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Chain of Six Stages of Mind.

A man gets absorbed in deep bliss and profound peace when he is stabilised in meditation. Another important benefit of yoga is that it brings about a transformation in his day-to-day acts, behaviour, manners, attitude and his whole life. He becomes a changed man. This fact will be clear to us if we understand how one's actions (Kriti), outlook (Dristi) and one's mood or state of mind (Vritti) also depend upon what thought his consciousness (Smriti) is occupied with. The following example will make it clear.

If a person had seen, once in his life, a dog biting a man and today, he himself meets a stray dog in the street, his consciousness becomes occupied with the past memory of a dog having bitten a man. This in Yoga terminology, is known as smriti, briefly, 'consciousness'. Now, this 'consciousness' changes into the sentiments, feelings, mode or state of mind of that man, so that if he was previously normal, he now becomes nervous or fearful. This, in turn, gives rise to the thoughts of caution, fear, aversion or to other such thoughts. This third kind of thought is called vritti, i.e. 'mode of mind'. This means that his mind has become tainted, coloured or toned in a particular way. Now, this in turn brings about a change in the outlook (dristi) of the man. All this takes place in split second so that the time-gap between the one and the other is unnoticed. The blending of all these is such as if they were non-different. This ultimately ends in the man either taking stick to beat the dog with, or to run away from the situation out of fear and take shelter and refuge somewhere. This action does not stop there but leaves an impact, impression or samskãra on the mind of the man. Next time, this samskãra, unless transformed, again becomes a springboard for action, if such situations occur in the future, or else it would remain dormant. Even when unmanifest, the samskãras, or the resolves determine the personality, and, sometimes, these may also manifest themselves in the form of dreams.

This sequence of different aspects of mind or spiral like movement of thought from 'consciousness (smriti) into action (kriti) leads to the conclusion that, to transform action or behaviour the consciousness or smriti has to be changed. In order to change the outlook (Drishti) also, the consciousness has to be changed too. To change the state of mind (sthithi) or to make the state of mind eternally happy also, the consciousness must be changed. Since a yogi changes his consciousness through the art and science of yoga, he is able to bring about a change in his habits and behaviour and become a holy and happy man.


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