Yoga according to Patanjali

These fluctuations are like waves rising and falling in the sea, similarly our mind keeps on stirring up different types of thoughts and emotions in the form of pleasure or sorrow. A yoga practitioner must recognize and control them through yoga.

What is chitta?

In Patanjali’s definition of yoga “Yoga chitta vritti nirodhah”, Vritti implies to the thoughts, feelings and emotions arising in the mind and chitta means individual consciousness which comprises of conscious, subconscious, and unconscious.

Chitta is a Sanskrit word which means „consciousness‟. It refers to the mind and represents one‟s mindset or state of mind.