Five Modes of Consciousness Arise in Your Self

Patanjali Yoga Sutras - Knowledge Sheet 6

Five modes of consciousness arises in your Self. What are they?

Pratyakshanumanagamaha pramanani
The different kinds of proof the mind requires are the obvious experiential proof, inferential proof and scriptural proof. - Patanjali Yoga Sutra Pratyaksha means obvious, experiential. Our mind constantly wants to have an obvious, solid, experiential proof. This is one mode of activity of the mind. Another is anumana, which means, it is not so obvious, but you infer and whatever you infer, you believe. Agamaha is the proof the mind takes from scriptures or from books. Because it is written. Even today in certain remote villages, anything printed is the gospel truth. Many people say that since something is written it must be right. We are constantly looking for proof of something or anything. Yoga is when you drop this search and abide in the Self. Abiding in the Self does not need proof. Truth cannot be understood through proof. God is beyond proof. You cannot prove God, nor can you disprove God. Proof is connected to logic and logic is very limited in its purview. This is the same with enlightenment, same with love. Love can never be proved or disproved. This is not in the realm of the seer. The seer is beyond proof.

Viparyayo mithyajnanamatadrupa pratishtam

Wrong understanding is knowing the unreal in a form that is not its own. - Patanjali Yoga Sutra Most of the time you impose your own ideas, views and feelings on others and you think that is how they are. This is called viparyaya. You have an inferiority complex or you suddenly see someone else behaving very arrogantly. They might not be arrogant and you are not being ill-treated by them. But you suddenly feel that you are being ill-treated. You are not respected because you do not respect yourself. You think that others do not respect you. This tendency of your mind is viparyaya. Suddenly people feel that they are not being loved.

Shabdajnananupati vastushunyo vikalpaha

It is a sort of hallucination followed in sequence by mere words or knowledge and which, in reality, is devoid of truth. - Patanjali Yoga Sutra Vikalpa is a sort of a hallucination. Nothing of that sort exists, just mere words which do not carry much meaning hover in the mind. This fantasy is called vikalpa, the third modulation of mind or chitta.

Vikalpa can be of two types. One could be a joyful, pleasurable fantasy and the other could be baseless fears. "What will happen if I die tomorrow? What if I have an accident?" These are all just simply sounds which have no value. Baseless fears in the mind or fantasies.

Abhavapratyayalambana vruttirnidra
Sleep is that modulation of the mind which has, for its objective, substratum, the cause of nonexistence. - Patanjali Yoga Sutra If the mind is not in any one of the above mentioned three modulations, then in the fourth place it goes to sleep. The fifth activity of the mind is smruti, which is remembering the experiences it had.

Source URL: http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/yoga/patanjali-yogasutra/knowledge-sheet-6