Book 1, Sutra 7: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

What is Pramana or Correct Knowledge or Perception?

The 5 Mind States or Vrittis are:

1.     Pramana - Correct knowledge/perception which includes sense perception, logic and verbal testimony

2.     Incorrect perception

3.     Imagination

4.     Sleep (passivity)

5.     Memory

 Correct knowledge, we are told, includes the following:

1.     Sense perception – we know something is true through the senses (indriyas) of taste, touch, hearing, hearing, sight and smell.

2.     Inference or deduction – an example of inference is that we can infer that there will be a fire if we see smoke, even if we don’t actually perceive the fire with our own senses.

3.     Verbal testimony – this is the relaying of accurate information by a trusted person who has perceived or inferred an object to someone else. These include wisdom teachings and the sages that dictated or handed these down.

Why is it important to know whether we are understanding things through correct knowledge? It is important because we generally see things as we are and not as they are in reality. We look out onto life through the filter of our mental-emotional states and our present life experiences. Eight billion other people are doing the same thing, so it is important to make the mind as clear as possible so it reflects and transmits from a higher plane of consciousness – the plane of the soul, the plane of group consciousness.

Patanjali explains that we do this through Raja Yoga, which is the science of the mind. The mind is fitted as an organ of perception by the following method:

1.     We calm the mind, that is, we calm the activities or vrittis

2.     We use the mind as the sixth sense by using it to synthesise the other senses and allowing it to be an instrument of soul vision.

The result is correct knowledge

3. Now the mind is used correctly and things are seen as they are in reality.

4.     The intuition and reason ascend to the plane of the soul and the things seen are interpreted correctly

5.     This knowledge is transmitted accurately to the brain

Chelas or students of Patanjali and the ancient wisdom teachings are cautioned to reserve judgement until they have achieved this high state. The reason for the caution is because until we reach this state, how we view the world will be a distortion.

The warning comes from an ancient book for students.

‘Let the one who looks out take care that the window through which he gazes transmits the light of the sun. If he uses it in the early dawn of his endeavour let him remember that the orb is not yet risen. The clear cut outlines cannot be perceived, and wraiths and shadows, gloomy spaces and areas full of darkness as yet confuse his vision.’

~ Alice Bailey, Light of the Soul p. 18

References

Patañjali, & Bailey, A. (2013). The light of the soul : its science and effect : a paraphrase of the Yoga sutras of Patañjali. London.

Bryant, E. F. (2015). The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali. North Point Press.

Iyengar, S. (2012). Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. HarperCollins UK.

Paramhansa Yogananda. (2013). Demystifying Patanjali: The Yoga Sutras. Crystal Clarity Publishers.

Satyananda Saraswati, Swami. (2013). Four chapters on freedom : commentary on yoga sutras of Sage Patanjali. Yoga Publications Trust.

Sounds True. Second Initial. Michael Singer 2024-2025 The Michael Singer Podcast [Audio podcast]. Website. https://resources.soundstrue.com/michael-singer-podcast/