other. For example, the dullness which is the negative aspect of sleep supports the wrong perception of the other modulations of consciousness, whereas the positive experience of sleep (the passive, virtuous state experienced immediately on waking, when the ‘I’ is silent) gives a glimmer of a higher state, encouraging the efforts of right knowledge and discrimination. If the wheel is at rest, the spokes remain steady, and the citta becomes free from vrttis.
(For afflictions, see I.30, 31; II.3, 12, 16, 17.)
| pramana | valid knowledge, experienced knowledge, correct knowledge which is studied and verified, proof, or evidence |
| viparyaya | inverted, perverse, contrary |
| vikalpa | doubt, indecision, hesitation, fancy, imagination, or day-dreaming |
| nidra | sleep, a state of emptiness |
| smrtayah | memory |
They are caused by correct knowledge, illusion, delusion, sleep and memory.
These five-fold fluctuations or modifications of consciousness are based on real perception, or correct knowledge based on fact and proof; unreal or perverse perception, or illusion; fanciful or imaginary knowledge; knowledge based on sleep; and memory.
Consciousness has five qualitative types of intelligence: mudha (silly, stupid, or ignorant), ksipta (neglected or distracted), viksipta (agitated or scattered), ekagra (one-pointed or closely attentive) and niruddha (restrained or controlled). Since conscious intelligence is of five types, fluctuations are also classified into five kinds: correct knowledge, perverse perception, imagination, knowledge based on sleep, and memory. These five conscious states of intelligence and five classes of fluctuations may disturb the sadhaka, or help him to develop maturity of intelligence and attain emancipation.
Wrong perceptions (viparyaya) are gathered by the senses of perception and influence the mind to accept what is felt by them (as in the story of the six blind men and the elephant). Fanciful knowledge (vikalpa) causes the mind to live in an imaginary state without consideration of the facts. Memory (smrti) helps one to recollect experiences for right understanding. Sleep (nidra) has its own peculiarity. As a jar when empty is filled with air, so consciousness is empty in sleep. It exists in space, without a place, and is filled with dormancy. In sleep, one has a glimpse of a quiet state of mind, manolaya. This dormant state of mind is felt only on waking. Just as a flower when at rest is in its bud, so the consciousness rests in its bud, the conscience. Correct knowledge (pramana) is direct knowledge from the core of the being. It is intuitive, therefore pure, and beyond the field of intellect.
Direct knowledge leads man beyond the conscious state. This state of consciousness is called amanaskatva.
| pratyaksa | direct perception |
| anumana | inference |
| agamah | traditional sacred texts or scriptural references, a person who is a scriptural authority and whose word can be relied on |
| pramanani | kinds of proof |
Correct knowledge is direct, inferred or proven as factual.
Correct knowledge is based on three kinds of proof: direct perception, correct inference or deduction, and testimony from authoritative sacred scriptures or experienced persons.
Initially, individual perception should be checked by reasoned logic, and then seen to correspond to traditional or scriptural wisdom. This process involves the enlightened intelligence, or buddhi.
In modern intellectual terms, we take buddhi to be a monolithic entity. This is unhelpful when trying to understand its true role in our lives and in our yogic practice. Let us first separate it from mind, in which brain, whose function is to receive sensory information, to think and to act, has its source. Thinking expresses itself in the form of electro-magnetic waves.
Intellect is more subtle than mind. It is concerned with the knowledge of facts and the reasoning faculty, and becomes discernible only through its inherent quality, intelligence, which is closer to consciousness than to the mind/thought process. Intelligence is inherent in every aspect of our being, from the physical to the blissful. It is non-manifest only in the atman/purusa, the core of being.
The quality of intelligence is inherent but dormant, so our first step must be to awaken it. The practice of Asana brings intelligence to the surface of the cellular body through stretching and to the physiological body by maintaining the pose. Once awakened, intelligence can reveal its dynamic aspect, its ability to discriminate. Then we strive for equal extensions to achieve a balanced, stable pose, measuring upper arm stretch against lower, right leg against left, inner against outer, etc. This precise, thorough process of measuring and discriminating is the apprenticeship, or culturing, of intelligence; it is pursued in the internal sheaths by pranayama, pratyahara and the further stages of yoga.
We can thus see that discrimination is a weighing process, belonging to the world of duality. When what is wrong is discarded, what is left must be correct.
When discrimination has been cultivated and intelligence is full and bright, ego and mind retreat, and citta becomes sharp and clear. But spiritual intelligence, which is true wisdom, dawns only when discrimination ends. Wisdom does not function in duality. It perceives only oneness. It does not discard the wrong, it sees only the right. (Patañjali calls this exalted intelligence, or vivekaja jñanam
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