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From the five vṛttis (modifications of the mind), there are two categories: kliṣṭa (afflicted, troublesome) and akliṣṭa (non-afflicted, good). These vṛttis can possess either of these qualities. The first is called pratyakṣa-pramāṇa-vṛtti. Pratyakṣa pramāṇa means that you know something because you have directly witnessed it through your buddhi (intellect), through your mana (mind), and through your indriyas (senses). It is that which you can prove, that you practically know and have seen. Pramāṇa means proof or evidence. If, through such vṛttis, you gain some happiness or knowledge that supports your vairāgya (dispassion), then it is an akliṣṭa vṛtti, a good vṛtti. If it brings troubles, sorrows, and obstacles on your spiritual path, then it is a kliṣṭa vṛtti. We should try to purify such thinking and remove such thoughts from our mind, while supporting the good vṛttis. The second vṛtti is called anumāna-pramāṇa-vṛtti. Anumāna means inference or gazing. You do not know something exactly, but you think it is or could be like that. Such thoughts can also be good or bad. This kind of vṛtti should be checked very carefully. If it supports your spiritual path, it is good. If it does not support you and creates obstacles, it is not good. For example, if you see smoke in the far distance, you infer there is a fire, even though you do not see the flame directly, because smoke comes from fire. The third is called Āgama-pramāṇa-vṛtti. Āgama refers to ancient literature and scriptures like the Vedas and Upaniṣads. This is knowledge you gain from a source—someone tells you stories or facts that do not yet exist in your antaḥkaraṇa (inner instrument) or memory, and which your inference cannot reach; you cannot imagine them. For example, we do not know what exists on a particular star. We have no pratyakṣa pramāṇa (direct perception) and no anumāna pramāṇa (inference) for it. If someone tells us about such things, then we create the vṛtti. These vṛttis can also be positive or negative. Often, we hear something we do not know and then try to derive knowledge from it. The second type of vṛtti (in the classical fivefold list) is called viparyaya-vṛtti. This vṛtti indicates that what we think we know is not correct. Through some vṛttis, what you perceive is not what you think it is. When we do not know the real form of things, we can get into trouble. For instance, we see a rope and think it is a snake. We are mistaken and feel fear from that rope because of our error. But when we shine the light of knowledge, we see it is only a piece of rope or wood. We are often mistaken. Thoughts created from such mistakes can be pleasurable or unpleasurable. If the vṛtti creates happiness, it is good; if it creates unhappiness, it is not good. We should try to know the reality. Sometimes you see something sparkling and think it is silver or gold, but it is just plastic. We are often mistaken. The third (in this list) is called vikalpa: śabdajñānānupātī vastuśūnyo vikalpaḥ. Vikalpa is imagination or conceptualization, as opposed to saṅkalpa (resolve). These are vṛttis we get through sound, pertaining to something that does not exist in form; it arises merely from hearing something. For example, you hear someone say, "An elephant is flying in the sky. I was lying in Yoga Nidrā, I opened my eyes, went out, and saw many elephants flying." With such a vṛtti, you cannot begin. But if such vṛttis can support your vairāgya, they are good. If a vṛtti does not support your vairāgya and creates obstacles, then it is bad. The fourth vṛtti is called nidrā: abhāva pratyālambanā vṛttiḥ nidrā. This is the vṛtti of sleep, where there is an absence of other cognitions. In deep sleep, you do not receive information through the senses. We might think our mind is very calm and has no vṛttis, but Patañjali says sleep is also a vṛtti; the mind is still active there. For example, when you wake up and someone asks, "Did you dream?" you might say, "No, I didn’t dream; I slept so well." If you didn’t dream, how do you know you slept well? You can only say so if you know, which means even in deep sleep, the mind is active and observing. If sleep is like a Yoga Nidrā that gives deep relaxation and helps remove laziness and tiredness, then this vṛtti is very good. If the vṛtti of sleep disturbs us, creates more laziness, causes us to not practice, not get up on time, and miss our schedule, then these vṛttis become obstacles to spiritual development. Thus, all five vṛttis have positive and negative influences. They are: pramāṇa (correct knowledge), viparyaya (misconception), vikalpa (imagination), nidrā (sleep), and the fifth one, smṛti (memory): anubhūta viṣaya asaṁpramoṣaḥ smṛtiḥ. Whatever you have experienced, thought, seen, smelled, heard, tasted, or touched—all this goes into our subconsciousness. It is all recorded there. When those experiences arise again to the conscious mind, we call it smṛti. As I told you this morning, how many chapters do you have in your life? You have many, many chapters. What these chapters speak of constitutes your memories. Sometimes remembering something makes you very happy; sometimes it makes you very unhappy. Therefore, smṛti-vṛtti also has two aspects: good and bad. The good vṛtti that supports our spirituality and our path is good. Bad vṛttis that disrupt our spiritual path and disrupt others are not good. Therefore, it is said: purify your antaḥkaraṇa—mana (mind), buddhi (intellect), citta (consciousness), and ahaṃkāra (ego). That is very, very important. We know many things are hidden in our subconsciousness. We have many, many vṛttis. Do not act immediately. Wait. Analyze your thoughts, and think again, over and over. One vṛtti creates another vṛtti, and that one creates another. Think more: what is the reason for this thought? Why do you think like this? Why have you been thinking like that? Why should you think like that? If you put your thinking into action, you must think it over even more. What will it give you? Will it give some kind of satisfaction to your ego? Will it help you? Will it help others? Or will it disturb others? Because with one vṛtti, when you begin to think, you are already acting. And when you are acting mentally, very soon you will act verbally. And when you act verbally or physically, it will influence the whole society and create more karma for you. The main point in this is that, by reducing or purifying the vṛttis, we protect ourselves from certain karmas. There is one seed of a very bad, thorny bush that can destroy other plants. If you do not put that one seed in the earth, it will not create many seeds and spread throughout the whole forest, making the plants impossible to remove. Similarly, from one thought, one feeling, one experience, if you do not think wisely, you can destroy many, many things. Before, there was only one thought, one karma; now that karma has multiplied into millions, and it is very hard to get rid of. I heard a story once, told by Siddhānanda, about 35 to 40 years ago. There is an island in Yugoslavia with many snakes. A tourist who went to India brought back a pair of mongooses, animals that kill and eat snakes. They were very active in destroying the snakes but also very active in reproducing. The result is that on that island, there are no more snakes left. However, the mongooses multiplied so much that now they have more problems with mongooses than they ever had with snakes. The mongooses attack chickens, farmers' poultry, birds' eggs, fruits, vegetables, and corn. Now they do not know how to fight the mongooses. So, in trying to get rid of one thing, you get more. In human consciousness, there are so many experiences and impressions. When they emerge again, we must use viveka (discernment). We say: if you cannot do good, then at least you should not do bad. If you cannot speak well, at least you should not speak badly. If you cannot write well, then at least do not write badly. So if you cannot get rid of that one seed, at least you should not plant it. The smṛti vṛtti can be very dangerous for oneself and for others. We should think very carefully about our smṛti, our memory. Try to awaken those memories that make you and others happy. When you are checking your life's chapters, check very carefully. When unpleasant thoughts or memories appear, purify them with your wisdom and knowledge. Some people often ask questions about bad experiences they had in childhood and say they still cannot get rid of them. It happened. Yes, it happened. But it was. Now it is gone. You are grown. You are independent now. Such a thing will never happen to you again. So why do you carry this burden as thoughts? Think wisely: thanks to God, it’s gone; thanks to God, I survived; and thanks to God that it will not happen to me again. And pray: "Lord, may these things not happen to me again. Remove my fear and my sufferings." You should think like this. Wisely, by talking about it you may not get rid of it, or you can speak to someone who can help you solve it. But anyone who advises you will say: "Forget it. It was, and it will not happen anymore. Don’t be scared." We have many kinds of memories. Imagine a small child, six, seven, or eight years old. One day, going to school, a dog came and bit him very badly, leaving a deep wound on his thigh. The dog ran away. The child had pain and bleeding, came home, was taken to the doctor, given medicine and treatment. Everything is gone. Now the person is 20 to 40 years old, and the dog is not living anymore. But whenever he sees any dog, that memory emerges, and he is scared of dogs. Some things we cannot completely get rid of. We can only say, "The dog coming is a friendly dog," but still be careful and change our path, trying to avoid the situation so the dog will not bite us again. Our experiences tell us such things happened, and that memory, smṛti, comes out. Some smṛtis are good, and some are not. We should support the good vṛttis and remove the others. These are the five vṛttis which I have now explained to you.