Day 5
The third vritti is Vikalpa.
Vikalpa is a sort of hallucination. There may be some thought. But, it is not true. However, something hovers in the mind. This is called Vikalpa. People become paranoid.
All such unfolded and baseless fears do not mean anything. Such thoughts and ideas are called Vikalpas - fantasies. The mind either gets stuck in proof or in wrong knowledge, misconception or fantasies. Fantasies are vikalpas.
You may be already 40, 50 or 60 years old, and you fantasize what it would be like if you were 16 again. Then, you go on and think that you would go somewhere and get a big haul of gold and that, then, you would become rich.
Then, you would have your own helicopter to fly in. It is not just the children who fantasize. Adults also get into their own fantasies. This fantasy is called Vikalpa,the third modulation of Chitta. Vikalpa, could be of two types.
One could be of a joyful and pleasurable fantasy, and the other could be baseless fears. Even fear is a Vikalpa. You may be apprehensive about what will happen if you die the next day. You may meet with an accident. You may become disabled. These are all just sounds that have no value.
Baseless fears in the mind or fantasies are called Vikalpa. The fourth one is Nindra or sleep. If the mind is not in anyone of the three vikalpas, then it is asleep. The fifth activity of the mind is smriti - remembering the experiences it has had. When you are awake, are you in any of these four states of modulations?
Then, that is not meditation. That is not Yoga. Are you looking for some proof? Are you debating with yourself? Are you hanging on to the wrong knowledge or concepts about how things are? You don't know how things are because the whole world is fluid.
There is nothing solid here. No thoughts are solid. Nobody is solid. Nobody's mind is solid. No thoughts are solid. The whole world is fluid or even airy. Go one step further, and you can say it is all airy-fairy. Anything can change at anytime and in any manner.
The whole world is full of probabilities and possibilities. But your mind gets fixed on things, people, ideas, places, etc. It categorizes them into definite items, quantities, etc.
This is how it is - set ideas, using the proof of the wrong information or the Vikalpa, fantasizing and dwelling in the past experiences. The four modulations of mind plus the sleep, the fifth modulation, are the five different vrittis of the mind.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji
PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS