“In order to change the world, You have to get your head together first.” Jimi Hendrix
Yogas Citta Vrtti Nirodhah “The restraint of the mind-stuff is yoga” Yoga Sutras I-2
When I was young I often heard, “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” The implication was that before you worry about (or interfere with) other people’s business, you need to get your own affairs in order. I also had some pretty direct coaches, teachers and advisors over the years that would say it a little more bluntly: “Koozy, it’s about time you got your $&it together.”
Little did I realize that these coaches, teachers and advisors were yogis – counseling me to learn to tether my mind to its higher discriminative aspects (buddhi) and restrain my senses from selfish attachments? I’m obviously kidding – they said this because it was more socially acceptable than slapping me upside my head, which would have been their preferred method of delivering the message. But their message was sound, even if it wasn’t grounded in traditional Vedic teachings.
All the Mind-Stuff
The Sanskrit term “chitta” describes the sum of the mind, and it is often applied as “the entire field of the mind.” In real life it is a veritable mine field – littered with emotional and sensory bombs (land mines) waiting to explode at our every next step. The sum total of the mind (our chitta) includes: (i) manas – the desiring part of the mind (as manipulated by our five senses), which is full of past impressions/ memories (samskaras) and current desires (vasanas); (ii) buddhi – our higher intellect and discriminative faculty; and (iii) ahamkara – the ever formidable ego/ “I” which obscures and modifies all to serve its own purpose.
“As the mind, so the man; bondage or liberation is in your own mind.”
In customary American street parlance, chitta is all of our mind-S*#t (stuff). And vritti chitta is the mind full of exploding vasanas and samskaras like a 4th of July celebration. With all of these landmines of the mind and senses ready to explode (vrittis) at the next sensory impulse, getting my proverbial (house/ affairs/ chitta/ s*%t) in order is no easy task.
Purple Haze – All in My Brain
I love Jimi Hendrix’s quote at the top because it highlights his parallel inward path. Although Jimi was a guitar virtuoso who enjoyed the ‘60s in a substance-supported daze (purple haze?), his quote shows he too was looking inward and trying to calm his vritti chitta (modified mind-stuff) as part of his path forward. And while I’m not trying to change the world – only the way that I shine my light into it – it’s fun to recognize this commonality of experience in my life with Jimi’s.
A Problem with Timing
While the advice to “get your (affairs/ house/ chitta/ sh$t) in order” is sound, there’s a little problem with the timing buried within that advice. The admonishment to “get your s%*t together” implies that it is the necessary first step on the proper path forward. Similarly, Jimi Hendrix’s statement that “before you can change the world, you must get your head together first” also infers that clarity of thought and focus of the mind is the prerequisite first step.
The Actual Goal
“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.” Lao Tzu
I would contend that getting our chitta in order is the ultimate goal – not the requisite first step. And this is supported by none other than the great sage, Patanjali: “yoga is the restraint of the modifications of the mind.” See Yoga Sutras I-2. The stilling of the waters of the mind is the goal and objective that will allow us to achieve our Sacred Union (yoga) with the ONE.
This is the true journey of the sadhaka – learning how to tether the wild stallion of the mind, and to restrain the tornado of the senses. When there are no longer vasanas (desires) and samskaras (mental impressions) that torment the lake of the mind (both the surface and below), then the chitta is in order and the seeker has found his way home.
I am not a siddha because I have not mastered these skills, and I must continue to walk this path of practice (abhyasa) – meditation, contemplation, mantra japa, breath awareness and control, study of scripture, and prayer seeking darshan, diksha, and removal of obscurations to Divine Grace.
“The true yogi has yoked the mind, and restrained the senses; This sadhaka is just trying to get his chitta in order.” Koozy