Sūtra 1.5-6

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of sūtra 1.5-6:

वृत्तयः पञ्चतय्यः क्लिष्टाऽक्लिष्टाः ॥ १.५ ॥
प्रमाणविपर्ययविकल्पनिद्रास्मृतयः ॥ १.६ ॥

vṛttayaḥ pañcatayyaḥ kliṣṭā'kliṣṭāḥ || 1.5 ||
pramāṇaviparyayavikalpanidrāsmṛtayaḥ || 1.6 ||

(5) Although the controllable modifications are many, they fall into five varieties of which some are kliṣṭa and the rest are akliṣṭa. (6) Those harmful and harmless modifications are of five kinds, namely pramāṇa, (right knowledge), viparyaya (false knowledge), vikalpa (imagination), nidrā (sleep)and smṛti (recollection).

Ancient and Modern interpretation:

Vyāsa^[1] says, those mental processes which have their base in kleśas such as avidyā and are the sources of all latencies are kliṣṭa those processes that concern final discriminative enlightenment and are opposed to the guṇas are akliṣṭa. Kliṣṭa and akliṣṭavṛttis arise between intervals of each other. Latent impressions are created equally by both mental processes which lead to misery or freedom there from. These latent impressions again give rise to the fluctuations of the mind. In this manner until the concentration is attained by a mind in a suppressed state, the wheel of fluctuations and impressions goes on revolving. When the mind is freed from the seeds of disturbances i.e. from the operations of the guṇas, it abides in its pure being or again becomes reabsorbed in its own matrix.

Osho says,^[2]

The modifications of the mind are five. They can be either a source of misery or of non-misery.They are right knowledge, wrong knowledge, imagination, sleep and memory.

Osho says,^[3] mastery of the mind is Yoga. When Patañjali says ‘cessation of mind’ he means cessation as a master. Mind is not something different from the body. It is the subtlest part of the body. As much as the body influences the mind, the mind also influences the body. Osho gives beautiful examples of a person consuming drugs or alcohol at the body level, gets his mind also affected. On the other hand, a paralytic person is also seen walking when hypnotized. According to Osho, the body and mind are not two different aspects, is one of the deepest discoveries of Patañjali. The modern science has termed it as ‘psycho-soma’. If mind is rightly used, it can lead to non-misery. The word is non-misery and not ānanda or bliss. This is so because bliss is always in our nature and mind cannot lead us into it. However, once we are in non-misery by the right use of the mind, the bliss starts flowing. Osho explains that the characteristic of the misery is the closed mind and that of non-misery is an open mind. Mind has a capacity: if it is directed rightly, then whatsoever is known is true, self-evidently true (pramāṇa). Mind has the capacity of pramāṇa, of right knowledge, of wisdom. Once you know it, how to put on that light, only the right knowledge is revealed. Mind has the capacity of wrong knowledge also (viparyaya). The mind has a center which can pervert anything. Once that center starts functioning, everything is perverted.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Āraṇya, op.cit., p.14

[2]:

Osho, op.cit., p.202

[3]:

Osho, op.cit., p. 206, 211-231