The Intellectual Body (Vijnana)
his chapter deals with the fourth layer of our being, the Intellec
tual Body (vijnanamaya kosa), whose porous outer frontier lies next to and mingles with the Mental Body. While the mind leads to thoughts, the intellect leads to intelligence and ultimately wisdom.
Yoga identifies these different parts of our consciousness, along with their accompanying fluctuations (vrttis) in such a way that we can use them both to give our journey direction and to result in our transfor
nlation. In this way, we discover the ability to refuse ice cream or to ac
<:cpt it, but in quantities that will not be harmful. We increasingly d l
·v c l op ju d i c i o us discrimination that, harnessed to self-control, enables
us to set sail in un<:ha rted watl'rs.
On the inner frontier of this fourth sheath lies the discovery of the individual soul (jivatman), that spark of divinity that resides in all of us in our Divine Body. In between these two borders of deepening self
knowledge and the culture of our higher intelligence, pure insight rests.
Here comes the culmination of the exploration of the whole of our being as an individual.
This can only be accomplished by eliminating the impurities of in
telligence and increasing subjugation of the cunning super ego that re
mains always the insecure ego, or 1-Shape. The yogic tools that will facilitate this leg of our journey are the sixth and seventh petals of yoga, concentration (dharana) and meditation (dhyana). All the other petals we have studied so far, from asana to pratyahara, will also al
ways be present, supporting the high achievements that to a great ex
tent depend on them. For example, if you want to meditate, you have to sit in an asana. If you want to meditate, you have to be able to de
tach the mind and senses from the outer world and direct their ener
gies inward-pratyahara. If you neglect the base, you are like someone sitting in a great tree, sawing off the branch he is sitting on.
The contents of this chapter are undoubtedly subtler, but not com
plicated. In fact, it is often more difficult to describe asana and pranayama in words than such concepts as insight, ego, and duality.
The problem is rather that conscious awareness of these matters tends to lie outside our day to day experience, so they may appear abstract.
They are not. They are very real. Nevertheless, an effort of imaginative intelligence is necessary to track them down and confront them.
Let me offer an analogy. Air is the element that corresponds to the sheath of intelligence, and touch is the subtle counterpart to air in our system of evolutionary theory. Imaginatively, let us explore why and how this makes sense. We bathe in air, all day and all night. Air is al
ways against our skin. With every breath, air permeates the interior of our bodies, j ust as water does to a fish. Air always touches us,
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wardly as well as outwardly. Touch is not only delicate, but intimate also. Do we not say about a moving experience, a book, a symphony, a film, or a meeting with someone special, "It touched me" ? Air and touch go deep. And just as air surrounds and penetrates every aspect of our being and our life, so does and must intelligence. Let us see how it does so.
Examining Intelligence
We have our own individual intelligence (buddhi). This is the self
reflexive awareness, capable of making meaningful and freedom
enhancing choices that we met in the past chapter. It is not to be con
fused with vidya or knowledge that is acquired from external sources and remains undecided, whereas the intelligence based on our own subjective experience is an internal one and always decisive.
In this chapter, we must begin to understand that our individual intelligence, though an essential rudder to guide us, is merely a puny offshoot of cosmic intelligence (mahat), which is the organizing sys
tem of the universe. This intelligence is everywhere, and, like air, we constantly bathe in it and imbibe it. Of course we put barriers up against it, because we are so proud of our own individual and neces
sary intelligence. Thus we deprive ourselves of the full benefit of this infinite, universal, nourishing resource, j ust as we deprive ourselves of pranic energy from poor breathing. We saw how breath and con
sciousness go hand in hand. Similarly, individual intelligence and cosmic intelligence go hand in hand. Intelligence is the operating sys
tem of cosmic awareness.
When we eat a head of lettuce, every leaf expresses the beauty and complexity of the cosmic intelligence that formed it, and so we are par
taking of cosmic intelligence by ingesting it directly. The same for each perfect grain of rice, each generous fruit. At the biological level, we are
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preying on them, but at the level of intelligence and consciousness, we are collaborating with them in a sacred rite, for the intelligence that or
ganized their form and function also organized ours.
So this chapter is about moving beyond separation. It is about ex
tension of intelligence and expansion of consciousness so that the bar
rier around "my" intelligence and "my" consciousness begins to dissolve. This brings the beginning of the end of loneliness. It is a fu
sion-or rather a transfusion-for we are transfused with the riches of natural cosmic resources. Where our common intelligence can be called "instinctive," we call this higher intelligence "insight or intu
ition." It penetrates barriers. The prison of particularity will soon no longer be a ble to hold us captive. The growth of universality will crumble its walls. As we shall see, it is meditation that crowns this process, when duality gives way to oneness. No more subject and ob
ject, this and that, me and it. It is at this point that the totality of one's being is experienced, from every cell onward, all incorporated in unique oneness, which is why it brings the vision of the individual soul. All that makes me up is now known, and I live in the awareness of the sum of its parts.
THE YOGI SAYS, according to Patanjali, in only his third sutra,
"What reality would we see if the mind of man could still its restless waves for just an instant?" Would we be unconscious or would we be super-conscious? The answer to that is unknowable except by personal experience, which is why you can prepare for meditation, but ulti
mately you cannot teach it. You can do everything up to it, but it hap
pens when it happens. You can force a piano up three flights of stairs, but you cannot force the febrile human mind to be still. All you can do is train it to be vigilant toward all that disturbs its equilibrium. That is why yoga spends so much time and effort identifying the negative, the unwanted, and the subversive, because they disturb the tranquil
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librium of the mind. We must now explore the nature of consciousness from the viewpoint of intelligence.
The Lens of Consciousness
The meaning of Hatha Yoga is Sun (Ha) and Moon ( Tha), Yoga in which Sun is the Soul and Moon is Consciousness. Consciousness can be compared to a lens. Its inner surface faces the soul itself, and its outer surface comes into contact with the world. Inevitably a degree of grime attaches itself to that outer surface and obscures our vision. In fact it prevents us from seeing clearly what is outside, and it equally prevents the light of our soul from shining out. If our house is gloomy because the windows are dirty, we don't say there is a problem with the sun; we clean the windows. Therefore yoga cleans the lens of con
sciousness in order to admit the sun (soul). So purity is not an end in itself. Similarly when a woman in India washes and says prayers before preparing food, she is purifying herself, not for the sake of purity, but to ensure that her intentions are clearly transmitted, not perverted or obscured. The loving intention behind cooking is to sustain, nourish, and uphold others. This intention can be transmitted best through a pure or clean consciousness. Clean body, clean mind, clean hands, and clean pots and pans equal a happy, healthy, loving family.
What mind is and does dies with us. But consciousness is that as
pect of mind, the envelope of continual awareness, which endures, even as we believe from life to life, carrying the imprint of the past and the potential, for good or ill, of the future. Memory for past-imagination for future. Squashed between the two, we lose the ability to use direct perception on what really is-i.e. now, the present.
This brings us to the need to examine the nature of consciousness from a different perspective, not that of the polluting interference of the afflictions (klesa) that we will look at in the next chapter, hut from that of five natural states or modifications of wnsciousness that Wl' a l l
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experience but tend to take for granted. Yoga says there is much to be learned from them as they too are patterns of thought waves that in
fluence the mind and its ability to perceive truly. If the reader is puz
zled by this insistence on examining the myriad waves of thought that ruffle the lake of consciousness, let me just remind you again of Patan
jali's second sutra, "Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of con
sciousness. " Why? Because yoga is meditation, and this chapter is about concentration and meditation. A ruffled mind cannot meditate, which is why we must identify and pacify all disturbing patterns. The consciousness must become passively alert-not placid like a cow con
tentedly chewing the cud, but alert and receptive like a wild deer in the forest, except that whereas the deer's senses are turned outward, the yogi's, with equal acuity, are directed inward. This is intelligence en
throned in awareness, about to enter the mystery of the unknown. Yet our consciousness is not always alert, and so we must explore the mod
ifications of our mind that prevent us from having this acuity.
Transforming the Mind
Consciousness ( citta) has three functions. The first is cognition, which is perceiving, knowing, and recognizing. The second is volition, or will, which is the impulse to initiate action. The third is motion, which expresses the fire nature of mind, ever transforming itself and leaping up in different places and guises. These all serve for us to gain knowl
edge and appreciate the truth concerning humankind's position in the universe.
Let us look at the fiery nature of mind. Fire flickers and dances, so does mind. In fact, consciousness modifies itself so rapidly that before we can recognize one fluctuation and examine it, it gets muddled with another. These muddled changes are a natural process. They show the vivacity of consciousness. All our activities depend upon these mental fluctuations.
I have said that mind dances. It would also be true to say that mind leads us on a merry dance. If you want to get the best out of a fiery horse, you have to understand, tame, and control it. The same is true for a fiery mind, or it will run away with you. Because mind is always drawn outward by the senses into the attractions of the material world, it cannot help but land us into a lot of tricky situations, ones we had not bargained for, or that look good at first but turn sour on us.
The way Patanjali expressed this is to say that the fluctuations of consciousness can be either painful or nonpainful, either visible or in
visible. He meant that some things look unpleasing, distressing, an
guishing, and they are. Studying for an exam can be very hard. The benefits of passing the exam remain hidden, invisible until later. Con
versely, the joys of the table are extremely pleasant, and the pains and problems that result from overindulgence may remain invisible for a long time. If eventually an illness or debility results, then that is a vis
ible pain. But if we use all our resources, courage, will, and faith to overcome the sickness, a nonpainful state emerges again. This is a way of warning us that there are always two sides to every coin and that we should be guarded and thoughtful before we rush into things. There is always a price to pay or a reward to be earned. But the phrase "If it feels good, do it" is not a maxim to be trusted in the long run. All philosophies recognize that a pleasure-seeker will end up as a pain
finder. The ancient Greeks said that moderation was the greatest virtue.
Yoga says that it is through practice and detachment that we learn to avoid ricocheting from one extreme of pleasure and pain to the other.
This double aspect of the fluctuating mind applies to what are called the Five Modifications of Consciousness (in Sanskrit called citta vrittis). These are correct knowledge (pramana), wrong knowledge or misconception ( viparyaya), imagination or fantasy ( vikalpa), sleep (nidra), and memory (smrti). These are natural psychological statl's that occur in everyone. They are dependent on the hrain and nl'rvous system and disappear at death. One might he forgivt·n for wondt•ring
what the point is of studying them. Sleep is sleep, imagination is imag
ination, and as regards the first two, well, sometimes I'm right, and sometimes I'm wrong. Yet from the yogic standpoint, there is a huge value in understanding them. Their misuse when they are defective can lead to endless trouble. They affect both the quality of our life and the actions we perform in it. The consequences of our actions endure. The implications are karmic. "As you sow, so shall you reap. " This is a uni
versal understanding. Yoga does not limit consequences to this life only. How does someone who is wrong about everything, lives in fan
tasies, sleeps badly, and misuses memory conduct himself? Hitler truly believed that the Jewish people were subhuman and acted accordingly.
This was wrong knowledge or misperception, total delusion. The con
sequence in his lifetime was his death and his country's destruction along with much of the world. If the chain of causality does survive the grave, would anyone like to exchange places with Hitler now?
It is definitely worth looking at these five forms of consciousness in both their beneficial and deficient aspects. Their study can help us to follow a certain way of life and adopt a right way of thinking. They show us a direction and enable us to channel the thinking process. Our aim is not to arrest or restrain them but gradually to transform them.
They are not separate but intertwined like threads in a cloth. One af
fects the others. The dullness of poor quality or tamasic sleep degrades the clarity of the four other modifications. Sharp analysis for right knowledge becomes impossible. When you are tired, it is not easy to remember things. We also depend on memory to recall all other states.
It links and underpins them.
In the past chapter, we looked at the two aspects of memory, one damaging, the other liberating. We saw that the "painful" form of memory brings bondage in psychological time, condemning us to re
live the past in endless, meaningless permutations. We are like a cart in the monsoon, its wheels bogged down in mud. The "painless" form is discrimination ( viveka), essential for our growth.
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Discrimination is the knife edge of intellect, separating true from false, reality from unreality, using memory in such a way that past con
sequences are factored into our choices and decisions. If we can see consequences, we are not caught in the trap of apparent pain versus apparent pleasure. Discrimination is about making meaningful com
parisons such as, "How does my practice compare with that of yes
terday? " or "How does the stretch on my left leg compare with that on my right?" You may well find the right leg is asleep. Initially, this is a process of trial and error. Later we can learn to avoid error. In head
stand pose, for example, something that usually goes wrong is that the upper arm shortens. Memory warns us to be careful before that hap
pens. In this way, we break down bad habits. This is a useful discrim
ination that awakens awareness.
Awareness, working with discrimination and memory, encour
ages a creative mind, not a mechanical one. The mechanical mind questions only external phenomena, treating the world like a giant machine and resulting in objective knowledge. By objective knowl
edge I mean knowledge of the world around us. This can be useful or dangerous, depending on how you use it. Comparing your neighbor's new car to your old one may lead to jealousy and covetousness, or it might lead you to appreciate that his is safer or causes less pollution.
But what I call the creative brain calls into question both the outer and inner, leading us to subjective and spiritual knowledge. By sub
jective knowledge I mean knowledge of oneself from the skin inward.
To take the example of your neighbor's car, if you have understood that pollution is undesirable, you will not want to pollute the atmos
phere (outer) or pollute yourself (inner). So a creative reaction might be to change your car.
When awareness is linked to intelligence, we are able to see with absolute honesty. When brain and body move in harmony, there is in
tegrity. Memory supports this process because when memory functions
perfectly, it bccoml·s one with intel ligence. By transferring its allegi<li1Ce
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from the pleasure- seeking mind to the discerning intelligence, memory no longer digs pits of old habit for us to fall into but becomes our true guru by guiding us toward perfect knowledge and behavior.
By purifying memory, we purify our whole mind. For an average person, memory is a past state of mind. For the yogi, it is a present state of mind. We should not forget that memory records everything.
Memory is useless if it brings about a repetition of the past that im
pedes the process of our evolution. But memory is useful if it helps to prepare you for the future and even necessary if you use it to develop.
Memory is a continuous profit and loss account through which we can see whether we are receding or proceeding. By sorting out wanted from unwanted memory, we allow new experiences to sur
face. The whole of the useful past is now at our present disposition.
Memory ceases to function as a separate entity and merges with con
sciousness. Patanjali said that when memory is cleansed completely, the mind drops like the ripe fruit and consciousness shines in its purest form. By this I mean that when memory serves as a spur to perfect present action without taint, then it is acting in its intended form. A cleansed memory is one that does not contain undigested emotions from the unconscious but that deals with feelings in the pre
sent as they arise.
Imagination too can work either to our benefit or to our detriment.
It is undoubtedly the greatest gift to human beings. But the Sanskrit word vikalpa also means fantasy or delusion. Without steady applica
tion, even the most inspiring flights of imagination must remain impo
tent, devoid of reality. If a scientist has an idea, he may have to labor for years, experimenting, analyzing, and checking in order to bring it to fruition, to make it concrete. A writer may dream of the plot for a new novel, but unless he applies himself to pen and paper, his ideas have no value. A callow youth once said to a great poet, "I have a mar
velous idea for a new poem." The poet replied cuttingly, "Poems are
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