Chitta (mind-stuff) Includes Manas (mind), Buddhi (intelligence), Ahamkara (identity)

1. In the last session, we were considering the difference between the mind and chitta (consciousness). There is a lot to say about the distinction and [similarities] between the two…. We know what the mind does, what the mind gives and takes…. That’s part of our experience of life…. As students of yoga, try to… formally examine what our psychological mind, empirical mind,  and temporal mind, do. What does each get…, give…, and take?[1] I leave that to you because… you can examine that… to develop clarity about the mind.

The problem comes because we are taking recourse to the English language. In the English language we also refer to chitta as mind. That’s why the problem comes up [when] you start trying to understand.

2. I will give you input about what the chitta does. Because that’s not the common man’s realm of understanding. We [mistakenly] only think of what the mind does, gives and takes. Let me tell you about the chitta.

We have a thought process because of the chitta. Because of the chitta we have the mind…, manas. Because of the chitta we have the buddhi (intelligence) and… ahamkara, identity. That’s why chitta is more properly called mind-stuff.

So chitta gives all that the mind gives…, the intellect gives, the emotions give, and what they take.[2] So chitta is, again, a much wider concept….

3. Like… we said in the last session, as we pick up water from the ocean in a container, in a vessel, what will the water… give and take?[3] With [water] kept in the vessel, you cannot expect rain…, but with the ocean the whole cycle of rain will be available. We get rain on the planet because of the ocean. A vessel of water, or several of vessels of water…, [or] millions and billions of vessels of water will not trigger the rain cycle. You cannot even imagine.

Physical chemistry-wise…,  the water in the vessel and the water in the ocean is one and the same — the chemist will tell you that it is same water. However, function-wise, the amount of water contained in the vessels will never give you rain. The ocean…, and only the ocean, gives us rain. Because of the ocean we have rain, we get rain. So understand how chitta is a greater concept , [like an ocean compared to] a vessel filled with [ocean] water.

Chitta Vrtti Classes Include Countless Mano (mental) Vrttis +04.50

1. There are several vrttis (movements) of the mind. If we are asked how many vrttis of the mind there are, or how many vrttis of chitta (consciousness) there are, you will tend to answer that there are five.[4] But that wouldn’t be the proper answer; that is the wrong answer.

Patanjali has not told us that there are five chitta vrttis, or that there are five mano (mental) vrttis…. There are countless mano vrttis, countless chitta vrttis — sukha (pleasant) vrttis, duhkha (painful) vrttis, lobha (greedy) vrttis, moha (delusional) vrttis, krodha (angry) vrttis.[5] It’s all chitta vrttis, which are countless. Just try to [establish] how many chitta vrttis there are. Happiness, sadness, delight, sorrow, anger, love, hatred, likes, dislikes. There are countless chitta vrttis; there are countless mano vrttis.

Patanjali does not say there are five chitta vrttis, he says there are five classes of chitta vrttis.

2. When there are so many types, and so many types of anything, we [employ] a functional classification…. How many types of human beings are there? In one class you will say there are only two, considering gender, male or female. Or, today, a third [non-binary] one will come in there. So that’s a functional classification. If you want demographic studies… there are three kinds of human beings today. We have different classifications for different functions.

So Patanjali has made a functional classification: insofar as… restraining the chitta is concerned, yoga is for chitta vrtti-nirodha. There are five classes of chitta vrttis for chitta vrtti-nirodha. They should not be taken as five chitta vrttis. They are five classes of chitta vrttis for this particular function.

3. In another function we will have a different classification [of] how many sane people are there in the world, and how many insane. Then we will have only two classes — sanity and insanity. How many good people are there, how many bad people are there? Then we will have two classes, good… people and bad people. Sane people, insane people; healthy people and unhealthy people. So we will have different functional classifications…. When it comes to functional classification in yoga there are five kinds of chitta vrttis for the purpose of yoga.

For the purpose of any other job, occupation, service, profession, business, etc., it will be a different classification: Somebody may be a very capable person, working as a clerk in an office, but the same person… will be incapable of working in the defense services….

We might pick… ten healthy people…. Ten people: healthy [according] to what parameter? The same ten… healthy people that we have picked, say, for a clerical job, or some business activity…, might be sent back as incapable for defense services.

You might be [sufficiently] healthy for a business activity, but are you healthy enough to be a pilot of an aircraft? We very well know it [requires] a different parameter of health to be a pilot, or an astronaut. You might be fit to do whatever you are doing in the world. Are all of us fit to become astronauts? No. Are all of us fit to become pilots? No…. So that cannot be an argument.

So it’s a functional parameter. To be a pilot there will be parameters to check whether somebody is healthy. To be in the military service there is a parameter to check whether a person is fit…. So there are different classifications for healthiness and unhealthiness….

4. You might be healthy in class A, not healthy in class B, not healthy in C, or not healthy at all…. So for class A you might be healthy, for all the other classes you might be unhealthy.

[Just as] there are functional classifications everywhere [else], similarly there is a functional classification of the chitta vrttis. There are five classes of chitta vrttis.

Chitta as Ocean vs. Manas as Jar Filled with Ocean Water +10.55

1. One distinction and [similarity] of mind and chitta is the [prior] example of vessels of [both] water and the ocean [itself]. Even if that’s ocean water [in] a vessel, it will not give us rain…,  or climactic conditions, as will the ocean…. The ocean can give you a tsunami; the vessel can not give you a tsunami. A glass of water can not give you a tsunami. However, the ocean will give you a tsunami. So, chitta has a potency that the mind doesn’t have. Mind is a part of chitta.

2. I am trying to [explain] the distinction between chitta and manas. Basically…, don’t use the word mind for chitta. Chitta should be rendered as chitta, or maybe mind-stuff.

If you are a student, you must use the word chitta for chitta, and manas for manas. Not as you [might mistakenly translate]…, the text of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, “restraining the mind is yoga,” and, then, “there are five vrttis of the mind.” This is not at all proper….

Chitta Vrtti —Greater Magnitude than Mano Vrtti, Ahamkara Vrtti, or Buddhi Vrtti +12.30

1. Now, mano vrtti and chitta vrtti. Let’s try to understand the difference between mano vrtti (movements of mind) and chitta vrtti (movements of consciousness).

A happy mind will also make the chitta happy. A sad mind will also make the chitta sad. Are you going to equate mano vrtti with chitta vrtti? You can’t equate them because the chitta vrtti has the depth of an ocean. A mano vrtti is not even as deep as a pond…. The mano vrtti will have a pond depth, and the chitta vrtti an ocean depth.

2. Let me try to explain what a chitta vrtti is, and when it becomes a chitta vrtti.

A mano vrtti itself will become a chitta vrtti because of magnitude. Suppose I know that you like chocolates, and I offer you one chocolate. You will be happy…, but how… happy? How deep would the happiness be… if I gave you what you like? If I gave you a bowl of chocolate ice cream…, or whatever is your obsession, how happy would you become? What is the depth of the happiness? So you would be happy with a bowl of ice cream, with a chocolate or a container of chocolates….

3. But now, how happy would you be if I told you that I had credited… a hundred million rupees to your account? What would be your depth of happiness? Tell me. How deeply would you be happy? You would be happy, [but even] happier [to a much greater extent], if I had given you hundred million rupees.

So there is something called depth of happiness, depth of sorrow. You would be sorrowed if I had pinched you. You would say, “Yes, it is painful, it has given me sorrow.” But what would be the depth of that sorrow? And what would be the depth of some other sorrow, a sorrow of a high magnitude, which goes deep into your psyche?

4. The sorrow goes deep into your psyche. So there is something called trajectory, and there is something called depth of sukha (pleasure), duhkha (pain), and moha (delusion), which the mind gets. When the magnitude is enormously, huge, then it becomes a chitta vrtti.

5. I will give you an example for you to understand. This is not the example used in the pedantic (academic) process because we are in an educational process here. Let me make it clear that this example will not come in the pedantic process. However, I am giving you this example for you to understand… how the mano vrtti differs from the chitta vrtti in terms of magnitude.

This is a story which happened about forty or fifty years back. A girl went out to play in the evening. The girl was about five, six, or seven years of age. As usual, she went out to play with her friends in the evening. Her mother… allowed her to go because she went to play with her friends every day. So the girl went… out to play at five o’clock. The mother expected that the girl would return at seven o’clock. At seven o’clock the child did not return, so mother started getting a little worried as to why her daughter had not come, “Why has she not returned?”

Now see the various vrttis that come about. You can understand how much fear there is when the child is about a half an hour late, and not yet arrived home. Then the mother starts having a thought process, “Now, I have told my child, I have made my child intelligent. I have told her to take certain precautions. I have trained her, so that nothing untoward will happen.”

Those were the days, unlike today, when the child did not have a cell phone. These days a child would be carrying a cell phone when she goes out to play. The parents would have no problem. They would contact her to know her whereabouts.

But those were the days when… there were not even telephone land lines in homes where they could enquire. Today we have no problem — we will phone the whole family of the friends of the girl, to try to identify where the girl is, and to be comforted why the girl had not yet come. But those were the days when we did not have communication.

The mother goes on thinking, “I have really trained my child. I have really educated my child on what precaution she should be taking, and, therefore, nothing untoward will happen.” This is called her ahamkara (ego) vrtti. Why? “I have trained her. I have educated my child.” That gives her a little comfort. That is ahamkara vrtti.[6]

Then sometimes that is buddhi (intelligence) vrtti: “No, my child is also intelligent, and not stupid. The child will not go with someone unknown person…. My child is sufficiently intelligent.” That is buddhi vrtti.

When the worry comes up, then it is a mano (mental) vrtti: “ Oh, why has the child not come…? The time was now 8:30, and child had not returned. The anxiety increased… moment to moment, minute to minute. Now it was 8:30, 9:30, 10:30, 11:30, and the child had not returned, and there was no clue as to where the child was. Then the mother slowly lost her confidence. She then started thinking that certainly something untoward had happened. Otherwise it would not be that late….

So the mother… became gradually convinced that something had now gone wrong. If you recall, at about half an hour, one hour time, the mother was having some comfort, “No, maybe nothing has happened, My child is intelligent. I have trained my child…. I have sufficiently spoken to my child, informed my child.” See the comfort zone she had been in, but now understand the total discomfort she has at 11:30…, at 12:30, when the child has not yet returned.

See how deep the vrtti of fear must have gone, how deep the vrtti of anxiety. It is no longer anxiety and worry. It is certain that something has definitely happened.

At 12:30 the mother collapses because of worry. This is something like a chitta vrtti. She is subsumed by the single thought that something untoward has definitely happened. There is no doubt about it, not even an iota of doubt that something might have happened. She is not alternating between yes, no yes, no possible, impossible. She is not oscillating. Now she is pretty sure, absolutely sure, damn sure, that something has definitely happened. So it has subsumed the whole mind into one kind of fear of one single intensity — a very, very, very strong intensity. So much that she also collapses.

The vrtti has gone so deep, deeper than at 7:30. It was not so deep at 7:30, 8 o’clock. Now it has gone very, very, very deep. The chitta vrtti is that something, that some untoward thing has happened to my child. My child is totally unsafe. That is a chitta vrtti.

The magnitude of vrtti, the magnitude of fear, has expanded to such an extent that she is completely subsumed by that vrtti. Something untoward has definitely happened. Not even point zero, zero, zero, zero one percent of not having happened. Chitta vrtti is the vrtti that has gone so deep in the mind. Understand how the chitta vrtti is stronger than a mano vrtti.

Chitta Vrtti — Singular Combination of Mano Vrtti Ahamkara Vrtti, & Buddhi Vrtti +22.25

1. A mano vrtti might oscillate. There may be ripples — mano vrtti to buddhi vrtti, buddhi vrtti to ahamkara vrtti. It can go here and there.

But when it becomes a chitta vrtti, there is no mano vrtti distinct from buddhi vrtti, no buddhi vrtti distinct from ahamkara vrtti, no ahamkara vrtti distinct from mano vrtti. All the three have become one. That is what a chitta vrtti is.

2. This example [of a mother fearing harm to her child] is for you to understand how a chitta vrtti [comparesto] a mano vrtti. Mano vrttis come and go…, but when the vrtti has gone so deep, that it doesn’t leave you [it becomes a chitta vrtti].

3. Suppose you are happy to an extent. [Imagine] your happiness if somebody had unexpectedly [conveyed] property in your name, [worth] some hundreds of millions of rupees. It would completely subsume you with happiness. So a chitta vrtti has that. That is why it is a chitta vrtti.

Chitta Vrtti-Nirodha as Ocean vs. Mano Vrtti-Nirodha as Glass of Water +23.40

1. Patanjali uses chitta vrtti-nirodha, and mano vrtti-nirodha. During the last session I told you that only mano vrtti can be restrained….[7] [If you] swallow some sedatives, sleeping pills, or when you fall asleep naturally, there is no mano vrtti.

2. But Patanjali counts nidra (sleep) as a chitta vrtti.[8] You can’t count sleep in a mental modulation…. Sleep is a state of consciousness. It is not a mental modification. Sleep is not a mental modification because there are no modifications in the mind when you are fast asleep, when you are in dreamless sleep. There are no waves and ripples in the mind. So mano vrtti can be stopped by a natural sleep, good sleep, artificially induced sleep, or a comatose state….

However, even a comatose, unconscious, state, is counted in chitta vrtti…. Chitta vrtti is considered at that depth. So that is one more attempt for you to understand the difference between chitta vrtti and mano vrtti, manas and chitta.

3. It is really, if I may say so, [due to] the poverty of the language, that you don’t have a word for chitta. There is no word for chitta distinct from the word for mind [in English]. There should be a separate word for mind. You can’t [equate] a glass of water, with the water in the ocean. The ocean water has an enormous function, enormous power. The glass of water doesn’t have those powers.

4. So, mano vrtti and mind is like a glass containing water. Chitta vrtti is like the water of the ocean. It might substantially be the same water, however there is enormous difference functionally — in magnitude, potency, and manifestation.

At most, a glass of water can quench your thirst. It cannot completely wash your face. You can not wash your face with one glass of water, so scanty is that [amount of] water. But you can sink the whole of humanity, the whole globe, into the ocean. That was one more attempt to explain the difference between chitta vrtti and mano vrtti.

Aindriya-kriya (sensely acts)— Eyes in Asana +26.50

1. Then, in the last session, and a session previous to that, we came to conclude the sensory act, or the act of the senses, sensely acts, indriya-kriya, aindriya-kriya….[9] We understood how important the sensely act, sensory act, or acts of the senses is.

2. I told you how relaxed eyes in Sirsasana [differ from] relaxed eyes in Sarvangasana.[10] Relaxed eyes in Halasana are different. Relaxed eyes are different in Janu Sirsasana from Viparita Dandasana and various asanas.

3. And, then, what are the functions? What do the eyes do? Why don’t your eyes relax in the backbends, but do relax in Sirsasana? Or inversions — Sirsasana and Sarvangasana?

If you’re really familiar with asana practice, you can [tell] that you have done Sirsasana and Sarvangasana, forward bends, orbackbends from the very eyes…. What is the function of the eyes in various asanas?

4. What is the function of the ears in various asanas? What are the functions of the senses in various asanas? The functions…, roles…, manifestations…, and purposes will differ. This is an important study for a student to conceive aindriya-kriya (sensely acts).

What can be done for the senses. What can you do for the eyes in Sirsasana? What can you do for the eyes in Sarvangasana, Viparita Dandasana, and Janu Sirsasana? What can the eyes do in those asanas? What can be done for the eyes in those asanas is a yogasana process, which is unattended to in our modern, fashionable, consumerist yoga.

5. What the senses can do is a sensely act. What can be done for the senses? What is an extrasensory act of the senses? You will become aware that there are extrasensory acts for the senses, which a common man doesn’t take notice of.

Your eyes are a visual organs. Your eyes are not a memory organ. But, strangely, suppose you want to remember something very badly…. Why do you press your eyes strongly…, [gripping] your eyes [shut]… to remember something? Because that act of tightly closing the eyes, and clenching the eyes, triggers the brain. It also triggers some memory cortex, and, therefore, many times we remember those things. So, when you want to remember something, don’t clamp open your eyes…, but close your eyes tightly [to allow] a memory to surface.

But if you open the eyes extraordinarily, large and huge, if you clamp them open…, it won’t work for memory. That’s not the natural process. It is not educational. Even an illiterate person… — who has not learned it [by reading] a book about the body — knows that you have to tightly close your eyes to remember.

6. The eyes work even for the defense system. If [you hear] a huge thud, what do the eyes do…? It is the ears which have to [act]. [Hearing] might be lost because of a huge bang sound, but, then, why do we try to close the eyes?

When we close the eyes, the ears are protected. The eyes become the protector of the ears. The eyes become the protector of the brain. Now, we can’t do that with our ears, but, however, we can do that with our eyes. We can’t do that with our nose; we can do with our eyes. We can do perhaps with our tongue and mouth.

In fear, etc. some defensive mechanism will be there. That will stimulate certain chemicals in the brain and that will work a different system.

Sensology — Extrasensory Functions of the Senses +31.55

1. There are extra-sensory acts of the senses as well…. We have to carry out a study… of a subject which is so important in yoga — sensology. Sensology.

2. What happens to the senses in pratyahara? How do the senses contribute to pratyahara? [11]What is the effect of pratyahara on the senses? There are so many things to study with regard to the senses. Therefore, Patanjali implies a subject called sensology. This is not a modern academic subject, but it is so important in pursuit of yoga. Sensology. What are the functions of the mind? What are the extrasensory functions of the senses? There is much to say about the acts of the senses, but it should be enough for time being in the first lesson on it.

Shvasa-kriya (Acts of the Breath) +33.10

1. I just now proposed that we go for… the next kriya, which is shvasa-kriya. The breathly acts, or shvasa-kriya, the act of the breath.

This subject, which can be called breathology, is so important, so vital in yoga. We must examine, analyze, think about and deliberate on what can be done by the breath, for the breath, on the breath, in the breath, with the breath — with the breath both as benefactor, and as beneficiary…. It is so important to students of yoga.

2. The breath is almost an internal conative and internal cognitive organ while we are working in asana, pranayama…. In any of the yogic practices, the breath is so important. Breath has all potentials.

Body and Mind are Limited +34.35

1. Let me tell you about the indoctrination that we have in this world. If you do something with your mind totally involved, you are hundred percent involved. You think that mental involvement is 100%. But, understand, if you want to solicit all responses from the mind, and you are trying to beseech the mind, “Please come in, please help me, please participate, please involve,” the mind, along with the body, has so many limitations — genetic, genealogical,  and karmic.[12]

2. Why can’t the body do many things? Because there are so many limitations in the body. The limitations [range] from very, very physical to genetic, genealogical, ethnic. So many things limit the abilities…, capabilities…, and capacity of the body. The body is going to be, in any case, limited…. It has enormous limitations. Enormous gravities work on it… and we will be limited because of the given body.

The body itself is [both] limited, and, also, a limiter. It puts limitations on us…. Basically, there is a genetic background to our body that you can’t do anything [about]. What can you do if you have inherited something genetically? If you have inherited some kind of inefficiency, lack of energy, lack of power in the body, what are you going to do? Whatever you might do, you will not overcome that. That genetic, ethnic, genealogical, and karmic background is going to stay with you. Your own karma baggage will put a lot of limitations on your body.

3. So is the case of mind. The mind is limited because it has a genetic, genealogical, ethnic, and karmic background. They [impose] their own limitations, and they are also capable of increasing limitations on you. They have limitations, and they are also limiters. Although we are not familiar with this inflection for the word limit, limiter, it is so important to have it here. They put a lot of limitations on us.

4. The body and mind have lots of limitations because they have all kinds of gravities working on them  — from physical gravities, to karmic gravities, genetics, genealogical, ancestral gravities. There are so many gravities. They are your body, your mind, and your senses. See how much they are limited?

Breath is Unlimited

1. Now I will refer to your breath, like your body, mind, senses, psyche, consciousness, organs, brain…. See how your breath is totally distinct from all that is yours, which I just now mentioned. Your breath doesn’t have a genetic background, an ancestral family background, a genealogical background, or a karmic background.

There is no karma baggage on your breath. However, there is karma baggage on your mind, your senses, your organs of body, organs of mind…. Therefore they put a permanent limitation on you for your lifetime. There are limitations on you for your lifetime. You really can’t break those shackles. There is no way to break the shackles because they are all under such gravities. They are all bound, they are shackled. They have shackles.

But the breath, which we tend to say is my breath, that you are taking, that you are expelling — you say this is my inhalation, this is my exhalation. Now this ‘yours’ is totally different than all other your things. This has no gravity whatsoever; it doesn’t have any delimitation.

2. The body has delimitations of class, cast, creed, gender, status, stature, condition, genetic, genealogical, and karmic backgrounds. These are all limitations of body and mind, that the breath doesn’t have…. These delimitations are not there. The breath doesn’t have cast, class, race, creed, gender, status, stature, karma. It has nothing behind it. The common man doesn’t understand this fascinating agency within us.

Breath — Roles +40.40

1. For every kind of act, we are using the breath, which goes unidentified. This should not happen to student of yoga. Identify the role of the breath for every kind of act. As often as possible, try to identify the role of the breath. Let me give a little out-of-place example, perhaps little indecent example, how the breath contributes, which goes unidentified.

2. Suppose you are kept engaged in a place from which you can’t move. You are sitting there for many hours…. Because of the demands of the situation, you have restrained your natural call of urination… for quite a while. You can’t… go to the toilet. When you have restrained it for so long, and then when you really pass urine, you can identify the role of the breath…. If you have restrained it for too long, see how the breath plays an important role.

3. Or, suppose you are constipated. [When] you are not passing the motion, you can identify how you are using a post exhalative retention to push the fecal matter from the colon…. We just think of the breath [as] oxygenation and decarbonization. We say inhale to get oxygen, exhale to pass out the carbon dioxide. This is what we learned about the respiratory breath.

4. But what the breath does internally goes unidentified. This should not take place for a keen student of yoga. Try to understand how the breath plays a role.

You are using your breath even in your act of eating, but you don’t think [about it]. You do so many processes in your mouth like biting, chewing, etc.,  but finally you have to gulp the food. Now it is the act where the breath comes to gulp the food or even gulp the water. If you want to drink water, the water should go from the mouth to the throat and down. You will have to, therefore, swallow the water, gulp the water. There is a contribution of the breath, which goes unidentified. We had taken it for granted.

5. We [haven’t] thanked the breath for that, as much as the asthmatic patient will thank the breath for the breathing. [When] a person is panting, not breathing, and then when he breathes, he says, “Thank God.” He says, “Thank you breath, you moved.” We never bother about it. We have taken for granted so many roles they are playing.

6. If you want to [perform] an extraordinary physical act — you want to lift your weight — you think you only test your muscle power [by] lifting the weight.

When a bottle is tightly closed…, you think it’s only physical strength which will open it. No, you have not identified that you [must] exhale and retain your breath to open that tightly closed bottle. The breath’s contribution goes unidentified. [When] you are lifting the weight, the breath’s contribution goes unidentified. You think it is a biceps power, shoulder power, arm power, muscle power, with which you’ve lifted the weight. No doubt, of course, that’s important. However, the breath coming in, goes unconsidered, unaccounted for. This is not justifiable.

7. So, as students of yoga, you have to develop this attitude, “Let me keep watching how often I am using the breath spontaneously, naturally.” How [does] the breath spontaneously come in for my physical act? If you are doing a posture for intensity, you think it is only your will. No. It is the breath which contributes to the intensity of the posture.

[If] you want to turn, rotate, stretch, elongate, exaltedly the breath will come in there, which goes unaccounted for, unconsidered…. This is not justifiable. So we are indulging in a lot of injustice by not recognizing the breath and breathing. Where does it come? If it is coming, why not schematize it? Why not make it come at a proper point in time in a proper way? It is going to come anyway.

Pranayama — Breath as Internal Conative & Cognitive Organ +46.15

1. With the final statement, let me say that, these days, when you have all this pranayama being taught in various schools by various teachers, they only deal with respiratory breath. This is a mockery.

In neo-yoga…, which is not only [unlike] classical, it is non-classical, un-classical yoga. Reference is only made to inbreath and outbreath, “Watch the breath. Watch the breath.” This is what has become today’s pranayama. Just mindfully watch the breathing. This is in no way pranayama. No, it is not even the run up to pranayama. Just doing breathing with awareness is pranayama in modern, neo-yoga, the yoga of our times.

2. We [mistakenly] only consider breath as respiratory breathing. Respiratory breathing is there just for us keep living. It will help us keep living, it will help our autonomic system function. Respiratory breathing will work for only two functions, one is to keep us living, the other one is to keep autonomic system functioning. Whereas, the breath has enormous potentials… which goes unused, unidentified even.

3. So, in asanas you will even understand how the breath is used, how much the breath has uses, how enormously the breath is a very, very potent force, and how the breath is an internal conative organ, an internal cognitive organ. The breath has muscles. If you think there is muscle power behind body power, and mind-muscle power behind the mind, we don’t identify the breath power behind all that. The breath has its muscles, the breath has its senses, the breath has its conative system, and the breath has its cognitive system.

4. The breath performs an enormous number of acts which have been discovered by yoga technology, and the yoga shastra. Yoga is the only science, the only subject which deals with using the breath, the forms of breath, the classes of breath, the functions of breath, the roles of breath, the manifestations of breath, and the acts of breath. Also acts on the breath, for breath, how the breath can be addressed, how breath needs to be addressed, and how much the breath can be addressing. So this realm of activity in human beings is totally out of sight. The breathly act is going to consider that. So lets try to understand, read the breath.

5. Basically, as a final statement, let me tell you, the body and mind have cast, class, creed, race, gender, status, stature condition, karmic background, and karmic gravities. The breath is the one which doesn’t have… any of those.

Yoga makes use of such a pristine agency. That’s the whole of yoga, be that yama — ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya — or ,niyama. Everywhere it is the breath as a major, major, major material.

Because the breath is without delimitations. The powers of the breath are almost immeasurable. If I may say so, the breath is an internal agent. If it is developed sufficiently, it is an omnipotent agency within us. “What is it that it cannot do?” should be the question, although in the beginning the question will be, “What does the breath do?”

6. Let’s take up the first question in our next session — what the breath does, what the breath can do, what the breath may do, andwhat the functions of the breath are. We will try to have idea as to how much… the breath does.

Then you will get a question which is not a question to be answered. It is a question to make a statement. What is it that the breath doesn’t do? It is not a question, it is a statement. It means…, that the breath does everything. When you ask such a question, what is it that the breath doesn’t do? It sounds like a question. It is not a question, it is a statement. So lets try to reach that statement, what is it that it cannot do, but starting with what the breath does. That is for next time.

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[1]             examine what our psychological mind, empirical mind, and temporal mind, do. What does each get…, give…, and take:  See B.K.S. Iyengar, Core of the Yoga Sutras: the Definitive Guide to the Philosophy of Yoga, London: HarperThorsons, 2012. There Guruji Iyengar recapitulated various functions of manas (mind) previously described in the Yaugika Manas booklet that arose out of his 2009 Guru Purnima address.

[2]           chitta gives all that the mind gives…, the intellect gives, the emotions give, and what they take: Due to the Samkhya precept of sat-karya-vada (ISK IX), which posits that the potential effect (karya) lies inherent, or preexistent (sat), in the cause, the buddhi, ahamkara and manas that arise out of chitta  are implied to be part of chitta. The evolution can be compared to a clay pot “caused” by clay, the effect being the “pot.” The clay itself only holds the potential effect of becoming a pot. See Samkhya Cosmogeny in Asana. See also “Chitta as Ocean vs. Manas as Jar Filled with Ocean Water +11.00.”

[3]           Like… we said in the last session, as we pick up water from the ocean in a container, in a vessel, what will the water : Prashant used this ocean water analogy in “Mind Differs from Chitta +46.40” Lesson 15: Karma Is Not Destiny Q & A 5-17-20.

[4]           how many vrttis of chitta (consciousness) there are, you will tend to answer that there are five: The state and form of chitta is a vrtti. Chitta is a material entity comprised of the three gunas. These combinations of gunas produces an infinite number of vrttis categorized according to the fivefold (panchatayyah) knowledge in the chitta [delineated in PYS I.6]. Fivefold includes five types or kinds. See Srineet Sridharan, Learning the Yoga Sutras with Clarity and Rigour, Pune: RIMYI, 21 Oct 2018. Yoga Sutra lecture with insights from Prashant S. Iyengar.

[5]           sukha (pleasant) vrttis, duhkha (painful) vrttis, lobha (greedy) vrttis, moha (delusional) vrttis, krodha (angry) vrttis: Bhoga means sukha, duhkha, and moha. And the senses are bhogendriyas. See “Senses Act as Bhogendriyas (Organs of Mundane Experience) +24.50” in Lesson 21: Pratyahara 6-6-20 <https://yogastlouis.us/pratyahara/>

[6]           “I have trained her. I have educated my child.” That gives her a little comfort. That is ahamkara vrtti: Chitta (consciousness) is comprised of manas (mind), ahamkara (self), buddhi (intellect). Mano vrttis are the tip of the iceberg of chitta vrttis, merely the externally visible vrttis. See “Mano-vrtti Nirodha is Not Chitta-vrtti Nirodha +34.20” in Lesson 10: Meditation is Not Dhyana 5-9-20.

[7]           During the last session I told you that only mano vrtti can be restrained: See “Mano-vrttiNirodha is Not Chitta-vrtti Nirodha +34.20” Lesson 10: Meditation is Not Dhyana 5-9-20 .

[8]            Patanjali counts nidra (sleep) in chitta vrtti: PYS I.10 Nidra (dreamless sleep) is the non-deliberate absence (abhava) of vrttis or knowledge (pratyaya).

[9]           in the last session, and a session previous to that, we came to conclude the sensory act, or the act of the senses, sensely acts, indriya-kriya, aindriya-kriya:  See “Sensely Acts (Aindriya Kriya) Differ from Sensory Acts +12.15;” and “Senses Influence Mind in Asana & Pranayama +32.30” in Lesson 20: Acts of the Senses (Aindriya Kriya) 5-31-20.  “Senses Act as Bhogendriyas (Organs of Mundane Experience) +24.50” in Lesson 21: Pratyahara 6-6-20.

[10]         I told you how relaxed eyes in Sirsasana [differ from] relaxed eyes in Sarvangasana:  “observe in your yogic practices, is how to relax the eyes. What happens if I relax my eyes in Sirsasana” in “Senses Act as Bhogendriyas (Organs of Mundane Experience)+24.50” in Lesson 21: Pratyahara 6-6-20.

[11]         How do the senses contribute to pratyahara: See “Pratyahara — The Senses Pursue Jnana, Not Vishayas (External Objects) +14.40” in Lesson 21: Pratyahara 6-6-20.

[12]         The mind, along with the body, has so many limitations — genetic, genealogical, karmic: Because body and mind have a genetic inheritance, they have certain built-in gravities. Those gravities remain during the span of your life — genetic, genealogical, caste, class, creed, gender, status, stature, etc. They have certain delimitations…. Advanced Asana / Pranayama Class 7-25-09  7-9 AM #1— Prashant Iyengar. Bruce M. Roger transcription.