In this episode of “5 Minutes,” Dr. Robert Svoboda explores Chitta Vritti Nirodha and the deeper meaning of vritti in the traditional understanding of yoga.

I am going to focus on the word vritti. You may recognize this as Patanjali’s definition of yoga: chitta representing awareness, nirodha representing restraint, and vritti a word that is often translated as fluctuation. But fluctuation is actually a poor translation for something that comes from the word vrit. Vrit means to move, especially to revolve like a circle. As is often the case with Sanskrit words, there is a very physical or real-world meaning that is then extended into more abstract meanings. In the case of vritti, the physical meaning is the rolling down of something, such as tears. So there is a specific implication of activity. It is not simply random or chaotic fluctuation, but activity that is purposeful, motivated, and carried forward by something.

Therefore, vritti should be understood in that sense. It indicates purposeful action, such as entering into business, setting a particular course of action into motion, or engaging in any intentional activity. It is not simply the meaningless fluctuations of the mind that human beings experience from time to time. It also refers to the movement of intention. In this context, nirodha means the restraint of these intentions and activities.

It is important to remember that there are two main types of vritti: pravritti and nivritti. Pravritti is the kind of movement that takes place during the early stages of life, brahmacharya and grihastha. You move outward into the world, develop yourself, expand your activities, and engage with life in various ways. Then, as you move into vanaprastha, the forest-dwelling stage, and finally into sannyasa, you begin to draw everything back inward.

All of the webs that you created during your active life, like a busy spider creating its web, are gradually gathered back into yourself as you prepare to depart from this lifetime. Yoga involves understanding both of these movements. There is the vritti that allows you to expand and develop your life, and there is nivritti, the movement of withdrawing and bringing those activities back into stillness.

Nivritti means taking the projections of your intentions and plans, the way you have moved through life, and gradually bringing them back within yourself until they become quiet. So Chitta Vritti Nirodha does not simply mean making everything flat or stopping all activity immediately.

Ultimately, Patanjali is pointing towards the stilling of all mental activity except awareness of the Supreme Reality. But on the way toward that, the restraint of these different movements means understanding what needs to be developed, what needs to unfold, and when that activity needs to happen. It also means understanding when it is time to stop expanding and begin withdrawing, when it is time to bring all of that activity back in the direction of stillness.