process. Since Dharana has shut down your mental faculties, they do not contribute
to this knowing, this cognizance. The mind does not generate it, hence it is extra-
mental. Ultra-sensory because Pratyahara has shut down the senses, withdrawn all
your senses inward. The senses do not generate or hold this kind of bliss; hence it is
extra-sensory.
In this state you know and feel beyond what the senses and mind could have known
and felt. You could call Dhyana the mature, developed tree in your metaphorical
garden. A fully-grown tree which yields this unimaginable, exquisite, exotic, sweet
fruit of Samadhi. This ethereal fruit is the end goal of Yoga and of human existence.
Dhyana and Samadhi are states which are literally unknown to most the world, and
so is the true essence of Yoga. Its true meaning, it true goal. Also, since the ultra-
knowing and ultra-feeling comes from a ‘space’ beyond the senses and mind, it is very
difficult to explain what it means, within the framework of the mind and senses.
Don't you see? The senses and the mind don't have the vocabulary to explain it
because it did not arise in these sensory and mental paradigms.
One cannot tell you what it feels like or what you will know. You will have to see and
know for yourself.
This analogy can explain what I am trying to say: Can you explain the relative nature
of time in terms of Newtonian mechanics? You cannot because time is fixed in
Newton's laws. Can you explain the probability of an event in everyday physics? No
way. In everyday life, things happen, or they don't, there are no probability wave
functions of an event. However, relative time and probability wave functions exist, as
relativity laws and quantum mechanics tell us? These are realities of two different
realms, both true at their respective scales.
Beyond the senses and mind: Time is relative and probability waves exist even if they
don't affect in our ordinary lives!
Remember how we talked of relativity of world views, relativity in models of physics?

Scientists have three different models of science, for three different 'realms' depending
on the scale of observation. The microscopic Plank sizes, the human cell size and the
cosmological sizes produce the models of Quantum Mechanics, Newtonian mechanics
and Relativity Mechanics. These models don't overlap, their rules are different, their
forces are contra distinct. Of course, work is on to discover the Grand Unified Theory,
one which can encompass all three, but is still in the works. Relativity exists, but we
want it not to. We want a grand unified theory, the theory of everything. Don't we?
Similarly, our ordinary existence, our everyday experiences have a more fundamental
state too! Yoga underpins our existence whether we are aware of it or not. Ultra-
cognition and ultra-sensory bliss of Yoga arise from a realm outside of our sensory
and mental paradigms. It is a different realm where the rules and forces are different.
Just like the different realms of physics have different models and equations, the laws
of Yoga have a different language, different semantics. A different vocabulary.
Yoga is that most fundamental state of human existence, the grand unified theory of
existence. It might not only explain but also consummate our human experience.
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤


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Contents

Why did I write this book? 2

Chapter 1: How does Patanjali describe Yoga? 7

Chapter 2: What are Samskaras? 9

Chapter 3: How do Samskaras create Vrittis in our Chitta? 13

Chapter 4: What are the kinds of fluctuations of our Chitta? 20

Chapter 5: What is the need to stop these fluctuations? 25

Chapter 6: What happens in the process of Yoga? 31

Chapter 7: How did Patanjali break down the process of Yoga? 34

SHWETA SINGH. ©STRINGTHEORYOFLIFE 1

SHWETA SINGH. ©STRINGTHEORYOFLIFE 2

SHWETA SINGH. ©STRINGTHEORYOFLIFE 3

Let us spread the word.

SHWETA SINGH. ©STRINGTHEORYOFLIFE 4

SHWETA SINGH. ©STRINGTHEORYOFLIFE 5

SHWETA SINGH. ©STRINGTHEORYOFLIFE 6

This is what the Chitta or consciousness does:

Chitta grows bottom up from Samskaras

SHWETA SINGH. ©STRINGTHEORYOFLIFE 7

Mind = Vrittis + Vasanas + Ahamkara

Chitta = Samskaras + Vasanas + Vrittis + Ahamkara + Buddhi

SHWETA SINGH. ©STRINGTHEORYOFLIFE 8

What are Samskaras really?

SHWETA SINGH. ©STRINGTHEORYOFLIFE 9

Samskara’s connection with your experiences in life

The dual characteristic of a Samskara

SHWETA SINGH. ©STRINGTHEORYOFLIFE 10

A negative charge on an impression manifests into a fear of re-experience, or into a

Samskara is an emotional residue or hangover of a past experience

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Vrittis: Traits/ Conscious desires

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a) Right cognition: Pramana

Right cognition: Pramana

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Life has its own goal. You will see.

Wrong cognition: Vipraya

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Strangely, ideas which society considers 'wrong' might not necessarily be

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Patanjali classifed human suffering or kleshas into five categories:

Wrong Cognition: Avidya

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Attachment and Revulsion: Raga and Dvesha

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Attachment arises from positively charged samskaras; Revulsion arises from

Fear of death: Abhinivesha

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That is the goal if human life.

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Dissolving the Mind to reach pure Chitta with Yoga

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We carry identities which are chimerical delusions, we have misconceptions about

The role of Yogic Discretion: Buddhi

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