Namaste.
Have you ever noticed how one memory can change the way you experience the present?
You may be having an ordinary conversation and suddenly something in the tone of the voice,
The facial expression or the silence reminds you of something from the past.
The present moment is still here.
But now,
You are no longer responding only to this moment.
You are also responding to another moment.
A memory has entered.
And sometimes memory does not announce itself as memory.
It does not always say,
This is something from the past.
It simply colors the present.
Someone gives feedback and suddenly you feel like a child being criticized.
Someone becomes quiet and suddenly you feel abandoned.
Someone disagrees with you and suddenly your body remembers an old conflict.
You enter a certain place,
You hear a certain song,
You smell a certain fragrance or you see a certain expression.
And something from long ago begins to move again within you.
This is where Yoga Sutra 1.
11 becomes very practical,
Deeply practical.
So far Patanjali has been explaining the five movements of the mind.
In Yoga Sutra 1.
6 he named them,
Pramana,
Correct Knowledge,
Viparyaya,
Misperception,
Vikalpa,
Imagination,
Nidra,
Sleep,
Sniti,
Memory.
In Yoga Sutra 1.
7 he explained correct knowledge.
In 1.
8 he explained misperception,
When the mind believes something that is not true.
In 1.
9,
He explained imagination,
When the mind creates inner worlds through words,
Concepts,
Stories.
In 1.
10,
He explained sleep.
The movement of the mind based on the experience of absence.
And now in Yoga Sutra 1.
11 Patanjali explains Smriti.
Member thee.
The Sutra is Anubhuta.
Visaya Asampra Mosa Svati.
Let's see it slowly.
Anubhuta.
Visaya A Sampra Mosa Smriti A simple translation.
Memory is the retention of experienced objects.
Or more simply,
Memory is when the mind holds on to what has been experienced.
Sounds very simple at first.
But when we look carefully,
We begin to see how much of our life is shaped by memory.
Memory is not only a mental photograph of the past.
Memory is also emotional.
Memory is bodily,
Memory is relational,
Memory is energetic.
Memory is the way the past continues to live in the mind,
The body and the nervous system.
Let us look at the Sutra word by word.
The first word,
Anubhuta.
Anubhuta means experienced,
Perceived,
Lived or undergone.
It refers to something that has already been encountered,
Something that we have seen,
Something that we have heard,
Something that we have felt,
Something that we have lived through.
Something that has left.
An impression.
The next word.
Wish I.
Vishaya means object,
Subject,
Field or some content of experience.
It can refer to anything the mind has encountered.
Person,
A place,
A conversation,
A feeling,
A sound,
An image,
A situation,
A success,
A failure.
A wound.
A moment of love.
A moment of fear.
A moment of shame.
A moment of peace.
So,
Anubhuta Vishaya means an object or content that has already been experienced.
Then comes ASAMPRAMOSA.
This word means not being lost,
Not being stolen away,
Not being allowed to disappear,
Not slipping away.
So in this Sutra,
It points to the tension.
The mind does not completely lose what it has experienced.
Something in the main.
An impression remains,
A trace remains,
A subtle imprint remains.
And that retained impression is called snitch.
Sveti means memory.
So Patanjali is saying memory is the not losing of what has been experienced.
The mind holds on to impressions from the past.
Now memory is not wrong.
This is very important.
Memory is necessary.
Without memory,
We would not be able to learn.
We would not be able to recognize people,
Or speak a language,
Or develop skill,
Or remember love,
Or remember wisdom.
We would not be able to remember what helped us,
What harmed us,
What mattered to us,
What we value,
What we have learned.
Memory gives continuity to life.
It helps us grow.
It helps us avoid repeating certain mistakes.
It allows gratitude,
Devotion,
Learning.
Relationship.
So Patanjali is not saying that memory is bad.
He is simply naming it.
As one of the movements of the mind.
Memory becomes a source of suffering when we do not recognize it as memory.
When the past quietly takes over the present and we believe we are seeing clearly.
Best understood true example.
Someone speaks to us in a firm tone.
The fact may be simple.
A person spoke in a firm tone.
But memory may or they.
Perhaps long ago,
Firm tone meant danger,
Or firm tone meant punishment,
Or humiliation,
Or rejection.
So the present moment is no longer experienced freshly.
The mind says,
I know what this means.
The body reacts,
The chest tightens,
The stomach contracts,
Defensiveness appears,
Fear appears,
Anger appears.
And yet.
What we are reacting to may not only be the present moment.
We may be reacting to Mammothy.
And this is why Smriti is so powerful.
Memory can help us.
But memory can also project the past onto the present.
Memory can become a filter through which we see life.
A person does not reply and memory says this is abandonment.
Someone gives feedback and memory says this is criticism.
A new opportunity appears,
And memory says you failed before.
A relationship begins and Mamidi says,
You will be hurt again.
A mistake happens and memory says this is who you are.
But is that true?
Or is it memory speaking?
This is where yoga invites us to become very gentle and very awake.
We do not attack memory.
We do not shame ourselves for having old reactions.
We simply begin to recognize,
This is Mamadi moving through the mind.
This recognition creates space.
It helps us see.
This happened before.
But is it happening now?
This feeling is familiar.
But does it belong entirely to this moment?
This reaction is the end.
Is it based only on what is present?
This is Yoga in Daily Life.
Memory also shapes identity.
And this is one of the most important ways Smriti affects us.
We remember certain experiences and slowly we form conclusions about who we are.
I was rejected,
So I am unwanted.
I failed,
So I am a failure.
I was ignored,
So I do not matter.
I was criticized,
So I am not good enough.
I was hurt so I cannot trust.
I struggled so I am weak.
These are not just memories anymore.
They become identity stories.
The mind takes what has happened and turns it into who we believe ourselves to be.
But Yoga asks us to look again.
A memory is something that happened.
An identity is something the mind has built around what happened.
They are not the same.
A painful experience may be real.
The conclusion the mind formed.
May not be the truth of who you are.
You may have been rejected.
But that does not mean that you are unlovable.
You may have failed.
But that does not mean you are the failure.
You may have been hurt.
But that does not mean you are broken.
You may have struggled,
But that does not mean you are weak.
Memory may explain a reaction.
But it does not have to define the self.
This is where the Yoga Sutras become deeply healing.
Because Patanjali is helping us see the difference between the seer and the movements of the mind.
Memory is a movement.
It arises,
It colours,
It speaks,
It passes.
But awareness is the space in which memory appears.
You are not the memory.
You are the awareness that can know memory.
This does not mean we dismiss the past.
It does not mean we pretend painful things did not happen.
It does not mean we spiritually bypass grief or trauma or hurt.
Yoga is not denial.
Yoga is clear seeing.
We honour what happened.
We allow what was painful to be acknowledged.
We allow the body to feel what may still need to be felt.
But we also begin to see.
The memory is here.
And I am here too.
The past is appearing in awareness but awareness is larger than the past.
This is a very gentle kind of freedom,
Not forced freedom.
I should be over this by now.
Not,
Why am I still affected.
But a compassionate recognition.
Something in me remembers.
Something in me is trying to protect me.
Something in me still carries an impression.
And now,
With awareness,
I can meet it differently.
This is especially important because memory often works below the surface.
We may not always remember the original event clearly.
But the body remembers.
The nervous system remembers.
The emotional pattern remembers.
A certain kind of silence feels unsafe.
A certain kind of closeness feels overwhelming.
A certain kind of success feels threatening.
A certain kind of rest feels undeserved.
A certain kind of joy feels unfamiliar.
So Smriti is not only about conscious memory,
It is about the impressions that remain.
In the broader yogic tradition.
These impressions are often spoken of as samskaras.
Subtle imprints that are formed by experience.
A repeated experience leaves an imprint.
A strong emotional experience leaves an imprint.
A repeated reaction becomes a groove.
And when similar situations arise,
The mind may move through the old groove again.
This is why we often repeat patterns even when we intellectually know better.
We may say,
I know this person is not rejecting me but I still feel rejected.
I know this feedback is not attacked but my body still tightens.
I know this opportunity is good for me,
But something in me wants to learn.
I know I need rest.
But I feel guilty when I stop.
This does not mean we are feeling.
It means memory is not only intellectual.
It is m-body.
Sodopract.
The practice must also be compassionate and embodied.
We cannot always think ourselves out of memory.
Sometimes we must breathe with it.
Feel the body.
Touch the ground,
Relax the jaw,
Soften the belly,
Name what has happened,
Name what is happening.
And gently return to the present.
One of the simplest practices for this Yoga Sutra,
Yoga Sutra 1.
11 is this.
When a strong reaction appears,
Pause and ask.
What does this remind me of?
Not to get lost in the past,
Not to analyze endlessly,
But to recognize where the memory is present.
Then ask,
Is this happening now?
Is this family happening now?
And this question,
It brings you back to the present.
And then,
What is actually here?
This returns you to direct experience.
And finally,
What would awareness choose now?
And this question opens the possibility of a new response.
Memory repeats the old.
Awareness makes the new possible.
And that is the beauty of practice.
The past may arise.
But it does not have to decide everything.
And old feeling may return,
But it does not have to become an old reaction.
An old story may speak,
But it does not have to become the whole truth.
When memory is unconscious,
We repeat.
When memory is seen clearly.
Be Lonely And when memory is held in awareness,
Healing becomes possible.
Let's take a few everyday examples.
You will receive constructive feedback.
And immediately your body tightens.
The mind says,
I am not good enough.
But you pause.
What does this remind me of?
Perhaps it reminds you of being criticized harshly in the past.
Is this happening now?
Maybe not.
What is actually here?
Someone is offering feedback.
And what would awareness choose now?
Perhaps to listen?
Take what is useful and not turn feedback into identity.
Let's take another one.
Someone you care about takes longer than usual to respond.
That's quite a popular example.
Someone you care about takes longer than usual to respond.
The mind says they are pulling away.
The body feels anxious.
But you pause.
What does this remind me of?
Perhaps an old experience of being ignored.
Is this happening now?
Not necessarily.
What is actually here?
There is no reply as yet.
There is no reply yet.
And what would awareness choose now?
Perhaps to wait.
But the end not suffer inside a story before the truth is known.
Let's take another example.
You begin something new.
A project or a relationship or a spiritual practice or a creative offering.
And suddenly the mind says,
You will not be able to do this.
You go back to the questions.
What does this remind me of?
Perhaps a memory of failing,
A memory of being judged,
A memory of being unsupported.
Is this happening now?
Maybe not.
What is actually here?
A new beginning.
And what would awareness choose now?
Perhaps one small step.
Not because memory has disappeared.
But because awareness is now leading.
And this is how Smriti becomes practice.
We stop being ruled by the past,
Not by rejecting the past,
But by simply seeing it clearly.
Memory also has a beautiful side.
Memory can support the path.
We can remember moments of grace.
We can remember teachings that studied us.
We can remember times when we survived what we thought we could not survive.
We can remember love.
We can remember kindness.
We can remember the breath.
We can remember the practice.
This is why in many traditions,
Remembrance itself becomes sacred.
To remember truth,
To remember God,
To remember awareness,
To remember who we are beneath the movements of the mind.
So memory is not only a prison,
Memory can also be a doorway.
The same mind that remembers fear can also remember wisdom.
That remembers pain can also remember strength.
That remembers separation can also remember love.
This is why we practice.
We practice so that the deeper memory of awareness becomes stronger than the old memory of fear.
Every time we pause,
We strengthen a new groove.
Every time we breathe instead of react,
We strengthen a new memory.
Every time we return to awareness,
The mind remembers the way back.
Over time,
The nervous system begins to learn.
I can feel this and remain present.
I can remember this and not be consumed by it.
I can meet the past without becoming the past.
I can choose now.
This is freedom,
Not forgetting,
But remembering differently,
Not erasing the past,
But no longer allowing it to completely define the present.
If you wish you may reflect on these questions.
Where then my life,
Does the past colour the present?
What situations trigger familiar emotional reactions?
Or memories have become identity stories.
What does this current reaction?
The mind beyond.
Is this happening now?
Always memory speak.
What wisdom from the past can support me today?
What would awareness choose now?
These questions,
They help us relate to memory with compassion,
With clarity.
Yoga Sutra 1.
11 Hello Buddha.
Vishaya Asampramosa Smriti Memory is the retention of what has been experienced.
This sutra reminds us that the mind holds impression.
Some guide us,
Some protect us,
Some limit us,
Some ask to be healed.
The practice is not to erase memory.
The practice is to recognize memory.
Do all know what happened?
To see what is being carried.
To notice when the past is shaping the present.
And to return to the awareness that is larger than the past.
So may this sutra help us remember wisely.
May it help us honor the past without being imprisoned by it.
May it help us meet old patterns with compassion.
May it help us allow Memory to become Wisdom,
Not Voltage.
In the next video.
We will move into Yoga Sutra 1.
12.
Where Patanjali gives us two essential means for stilling the movements of the mind.
The first is Abhyasa,
Which is practice.
And Vairagya which is non-attachment.
Thank you for listening.
Namaste.
