The way in which one reacts to the external conditions of life, normally speaking, is
the nature of one’s person—and it is this that has to be subdued. This is the essence
of yogaḥ cittavṛtti nirodhaḥ (I.2). It is not one vritti that we are subduing; it is the
entire tendency of the mind to manifest as vrittis. It may manifest itself as many
vrittis, many types of vrittis, but whatever be the types or the ways in which it
manifests itself, it has a general character. The general character is the indication of
the difficulties that are likely to be faced by us in the future. The past will give an
indication of the kind of future that we have to face. Though details may vary, the
general features may be the same. We have lived for so many years in this world and
we can understand what sort of experiences we had. Similar types of experience are
likely to be repeated.
This general feature of the mind, the total character of the vrittis, should be taken
into consideration at one stroke at the time of the practice of meditation in yoga. This
cannot easily be done by a casual look at the mind or a desultory analysis of the ways
in which our mind manifests itself. Many a time we forget various aspects of the
mind and take into consideration only certain aspects. Also, it is unlikely that we may
agree that the vrittis of the mind are all defects of the mind. Many of us will be under
the impression that they are certain justifiable moods that the mind manifests for
certain benefits. But it is not so. Every vritti is a defect. It cannot be regarded as a
benefit in any manner whatsoever because a vritti—whatever be the nature of that
vritti—is an urge within to drive us away from ourselves to a condition which is
external.
What is yoga except the prevention of this tendency of the mind and an attempt of a
counteracting nature, enabling it to rest in its own self? The vrittis of the mind, to
which reference has been made in the sutra, yogaḥ cittavṛtti nirodhaḥ (I.2), are
summed up in the single word ‘citta’. What is to be suppressed or eliminated is not
any one vritti, but the citta-stuff. Citta is not merely the conscious mind or the
mentation process, but the stuff of the mind. “The modification of the mind-stuff” are
the words used. The stuff of the mind is the substance out of which the entire internal
organ is constituted—what we call thinking, feeling, willing, memory or
remembrance, etc. Various functions are there, including even ego.
These functions all put together are the citta, the stuff of the mind. This stuff it is that
reveals itself as various functions, though it is true that the stuff itself cannot be
discovered and we can know its nature only from the functions that it performs.
Nevertheless, we can know something about this stuff by the nature of this function.
As I mentioned, we should take an average of the types of functions which the citta
has been performing for the last several years, and we can know what stuff it is made
of and what is it that is in store, inside it. When the task on hand is taken up, as it
was mentioned, we have to strike the iron while it is hot, as they say. The total mind
has to rise up to the occasion in a comprehensiveness that would be necessary to deal
with the problem, just as when there is a national war, the whole nation girds up its
loins. It is not only a few people that start thinking about it; the forces constituting
the entire nation get stirred up into a single energy of action for the purpose that is
on hand. Likewise, the energy of the total system is to be harnessed for the purpose
of encountering this total situation that is called the citta.
When we get into trouble, we will find that we get trouble from every side; it will not
be only from one side. When people start disliking us, everyone will start disliking us,