How to sift Right
from
wrong knowledge
by
Kamini Bobde
India is witnessing a complex unfolding of events with the impact of demonetization. The air is thick with opinions flying fast and furious for and against it. It is one of those times which makes demands on your understanding of what is happening. How will you sift the right knowledge from false or know that you are not influenced by your own baggage of biases and imaginations.
Perhaps, Patanjali's yoga sutra may provide as a guide on how to train your own mind to make safe landing on the truth behind the unfolding of such complex issues which impacts all.
Patanjali's Yoga sutras are composed of 196 aphorisms. While these lead you to an understanding of the expansion of consciousness leading to Samadhi, these same can be related to aspects of everyday life. All things sublime also carry some useful everyday guide. And so does Patanjali's sutras.
At the outset let me acknowledge that my total understanding and reading of Patanjali's Yoga sutra are based on Swami Satyananda Saraswati's lucid unraveling of the sutras in this book, "Four Chapters on Freedom", (Yoga Publications Trust, Munger, Bihar, India).
Patanjali's second sutra defines what is Yoga in one of the most cryptic definitions of Yoga:
योग चित्तवृत्ती निरोधः
This literally means: To block the mental modification or patterns of consciousness, is Yoga. These
three words open the doors to knowing what it is that is happening to you as you do your yoga. Each of these words mean:
Yoga: needs no explanation..
chitta: is the total consciousness of a person
vritti: literally means circular or that is how our mental thought process works, in concentric circles.
nirodha: is to block, stop.
Thereafter, he goes on to analyse what are mental modifications because only then can one block the continuous, never ending patterns and ceaseless stream of consciousness. And the process to do this hides within itself the training of the mind to sift false from the true.
In the fifth sutra, Patanjali says, mental modification are of five kinds, some are pleasant and some unpleasant. Furthermore, in the sixth sutra, he says, these five-fold mental modifications are generally: right knowledge, wrong knowledge, imagination, sleep and memory.
One has to just observe most of the patterns of our thought process or analyse the contents of our mind, and you will find that they are hanging by one or the other or a mix of the above stated five parameters.
It is a good exercise in life to check your thought process or your decisions against these five parameters. When arriving at any decision or checking if what you are thinking is on right track one can use these simple set of five parameters to check out the basis of your thinking: Is it Right knowledge, wrong knowledge, fancy( imagination), sleep or memory.
But how will you know when it is right knowledge and when it is not. So, in the 7th sutra he defines what is right knowledge. The sutra is:
"प्रत्यक्षानुमानगामा: प्रमाणांनी" means: Direct cognition, inference and testimony are the sources of right knowledge.
Simplistic deduction it may seem. But, try it out in most situations. Half of our thinking is going on ceaselessly based on hearsay, our own imagination, influenced by past memories or our sub-conscious or unconscious which manifests in dreams. Rarely, do we put a brake to the ceaseless thought process, as ask ourselves, what are my thoughts and decisions based on. How can I know that I am moving in the right direction? How can I know that I am not deluding myself, or believeing and acting on half truths, imagination, false knowledge or unchecked facts. Am I influenced by my past memories?
Hence, if we were to find some way out of this trap of typical human thinking, then Patanjali's seventh sutra makes a lot of sense. For sure the best basis for any knowledge and therefore thinking is to have direct cognition. Ankhon dekhi.
But, that is not always possible. But, you have to arrive at some decision or knowledge base. So, the next best option is inference. If there is smoke then there must be fire, is the simplest of such examples.
Then if that is also not possible, then you must turn to someone you can rely. Therefore, testimony. You rely on a knowledgable and trustworthy source.
Sometimes it can be mix of these parameters, For example, the recent demonetization. Since, the subject is complex and you as a mere citizen who cannot have direct cognition of what is unfolding, then a mix of the above three safe-guards will get you close to right knowledge on the subject. Try to stick to testimony and inference.
Let me have the audacity to add here my own little thought. I would add instinct to the above three methods. Instinct is also a reliable tool to fall upon when it is supported by the above three.
Now, let us see how Patanjali classifies and breaks wrong knowledge in the Eighth sutra.
"विप्रयोयो मिथ्यजननामातद्रुपप्रतिष्ठां "
Wrong knowledge or misconception is false knowledge which is not based on its own form. The classic example is of the rope and snake, that is, when you mistake a rope for a snake. Therefore, the object of your perception is not what you think.
The ninth sutra talks of fanciful thinking.
"शब्धज्ञाननुपती वस्तू-शून्य विकल्प:"
This literally translates to having a host of thoughts but corresponding object or subject are non-existent. This malady inflicts a lot of people. It is also the root cause for many problems in the world. Many a time we are imagining things without any basis, good and bad, leading to wrong decisions and actions. It's just fanciful thinking without any support from reality.
The tenth sutra deals with sleep. He defines it as
"अभाव प्रत्यया आलंबना वृत्ती निद्रा"
Patanjali classifies sleep also as a mental modification. Here he is talking of sleep and not dreams. Sleep is a state which is akin to samadhi but there is a difference. In sleep all support of the senses and therefore the external world is concealed. Swami Satyananda in his commentary on this sutra writes, " He (Patanjali) says that in sleep there is no object before the mind--it does not see, hear, touch or feel anything. Every form of knowledge, every content of mind has become silent." It is an unconscious state of mind. The difference between samadhi and sleep being in samadhi there is awareness although there may be absence of vrittis or consciousness.
Lastly, he has clubbed memory has one of the thought process or mental modifications, because it also impacts thinking and actions. Memory is of two kinds, the conscious & subconscious memory. The conscious memory is what you accumulate from birth as experience of the world around you. The subconscious memory is from past lives. We can see it manifest in life when people have some irrational fears or likes and dislikes which no basis on experience in the present life. Like fear of water, maybe, because of drowning experience in some past life, or an instinct like or dislike of some people.
Much sorrow, pain and suffering in life is because of an ignorance or negligence of not turning our perceptions inwards and examining our own mental modifications, stream of consciousness or in the most gross form our monkey-mind.
Therefore, if we can learn through some Yogic techniques how to look at our thoughts, then we will, as Patanjali advices, learn to block unnecessary baseless thinking. This is turn helps stop re-manifestation of further useless thought process and action based on it.
Hari Om Tat Sat!! Wahe Guru!! Alleluya!! Inshallah!!
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