Five modulations of the Mind

The Patanjali yoga sutras speak of the five modulations of the mind. The first is Pramana (proof). We want proof for everything. We want proof of love, of truth, of someone’s honesty, of God. We want to prove everything. The second modulation is Viparyaya (incorrect conclusions or wrong understanding). Viparyaya means the mind making up its own universe, which is very different from what actually is in reality. It means seeing the unreal as real, and the real as unreal. It means seeing that which is temporary, transient and perishable as permanent and imperishable.

A simple example could be: you are going into someone’s house and they do not see you entering. There is a gust of wind, or maybe they see a lizard entering the house, so they shut the door, but you think that they have banged the door on your face. The third is Vikalpa (fantasy or imagination). It means the mind thinking or galloping on that which is not there at all. The next one is Nidra meaning sleep, and the last one is Smriti, meaning dwelling upon something in the memory, or thinking all the time about something that happened in the past. We have to become free from these five modulations. If the mind keeps wavering between the past and the future, how can it be peaceful? We need to put effort to bring our mind to the present moment. Only then does the mind become pleasant. It is possible through Pranayama and by being aware that all that has happened so far is like a dream.