Condensed from Talks by Pujya Guruji Shree Rishi Prabhakarji from RishiVani.
There are four Antahakaranas i.e. inner instruments of knowledge namely:
Manas – Mind,
Buddhi – Intellect,
Chitta – Memory and
Chit – Consciousness.
Most people do not know the difference between these four. Everybody clubs all four together and call it the mind.
Mind is very different from intellect, memory and consci-ousness. Most people misinter-pret Patanjali’s teachings because they make one fundamental mistake and everything else is lost.
Patanjali defines Yoga with this fundamental statement, which sums up the entire Philosophy of Yoga. The sutra says, ‘Yoga, Chitta Vritti Nirodaha’.
Once these words are wrongly interpreted then everything else will turn into a mess. Vritti means modification, Nirodhaha means stoppage or control. Chitta – means memory and this is the crux.
Most people interpret Chitta as mind or consciousness. Either they interpret it as the stoppage of thoughts in the mind or they interpret it as the stoppage of consciousness.
Once you misinterpret Chitta then the whole of Yoga is finished because the very basis is lost. So, now they start building the whole of Yoga philosophy on a wrong foundation.
Now everybody thinks that to attain Yoga one must stop the ‘thinking’ process. How does one stop the thinking process? It’s not possible. The more they try to stop the thinking, the more it happens.
Once you start with one funda-mental mistake then everybody goes on struggling to stop the thoughts. Then they say that they cannot meditate because they have thoughts and they think that is a problem.
There is no problem with thoughts. Once a person under-stands this then most of their problem is solved.
So what is meditation?
Its not acting upon the thoughts, not worrying about thoughts but detaching oneself from the thinking process and by being a witness to the thinking process. Automatically, the power to the thought is removed.
With understanding and experience of Samadhi everything becomes easy and clear. When the base is clear, then everything becomes clear.
So Chitta means memory.
These ancient words written in Sanskrit: ‘Chitta Vritti Nirodhaha’, means to stop operating from past memory i.e. past history. Then you are in Yoga.
Operating from past history is Karma. Operating from pure potential is Yog.
So every time you meditate, you cut yourself off from the past and you become fresh and new. You start operating from absolute freedom. Meditation frees you from the past and establishes you in the new. It is a shift from bondage to freedom.
So thought itself is not a problem. Where is the source of thought is the point.
Either Chitta is the source or is the infinite Brahman, the source?
When past memories become a burden, then you are stuck. If you don’t have memory then it is difficult to operate in the world. You must have memory but you must not be bound by that memory. You must be able to free yourself from that memory.
To be in a state where you are not at all bound by your past memory is Yoga. ~
