Editing Mind in Indian Tradition (section)

==== SUFFERING AND SALVATION ====
The Sankhya-Yoga philosophy of suffering is also an Upanishadic import, albeit in a modified form. Instead of simply tracing the root of suffering to the inherent predisposition of mind towards attachment, the latter two Gunas are held responsible for it.  As was indirectly implied earlier, the third Guna, Tamas is obstructive to the illumination of Purusha and therefore clouds the pure consciousness. The Rajasi and Tamasic attitudes lead one towards ego-dominance, attachment and consequent suffering. The ego-sense or empirical self begins to identify itself with the real consciousness. Suffering therefore, is built into the very fabric of evolution of Prakriti. The only way to escape it is a reversal of this process, an involution or enfoldment instead of evolutionary unfolding. In the words of Ramachandra Rao, “a backward process of attention, closing in, and turning back of the consciousness into an undifferentiated mass (samādhi). The world then becomes a mere ‘is’, the individual a bare ‘am’” (1999, p. 38).   

Cognition, in Yogic understanding, takes place in two directions, outward and inward. The cognitive faculty, called Citta in yoga, comprises of instinctual tendencies derived from actions of previous births and this life (vāsanās and saṁskāras) which taint one’s cognition and predispose them to act in certain ways. The external cognition is a sequenced process where manas first receives information from the senses and determines its character by discrimination and integration. Ahamkara then appropriates the material provided by the manas and gives a frame of reference to perception. Buddhi then reacts to the information in appropriate manner. Manas, Ahamkara and Buddhi are conceived as functional aspects of a single entity- Citta, rather than three separate entities. The inward cognition implies the cognition of consciousness. Consciousness-as-such, the ground of all cognition, however, cannot be directly apprehended as it has no ‘content’. It can solely be intuited. The following observation of Rao and Paranjpe is significant: 

It (Consciousness-as-such) manifests in two basic forms: (1) transcendental and (2) empirical. In its transcendental aspect consciousness is apprehended in immediate intuition where there is no distinction between subject and object. In its empirical form it manifests in the cognitions where there is a differentiation between the cognizing subject (grahitr), the object of cognition (grahya) and the process of cognition (grahana).

In day-to-day cognition, the influence of Consciousness can only be rationally inferred. The intuitive experience of it however, occurs only when the mind-stuff has been cleared of modifications and subject has reached the stage of Samadhi or Kaivalya. The significance of Yoga, particularly the synthesis provided by Patanjali in his concise Yoga-sutras, lies in its sequenced demonstration of eight-fold path towards Samadhi and ultimately self-realization.  

The Citta-vrittis, the fleeting states of mind or the modifications produced in mind are of critical importance in Indian psychology and form the basis of Patanjali’s sutras. At the very outset, in second sutra, it is asserted that Yoga is controlling of vrittis. The five vrittis described in Yoga are – pramanas or true cognition, viparyaya or false cognition, vikalpa which is merely an idea with no corresponding material reality, nidra or sleep and finally smriti or memory which involves storage and retrieval. Patanjali also describes five sources of hindrance (klesa) that corrupt the mind and stand in the way of controlling mental fluctuations. They are avidya, asmita, raga, dvesa, and abhinivesha (Yoga-Sutras, II.3). Avidya has been defined as the incapacity to distinguish ‘between good and bad, truth and falsehood, the permanent and the impermanent, and the pure and the impure.’ It furnishes as the ground (khsetram) for all other hindrances (II.4). Asmita is personal identity, the I-ness generated by the wrongful identification of purusha with buddhi. Raga is passion for pleasure. Dvesa is opposite of raga and represents aversion towards objects. Abhinivesa is indicated by the will-to-live and the instinctive fear of death. All these hindrances are responsible for suffering. 

Correspondent to these five hindrances are the five attentive stages of mind, of which the initial three- fluctuating level, inactivity (in drowsiness or sleep) and occasional concentration- are commonly experienced. The latter two however, i.e., Ekagrata (one-pointed concentration) and Niruddha - access to consciousness-as-such through complete restraining of all mental-functions, are achieved through Yogic practises of dharana (concentration) and dhyana (meditation). Another profound aspect of Yoga psychology is the inclusion of unconscious impressions like Samskaras on mind. They play a critical role in one’s spiritual progress. These Samskaras are the depositions of Karma (good or bad actions) and thus give Indian psychology its distinctive psycho-ethical characteristic. Samskaras resulting from bad actions produce greater obstructions in the path to self-realization by magnifying Rajasi and Tamasic elements, and hence, perpetuate suffering. The idea of salvation and psychological stability therefore, becomes intricately connected with the ethical concerns at macroscopic level.