The objective is controlling the Citta (the mind), completely. So there is a discussion about how this mind functions. We have all these various aspects. The mind sometimes thinks correctly – Pramana. Sometimes it is thinking in a wrong way – Viparyaya. Sometimes it imagines – Vikalpa. Sometimes it is in sleep – Nidra. Sometimes it is in memory – Smriti. This is the usual way in which the mind works.

The important thing is, thousands of years back the Yogis could divide the mind and its functioning which today we are not able to do. Today we just have perception, emotion. We are not able to go into these finer areas. The Yogis had to go into this because they wanted to control the mind. Sometimes we may call it perception but it might be faulty. We take it that whenever I perceive, it’s the truth, reality. Just as when I go to a court and say whatever I will speak will be true. Our perceptions are not always very correct.

The same is about the other things. Sleep is a dull state – Tamasic. We can’t depend on the perception or experience of sleep. The traditionalists have divided the functioning of the Citta into five categories and these are not necessarily the best. This is the point that comes in because in yoga you want to control these things because these things are not the best. If perception could be 100% correct, there is no fear. But sometimes it is correct, sometimes it is not. Yoga is concerned with gaining correct knowledge. So ultimately it comes to the conclusion that none of these are correct and they also have to be controlled.

When yoga talks of controlling the mind, it means controlling these things also, though we may call it as perception, right knowledge – it is not. Today we may consider it as correct; tomorrow it might be proved wrong. So yoga has gone into this kind of details, at a very minute level. But the purpose is that this mind is undependable and we should not rely on it. We have to finally experience the Yogic kind of a mind that is considered as totally correct. It is intuitive; something that comes right from the heart and that is always true. This capacity has to be developed, because we don’t have that capacity. When we are in good mood we see something different, when in a bad mood we see something totally different. So these are very fine observations and they are necessary in yoga.

In yoga we want to go beyond this. The ultimate purpose of yoga is complete stoppage of Citta. The Citta, i.e. our mind as it is functioning, is not very dependable. So let us go beyond it. Something like intuition, something like trance, meditation – that is dependable. The Yogis wanted to get at the fact and not depend upon mere hearsay or arguments. That, they know is not correct. Only when the mind is stopped that intuitively, the right understanding comes. But we cannot stop the mind so the understanding is always poor. Only in some very unusual conditions the mind does stop and then we come to a conclusion and that conclusion is right. But that is unusual. When we get mixed up then we get lost. When we are observing a thing, already our mind as affected. If we are in a good mood, the perception will be correct. So we are not sure. These moods keep changing and that is what is affecting our life. We want to come to a stage where we are absolutely sure, not just fluctuating. That inner conviction is yoga. The usual thinking is all uncertain, doubtful.