Book 1 Sutra 5
The translation:
Vrttayah – movements
Pancatayyah – fivefold
Klista – afflicting
Aklistah – pleasing
The sutra:
“The movements of consciousness are fivefold. They may be cognizable, non-cognizable, painful or non-painful.”
The explanation:
When our consciousness takes the lead our true nature takes the back seat. Consciousness see’s objects and makes meaning creating fluctuations. This can lead to painful situations, beliefs or confusion that may be good or negative for the individual experiencing them. The 5 movements will be explained in the next sutra.
What the Bible say’s:
The Bible says nothing about how the mind or consciousness works, this is more of a psychological and scientific benefit of yoga training.
However, God does teach us to pay attention to our sufferings, pain as examples of spiritual sacrifice and/or spiritual war-fair. Both the story of Job’s faith and trial, as well as the death of Jesus himself, are testimonies to the fact that pain is a part of life.
When Christ was tempted in the desert Luke – He did not shift his focus or lost faith in the Father. When Job was being tortured by satan or lead astray by his friends he did not lose faith. Job 38:36 asks “Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?” God did. The understanding of how our minds function will give us working knowledge to recognize our own distractions and therefore sustain a fuller relationship with God, our own will, and faith.
2 Timothy 1:7 “ For God did not give us a spirit of timidly but a spirit of power, of love and self-discipline.” It is up to us to discipline ourselves to master the tool of our mind and silence it’s fluctuating stories.
My conclusion:
The mind does fluctuate and for what it the individual is the only person who can manage these fluctuations. However, unlike this sutra, the Bible give examples and stories of times when God intercedes and it is not the seer that is at cause but God himself or satan. It is important that we understand that to the best of our ability we need to train our minds on holy things and be aware of this science and psychology of thought, However, there is what I call the God factor and if the seer like Job is doing all things right, trust that God is working greater things within our own fluctuations and suffering and persevere towards God. In this case, this sutra is only half truth of what God showed me in the Bible about these fluctuations and our relationship to them.
