Page 46 - Basic Writings of Sriramchandra

Basic Writings of Sri Ramchandra
subtlest thought that as power has become grosser and grosser till it evolved into the cosmic world (brahmanda) and the individuated worlds of beings. Thought thus became the gross world of matter. Of course this descending process of thought has been attended by a series of twists or inversions of the original flow or strands of the flow. Thus we have the descriptions of the higher and the lower constantly being changed or inverted. These inversions lead to many changes, and knots are formed at each one of the stages of the descent of the flow of thought. All these are not mentioned in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali or in the Samkhya. Sage Patanjali states in his definition of Yoga that it is just the nirodha or stopping the modifications of the citta (citta-vrtti-nirodha). The nature of citta is not clearly mentioned, for citta is not a category (tattva) of the Samkhyan enumeration. Therefore, the writers on Yoga think that it is to be equated with manas, the sensorium of Samkhya. But really citta should refer to all thought - processes starting from buddhi, ahamkara, manas, sense-organs culminating in the motor organs also, for all have to be reversed or led to nivrtti. It is then that they really are made to be one with the original thought. Thus the force of thought is to be used to stop the flow of thought downward towards grossness. It is
6