The Sixth Sense

Welcome to Sutra a Day

Today we dive right in. I’ve got 15 minutes to think about this sutra. 

There are five?

6. Prmana viparyaya vikalpa nidra smrtaya. “They are right knowledge, misconception, verbal delusion, sleep and memory.

You remember yesterday? We talked more about the concept of these mental modifications being either painful or painless / selfish or selfless and about how such neat dichotomies don’t generally work, but still underscore the importance of motivation. There you go, the reminder at the beginning of the TV series. Except I had no option for you to push a button and “skip intro.”

Anyhow, we sort of glossed over that fact that Patanjali said there were five of these modifications.  If I had more time, I might probe this idea that there are 5. We also have five senses: smell, sight, taste, sound, touch. On some level it reminds me a little of this. And some might claim that there is a sixth sense. I wonder, too, where that sixth sense might fit in with the modifications. Is intuition a mental modification or is that when we are actually in alignment with the divine within, the one that is connected to everything. 

The next five sutras will go into each of these, so I’ll stop here for today. But stay tuned for “right knowledge” because I certainly tripped on that one the first time around.