Sambodhi 1980 Vol 09

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 40

Shantilal M. Desai
of some of the basic terms like Vitarka and others and the process of Vịtti itself. A Vștti is the modification of the mind from the moment to moment. On seeing any object for instance, a Vịtti arises. But a Vștti is not simple but a complex operation of the mind. There are at least four layers or levels in each Vștti which like the wave arises and falls down and again merges in other waves. Each wave or Vịtti, then consists of four layers or levels and they are the Vitarka, Vicāra, Ananda and Asmita and finally they can be merged in the Svarüpa by the Sādhaka by Samprajñāta Samadhi. But in the ordinary mind the first four levels of a Vștti submerge again and again.
On seeing an object the first operation in a Vịtti that arises is Vitarka i e. image of the object in the mind. The second layer or level is Vicāra i.e. the images of the relations of the different aspects of the object. The third level is about the concommitant feeling of pleasure (or pain) and the last layer is the cognition of the ego or the modification of the ego in consequence of the impact of these three former layers. Thus every Vịtti has a four-fold impact on the mind at four different levels. Vitarka has an impact on an image and so it affects the imagination of the mental Visualization. Vicāra affects the capacity to relate different aspects of the object and thus it has an impact on the thinking power. Ananda affects one's affective capacity of pleasure and pain and the Asmitā bas an impact on the evolving ego of man. The Svarüpa is always unaffected but in the Samprajñāta the sādhaka can merge the Vịtti in Svarūpa after sublimating and transforming it by process of Samyama. But in ordinary mind only the four layers can be observed by self-introspection alone because they form a complex. All these layers arise as a complex Vștti and merge again in the mind so quickly that untrained mind cannot see them in succession. But they are all there in every Vợtti or the modifica. tion of the mind. Vịttis also arise so quickly and submerge also at once that they can also be observed only by self-introspection alone. Kishorlalbhai Mashruwalı has explained this four-fold process in the last part of his wellknown book Jivanaśodhana very ably and I would say it is his original contribution in the field of yoga. I feel he has rightly interpreted this sutra on Samprajñāta. Sadhaka is for inner bliss alone and that is wby the third layer is named Ananda. But in the ordinary Vrtti this layer may consist of either pleasure or pain. But Patañjali here talks o the process af Samyama and is such a process this layer conists of bliss and bliss alone.
When Samprajñāta stage is attained it is easy to understand Asarnpr. janata because therein the Soul is bereft of all connections of the Karma