pramāṇa-viparyaya-vikalpa-nidrā-smṛtayaḥ
“They are right perception, wrong perception, imagination, sleep, and memory.”
Patañjali lists the five types of vṛtti. Pramāna, right perception, comes from the root verb mā, “to measure.” Pra-, a prefix that can mean “in front of” or “forth,” carries with it a sense of auspiciousness. This is observation or knowledge that is accurate. Viparyaya, wrong perception, has a literal meaning, in contrast, of going around the object of perception, missing it, as it were (vi-, “away,” + pari-, “around,” + i, “to go”). Patañjali’s characterization of vṛtti as harmful or not-harmful carries through from the previous sūtra with an implication that there is a benefit to seeing accurately, and an essentially afflicting aspect to coming to wrong conclusions. Vikalpa is imagination or conceptualization, neither right nor wrong, not necessarily harmful, often beneficial (as in the case of great art), certainly a vital part of how we process our experience. Nidrā, sleep, is considered by Patañjali to be in its own way an activity of citta, as is smṛti, memory. These two also may be considered to have harmful and not-harmful aspects.
“For a clear understanding of the reactive urges of the mind it is essential that one comprehends the activity of the total mind…. These five regions of mental activity cover the whole range of the mind’s operations, the conscious as well as the sub-conscious.”–commentary by Rohit Mehta, Yoga, The Art of Integration, p. 14
Questions:
• In your daily life, observe and consider the categories of mind activity that Patañjali describes. Would you say that these categories overlap?
• What is an example, for you, of right perception and an action coming from right perception?
• What is an incident in which you acted under an illusion or wrong assumption?
• Do you tend toward abstract thought? How does imagination benefit you? Do you spent a lot of time fantasizing?
• Do you sleep soundly? What is the state of your mind before sleep? after sleep?
• Does memory support your yoga practice? Can memory be an obstacle in practice?
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pramāṇa- |
neuter noun in compound |
right perception, true knowledge (from pra-, a prefix that means “forth” and carries with it a sense of auspiciousness, + mā-, “to measure”) |
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viparyaya- |
masculine noun in compound |
wrong perception, error, misapprehension (vi-, “away,” + pari-, “around,” + i, “to go”) |
| vikalpa- |
masculine noun in compound |
imagination, conceptualization (from vi-, “apart,” + kḷp, “to make,” “to bring about”) |
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nidrā-
|
feminine noun in compound |
sleep (from ni, “under”+ drā, “to sleep”) |
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smṛtayaḥ
|
feminine noun, 1st case plural |
memory (from smṛ, “to remember”) |