Here’s What I Really Learned About the Yogic Essence of The Chittaprasadana Technique?
“Yogah chitta vritti nirodha.”
This is the second aphorism from the first chapter of the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, compiled by Sage Patanjali, who is known as the “Father of Yoga.” It’s a centuries-old Sanskrit verse that simply means one thing: yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind.
If you look at the statement, you will realize that yoga goes beyond the physical body to touch the unfathomable depths of the human mind. The human body undoubtedly is a crucial aspect of yoga, but modern culture completely obliterates the mind. According to Sage Patanjali’s definition of yoga, it has become clear that the ancient science of yoga was very much concerned about understanding the nature of the mind and its connection with the body.
So, we ought to know that we are full of the mind stuff (chitta), the unceasing thought waves (vrittis) that keep us immersed in a lost world. We are unable to cease them due to various factors, leaving us all mind-full instead of mindful. I have been there and done that.
Yoga, in modern culture, has lost its authentic reputation to become a physical exercise that improves the flexibility of the body, making it more tender and supple. For someone who is a seasoned practitioner of yoga (I wish to be one someday), this present-day reality can pierce the heart. It’s sad but true. It’s a bitter pill that we are forced to swallow.
I wish to confess that there was a time in my life a decade ago when I found myself a part of that culture. I was trying to mimic yoga instructors who took to social media to paint a picture of yoga that somehow contributed to the prevailing misconception. What I had then was not just stupidity but also a closed heart and mind to understand the divinity of the ancient science of yoga.
I found myself utterly frustrated—almost clinically depressed—up until I learned the trick. I was suffering immensely not because of anything else but because of the nature of my own mind. Hopelessness engulfed me. But the day I learned the gameplay of my mind was the day when I took the first step towards yoga.
So, yoga as I see it starts first with the mind—akin to what Buddhist mindfulness and meditation teachings. There are five functions of the mind that shape our reality. These are right knowledge, false knowledge, imagination, sleep, and memory. These are the five modifications that the human mind creates during a person’s lifetime.
What’s the chittaprasanda technique all about?
You may have gotten a fair idea of what chitta is and how yoga is all about getting control over it through the witness consciousness. However, Sage Patanjali laid down a valuable technique that can help in making the mind a better place for the witness consciousness to reside in—the chittaprasadana technique. While we can never really cease the mind in today’s survival-driven world, we can try out best to implement a solution that gives us some strength.
In simple terms, the chittaprasadana technique is all about attaining purity and stability of the mind. While chitta is the mind stuff, prasadana refers to the purification process. Samadhi (the last limb of Patanjali’s eight-fold path to yoga) is certainly the ultimate goal of a yogic, but I have come to realize that that goal is a far-fetched idea if the mind is unstable, unpleasant, and uncontrollable. A mind that is full of jealousy, aversion, and attachments often fails the yogi and makes liberation close to impossible. The chittaprasadana technique, as I view it, is about removing the impurities that hinder the spiritual path. Let’s take you through them here:
· Attachments
· Jealousy
· Violence
· Criticism
· Aversion
· Vindictiveness
A mind that is polluted by these impure thoughts and feelings cannot be on the path of yoga. A pure existence is possible only when these impurities are eradicated. The thirty-third aphorism from Sage Patanjali’s yoga sutras says the following:
Maitree-karuna-muditopekshanan Sukha-duhkha-punyapunyavishayanan Bhavanatash Chitta-prasadanam
This verse emphasizes cultivating qualities such as friendliness, compassion, joy, equanimity, and maintaining a clear and tranquil mind regardless of the pleasant or unpleasant experiences encountered in life. It suggests that by developing these qualities, one can attain mental peace and contentment.
To really be able to fully implement the chittaprasadana technique of Sage Patanjali, you will have to know the four categories of people who you may come across in this lifetime:
1. Happy people
2. Unhappy people
3. Virtuous people
4. Vicious people
The technique of Chittaprasadana is about equipping oneself with an understanding of these four categories of people and adopting a formula to interact with them healthily. Here it goes:
1. Develop friendliness (maitri) towards people who are happy.
2. Develop compassion (karuna) towards people who are unhappy or are suffering.
3. Develop joy (mudita) towards virtues or virtuous people.
4. Develop indifference (upekhsa) towards people who are negative or vicious.
Friendliness (maitri)
Friendliness is a vital quality that a sadhaka or yoga practitioner should develop. Before I got into the philosophical aspects of yoga, I was filled with unhappiness because at some level I was befriending people who were unhappy. Honestly speaking, there was also a degree of jealousy permeating my interactions with people. It’s a natural tendency of unhappy people to be jealous of people who are happier than them. I was no different from such people.
Then, when I learned about the friendliness aspect of the chittaprasadana technique, I realized this negative quality that I needed to overcome. I learned that developing an attitude of happiness towards happy people paved the way for inner happiness. Jealousy and aversion are impurities that were polluting my interactions and contributing greatly towards my inner suffering. This profound realization changed my inner landscape to an enormous extent.
Compassion (karuna)
The second quality that a sadhaka should develop is compassion. In our modern society, people who are suffering are often looked down upon. They turn a blind eye to anyone who is in pain—physically or mentally—and choose to ignore them. It’s true that not everyone can take such people out of their misery. But what I learned is that I can at least be compassionate towards them and possibly extend a helping hand that can reduce their sorrow, even though momentarily.
I realized that being compassionate is not about the sadhaka going out of his way to look for people who are suffering and to remove their sorrows. It’s acceptable but not necessary to do so. Compassion is about knowing that everyone on this planet has some wound that they are trying to heal from, whether their process is evident or not. It’s about opening their senses to the immediate world around them and act with an open heart towards all people. When the sadhaka’s mind recognizes the collective suffering, he takes the first step towards purifying the mind of all aversions and hatred.
Joy (mudita)
A bitter truth is that an impure mind is averse to virtues. Such a person treats a virtuous person as a foreign entity because their mind cannot look beyond the confines of their rigid thought process. Over the years, I have come across many such people who look down upon people who are on the path of righteousness, downplaying the virtues they are trying to humbly embody.
When I found myself inclined towards spirituality, I found sheer joy in doing virtuous work. Although it didn’t come naturally to me initially, I recognized the value of virtues in creating a fulfilling life. Any aversion that was running in the background of my mind slowly melted away and I realized the importance of having a joyful disposition towards everyone around me.
Indifference (upeksha)
Lastly, the chittaprasadana technique equipped me with a sense of detachment. My life’s experiences made me a witness to a lot of injustice, the residue of which is still alive in me to a great extent. But a profound truth struck me along my journey: this world is a beautiful system of both positives and negatives. It’s wrong of anyone, including me, to expect that I will be surrounded by only plus signs. There will also be encounters with negative people, or those who are filled with vice.
A sadhaka should learn the art of creating a boundary, a distance from people who are engaged in sinful acts. He should neither support nor avert such acts. He should assume a detached position from which he is a witness of such people and walk a righteous path. It’s important to understand that it’s not possible to change everything in this world. Only one’s own thoughts and acts are within one’s control. Forging a boundary of detachment towards sin surprisingly equips one with the ability to infuse positivity into their own life and that of others.
Closing lines
As we come to the end of this discussion, I would like to emphasize that the chittaprasadana technique is a continuum. It’s a lifelong journey to purify the mind. You will have to habituate yourself to interacting with the aforementioned four categories of people with a pure mind. By performing these means of purifying the mind, you can be focused on your yogic path and achieve an unwavering state of mental steadiness, which will lead you to samadhi or liberation.