On the outside, visible to others, is our physical form — our body. What remains invisible is our non-physical form — the intangible and spiritual.
Our inner body, which is not physical, is called the anthakarana (अंतःकरण). It is a combination of indriya (senses), manas (mind), buddhi (intelligence), and ahamkaar (ego). Put together these the indriyas, manas, buddhi and ahamkaar execute a lot of processes. These anthakarana processes can collectively be called the chitta (चित्त).
The chitta has waves of thoughts in it called vritti. Our vrittis (thoughts) are force-like in nature, just as gravity is a force. Chitta is able to tap not only into vrittis (thought ripples), but even into the external stimuli. Said otherwise, vritti is a combination of thought and external stimuli.
The nature of the vrittis determines the nature of the chitta, which can be in tamas (stupidity, darkness), rajas (power hungry, narcissist), or sattva (calmness). Tamas is darkness of the vrittis. Rajas is an active vritti but more for sense enjoyment than anything else. Sattva is a serene and calm vritti.
Patanjali has identified 5 classes of these vrittis — right knowledge, indiscrimination, verbal delusion, sleep, and memory.
- Right Knowledge – This is about finding or having proofs. There’s 3 ways you can have proofs. Direct perception, inference, and competent evidence. What is the proof that Mt. Everest exists? The proof is that you can see it — direct perception. What is the proof dinosaurs existed? You can see their fossilized footprints – inference. What is the proof that soul exists? There are yogis who say so. But more importantly, they can guide you to get that knowledge for you yourself – competent evidence. So, pratyaksha, anumaan, and aptavaakyam are three kinds of proofs. This is one kind of vritti.
- Indiscrimination – Mistaking one thing for the other. E.g. mistaking a pearl for a piece of silver. This is viparyaayo.
- Verbal Delusion – Jumping to conclusions immediately, having little or no restraint on emotions or intellect. This is called shabdgyaanaanupaati.
- Sleep and Dream – When the mind is asleep there are no waves in it. Hence, no memory. When we are awake, we perceive waves that result in memory. Memory is another class of vritti called smriti.
- Memory – Dream and memory are the similar things. The difference is that of being asleep in one and awake in the other. However, memory (smriti) can be caused by direct perception, indiscrimination, and verbal delusion.
This outer physicality along with the inner antahkarna is the complete image of a human, as in known in the dharmic (Hindu) scholarship. To a dharmic the entire process of life is therefore about taking care of and mending this holistic human hologram; antahkarna is just as important to take care of as is body. But more importantly, what a human is not just a physical form. On the contrary, the physical form is an expression of the chitta, which is afflicted by its vrittis. In essence, we are a sum total of our knowledge, indiscrimination, delusions, dreams and memories.
The biggest goal of Yoga is to rescue and reclaim our chitta from its vrittis, which distracts and disorients, and bring it to its natural state of sattva (calmness). The ultimate goal of Yoga is to attain this balanced state of chitta, also known as samadhi. The journey on that path starts only once we understand the entire human hologram.
धार्मिक छवियाँ 