Yoga’s five-fold classification of vÓrttisis an elegant account of the innu-
merable possible instances of human cognition. Right knowledge and
wrong knowledge are derived from perception, inference, and/or
‘authority’ (i.e., a reliable source). In imagination and conceptualization,
images, words, ideas, and/or symbols are generated and/or combined in
forms or sequences that might not have corresponding forms in the exter-
nal world. Memory is the mental re-experiencing of previous experi-
ences, physical and/or mental. In dreaming, images, meanings, and expe-
riences of the ‘subtle body’ or ‘dream body’ occur independently of
sensory input, and dream-cognition is non-rational. Dreamless sleepis
marked by absence of images, meanings, and experiences. Dreamless
sleep resembles the one-pointed mind for which Yoga strives, but sleep
originates in tamasand is therefore contrary to the higher knowledge-
states of sam ̄adhi[TV 1.10]. Complex vÓrttismay fall in two or more of
the five groups, but Yoga holds that any kind of ordinary mental activity
can be accounted for according to the five-fold classification. Yoga seeks
to suppress states of ordinary knowledge and to cultivate higher knowl-
edge. Consciousnessthat is the person’s true nature does not denote the
fluctuating states of mind wherein we experience the vÓrttisof right and
wrong cognition, imagination, conceptualization, dreaming, deep sleep,
and memory. The mental fluctuations that characterize these states are to
be stilled by abhyasa ̄ , persistent effort for establishment in citta-vÓrtti-
nirodha, suppression of ordinary mental activity.
Along with abhy ̄asa, the yogin practicesvairagya, dispassion or non-
attachment [YS 1.12–16]. The exercise of abh ̄aysaand vairagya ̄ lead to
development of higher knowledge, permitting realization of the self as
pure consciousness. Knowledge in Yoga has two levels:
- Ordinary knowledge
- Higher knowledge on which liberation depends:
Írut ̄anumana-prajñ ̄ ̄ajbhy ̄am anya-viÓsaya vi ́ ̄ seÓs ̄arthatvat ̄.
Higher knowledge (prajñ ̄a) is different from knowledge based on
inference or reliable authority, because it has particulars as its object.
YS 1.49‘Particulars’ as a designation for objects of higher knowledge connotes
the true nature of the things known. Higher knowledge comprehends the
infinitesimal constituents that compose the inner nature of objects, and,
ultimately, puruÓsacan comprehend its own nature as puruÓsa. By contrast,
the ordinary means of knowledge (perception, inference, and authority)
98 religious therapeutics