Tag Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Memory Is…… Yoga Sutra 1.11

After touching on what thoughts are and how we get them, Patanjali now is defining the important function of the Mind, 'Memory'

We come (our senses) come into contact with sense objects.

We become aware of them

Neurology explains the process thus.

We have neurons in our Nerves.

The neurons have two essential parts,

Axon and Dendrites.

These when the come into contact, through the appropriate sense, transmit the sensation, in the form of an electrical/magnetic impulses to the Brain.

( there is a debate whether these are transmitted as an electrical impulse or they are Magnetic;Indian Philosophy and Buddhism say it is an Magnetic Impulse)

These messages do not travel through a pipeline as it were.

There is a small gap between one neuron and another.

The gap is called the 'Synaptic Gap'

The impulses jump in the form of waves(electrical/magnetic)i to another neuron till the impulses reach the Brain or the Spinal Cord.

Depending on our Nature, the emergency and nature of the message , the Brain or the Spinal cord takes decision and reacts.

If we are sleeping, a mosquito votes us, the message is acted upon by the Spinal Cord..

If we see some things, then action is taken by the Brain.

Before this action takes place, the brain, after receiving the impulses (Stimulus), searches its memory bank to identify whether there is already some information there already and banks the stimulus there.

Then the Action center of the Brain takes charge.

It decides the action to be taken, based on the threat to the organism(individual) and selects a course already banked in the Data base, Memory.

In case the stimuli appears for the first time, action is taken on the basis of the threat level to the organism and the unconscious imprints of the actions already taken by the Brain earlier.

Then the message flashes out to the appropriate muscles through the Nervous System.

Then we react.

Patanjali goes to the roots here and talks about the 'Unforgotten experience' .

He does not say ' remembered', but says 'unforgotten'

We remember what we want to and forget what we want to.

Patanjali here says 'unforgotten' because the 'forgotten' ,(what we think consciously as" forgotten' this is a paradoxical concept), Memory includes those which we consciously think we have forgotten!

Many of us are aware a,that, at many an instance, memories of what we thought have forgotten rush to us suddenly.

Memory, a

Knowledge Systems Patanjali Yoga Sutra 1.8

After explaining what the instruments or tools of Knowledge are, Patanjali sets on defining Correct and incorrect Knowledge.

Knowledge is simply Awareness, that there is something.

This is the beginning of Perception.

For perception, please read my Post 'Perception'

For awareness, three things are needed.

The one who perceives(Subject)

That which is Perceived(Object) and

A Relationship between these two(Subject and the Object)

A Table (Object) may be there and you ( Subject) are present..

If you see the Table in front of your eyes, the system you follow is Realism.

You are ina room and the Table in another room.

But you know that the table exists m because you know it used to be there.

This is Objective Idealism.

There might be stable in your friend's House in some other place or take the instance of Mars.

In this case, you do not have the idea as such personally.

But it exists as an Idea in some one else's Mind.

When we take things to Be, of which we have no IDEA,it is called Subjective Idealism or Solipsism..

'Forget every thing, I am able to write on this, it has four legs and a Top'

This is Pragmatism.

Every information is through Language, that is from Words.