1.5-1.11- Un-coloring your thoughts

1.5 vrttayah pancatayyah klista aklistah

Swamiji- “Those gross and subtle thought patterns (vrittis) fall into five varieties, of which some are colored (klishta) and others are uncolored (aklishta)”

Iyengar- “the movements of consciousness are fivefold. They may be cognizable or non-cognizable, painful or non-painful”

Definitions – klishta – painful, colored, not useful

Aklishta – non-painful or pleasing, non-colored, useful

There are 5 types of thoughts all of which are either klishta or aklishta. This sutra concentrates on explaining the difference between the two. Iyengar warns that they can be masked by each other, for example, the aklistha or pleasurable experience of sexual intercourse can be hide the painful/klishta experience of labour pains. Swamiji, suggests that when meditating and thoughts arise to label them as either useful – aklista or not-useful, aklishta. That this technique can help yourself detach from thought patterns, vrittis, and begin to control them.

1.6 pramana viparyaya vikalpa nidra smrtayah

Swamiji- “ The five varieties of thought patterns t o witness are:

1- knowing correctly (pramana)

2- incorrect knowing (viparyay)

3- fantasy or imagination (vikalpa)

4- the object of void-ness that is deep sleep (nidra)

5- recollection or memory (smriti)”

Iyengar- “they are caused by correct knowledge, illusion, delusion, sleep and memory.”

There are five types of states of mind and five types of thoughts. Swamiji, as with the five types of mental states, assigns them to the body, to the fingers of the right hand, thus

Pramana – right thought – thumb

Viparyaya – wrong thought – index finger

Vikalpa – imagined thought – middle finger

Nidra – sleep – ring finger

Smriti – memory – pinky finger

One strives for pramana or right thought, memory can aide in this as well as sleep. Iyengar regards nidra or sleep as a special space in which “one has a glimpse of a quiet states of mind, manolaya”

1.7 pratyaksa anumana agamah pramagani

Swamiji- “Of these five there are three ways of gaining correct knowledge (pramana)

1- perception

2- inference

3- testimony or verbal communication from others who have knowledge”

Iyengar- “correct knowledge is direct, inferred or proven as factual”

One should gain knowledge through at three different types of sources, that of experiencing it yourself, learning from texts, and speaking with others who have had the same experience. If these three sources agree then you can be reasonably certain that you know or understand. I protest however to swamji’s depiction of academia, which does include personal understanding and not pure memorization. He is working on an old view of academe. Iyengar speaks of buddhi or intellect, and that it should be cultivated on many levels including the physical through the practice of asana.

1.8 viparyayah mithyajnanam atadrupa pratistham

Swamiji- Incorrect knowledge or illusion (viparyay) is false knowledge formed by perceiving a thing as being other than what it really is

Iyengar- illusory or erroneous knowledge is based on non-fact or the non-real

Both sources speak of being careful to distinguish between wrong knowing or misperception and seeing clearly. Misperceptions can cause klishtas and be harmful, for example, the snake/rope story. By misperceiving a rope to be a snake it cause fear and harm. Having too many misperceptions can be harmful to the sadaka’s path.

1.9 sabdajnana anupati vastusunyah vikalpah

Swamiji- fantasy or imagination (vikalpa) is a thought pattern that has verbal expression and knowledge, but for which there is no such object or reality in existence

Iyengar- verbal knowledge devoid of substance is fancy or imagination

Vikalpah or imagination/fantasy is part of our being and experience. As human beings, we often fantasize how our world might be if we did or had a particular object or action. This is often helpful to us in the world of interaction as it allows us to test out possibilities prior to actually executing them. However, it is important to distinguish between what is real or correct knowledge and what is fantasy. The ironic part of this is that once a sadaka reaches a certain stage, she will recognize that even correct knowledge is also fanatasy.

1.10 abhava pratyay alambana vrttih nidra

Swamiji- Dreamless sleep (nidra) is the sublet thought pattern which has as its object an inertia, blankness, absence or negation of the other thought patterns (vrittis)

Iyengar- sleep is the non deliberate absence of thought waves or knowledge

Swamiji warns that although dreamless sleep, nidra, appears to be without form and free of thoughts etc, it is in itself an object, the object of black void. While it is not as chaotic as other forms of thought it is still an object to be attached to, thus one should strive not mistake it for Samadhi, but stay awake during meditation.

Iyengar identifies three types of sleep –

Dull havy sleep is tamasic

Disturbed sleep is rajastic

Light, reviving sleep is sattvic

1.11 anubhuta visaya asampramosah smrtih

Swamiji- Recollection of memory (smriti) is mental modification cause by the inner reproducing of a previous impression of an object, but without adding any other characteristics from other sources

Iyengar- memory is the unmodified recollection of words and experiences

Memory of smriti is a mixture of all the other types of thought. Pure memory is not necessarily harmful, but rare, it is usually linked to colored thoughts and experiences, this can be an obstacle to meditation.