---
type: Concept
bundle: yoga-darshana
bundle_version: "0.2.0"
id: vritti
title: "Vṛtti"
iast: "Vṛtti"
devanagari: "वृत्ति"
description: "A single modification or wave of citta (five kinds) — not a thought, not a fluctuation only."
darshana:
  - Pātañjala Yoga
  - Sāṃkhya
text_source: "YS 1.5-1.11"
tags:
  - Yoga
  - Patanjali
  - vritti
  - citta
  - modification
  - pramana
  - viparyaya
not:
  - term: "thought"
    why: "vṛtti includes perception, dream, memory, imagination, and error — not only propositional thoughts; \"thought\" covers at most two of the five categories"
    instead: "Keep Vṛtti untranslated; do not substitute the English term."
  - term: "fluctuation"
    why: "fluctuation correctly conveys the dynamic, wave-like nature of vṛtti but loses the sense that each vṛtti is a specific modification with a determinate content, not just random oscillation"
  - term: "mental state"
    why: "a mental state implies something static; vṛtti is inherently active — a turning, a modification in process"
  - term: "impression"
    why: "impressions (saṃskāras) are the residues that vṛttis leave; vṛtti is the active wave; saṃskāra is what the wave carves into the lake bed"
related:
  - /concepts/chitta-vritti.md
  - /concepts/nirodha.md
  - /concepts/samskara.md
  - /concepts/vasana.md
  - /concepts/samprajnata-samadhi.md
  - /concepts/avidya-yoga.md
timestamp: "2026-06-20"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Vṛtti — वृत्ति

**Not:** thought, fluctuation, mental state, impression

A modification, turning, or fluctuation of citta. Every moment of ordinary experience — every perception, thought, memory, dream, inference, or error — is a vṛtti: a wave-form arising in the cognitive medium. Patañjali classifies all vṛttis into five types (YS 1.5-1.11) and distinguishes two evaluative categories — *kliṣṭa* (afflicted) and *akliṣṭa* (non-afflicted).

## Etymology

- Root: √*vṛt* — to turn, to exist, to proceed, to occur
- *vṛtti* — that which turns; a modification; a mode of activity; also: livelihood, means of subsistence (same word, different context)

The metaphor of turning is key: a vṛtti is citta caught in a particular activity or shape — not chaos but a specific patterned movement. The lake-wave analog makes this concrete: each wave is not random but has a determinate form, speed, and direction.

## Kliṣṭa and Akliṣṭa Vṛttis (YS 1.5)

*vṛttayaḥ pañcatayyaḥ kliṣṭākliṣṭāḥ*  
"Vṛttis are fivefold, afflicted and non-afflicted."

- **Kliṣṭa** (from *kleśa*) — a vṛtti that creates or sustains the kleśas and thereby perpetuates bondage; it deepens saṃskāras that reinforce rāga/dveṣa
- **Akliṣṭa** — a vṛtti that does not create or sustain kleśas; the same five types can be either kliṣṭa or akliṣṭa depending on whether they are colored by avidyā and rāga-dveṣa

The same vṛtti-type can be afflicted or non-afflicted: a memory (*smṛti*) colored by longing (rāga) is kliṣṭa; a memory serving viveka is akliṣṭa. The distinction is not in the vṛtti's structure but in its relationship to the kleśas.

## The Five Vṛtti Types (YS 1.6-1.11)

### 1. Pramāṇa — प्रमाण (Correct Knowledge, YS 1.7)

*pratyakṣānumānāgamāḥ pramāṇāni*  
"Pramāṇas are direct perception, inference, and valid testimony."

- **Pratyakṣa** — direct sensory perception; present-moment experience of an object
- **Anumāna** — inference; reasoning from marks to their referents (smoke → fire)
- **Āgama** — reliable testimony; knowledge from a valid source (*āpta-vacana*)

Pramāṇa-vṛttis are modifications that accurately mirror reality. They are the raw material of the yoga path itself — understanding the Yoga Sūtras requires correct cognitive engagement. But even correct knowledge is still a vṛtti: it still occupies citta and must ultimately be dissolved in nirodha.

### 2. Viparyaya — विपर्यय (Error, YS 1.8)

*viparyayo mithyājñānam atadrūpapratiṣṭham*  
"Error is false knowledge not established in the form of that thing."

- A modification that presents an object in a form it does not have
- The canonical example: perceiving a rope as a snake (*rajju-sarpa-bhrama*)
- Avidyā — the root kleśa — is a viparyaya at the most fundamental level: taking Puruṣa for citta, taking the witnessed for the witness

Viparyaya is correctable through investigation (for ordinary errors) and through the sustained yoga practice that ultimately corrects avidyā.

### 3. Vikalpa — विकल्प (Imagination / Verbal Construction, YS 1.9)

*śabdajñānānupātī vastuśūnyo vikalpaḥ*  
"Imagination is a modification that follows verbal knowledge and is empty of an actual thing."

- Knowledge produced by words that have no corresponding object
- The classic example: *sky-flower* (*kha-puṣpa*) — the phrase generates a modification with no real referent
- All conceptual frameworks, categories, and even the word "Puruṣa" have a vikalpa dimension — they indicate something real, but the conceptual modification itself is not that thing
- Theological and philosophical debates often operate substantially within vikalpa
- Vikalpa is akliṣṭa when it serves discriminative inquiry; kliṣṭa when it generates false realities that fuel rāga-dveṣa

### 4. Nidrā — निद्रा (Sleep, YS 1.10)

*abhāvapratyayālambanā vṛttir nidrā*  
"Sleep is the vṛtti supported by the cognition of absence."

- Sleep is a vṛtti — Patañjali classifies it here specifically to make clear it is not equivalent to nirodha
- Its support (*ālambana*) is the cognition of absence (absence of waking objects)
- Evidence: upon waking we say "I slept deeply" — this memory arises from a saṃskāra, which requires a vṛtti during sleep; if sleep were simply absence, no saṃskāra would form
- Sleep can be kliṣṭa (tamasic, habit-bound, lethargic) or akliṣṭa (restorative, sattvic); the tradition is nuanced about both
- Nidrā must not be confused with samādhi: in samādhi, the citta is stilled through viveka; in nidrā, the citta is covered by Tamas

### 5. Smṛti — स्मृति (Memory, YS 1.11)

*anubhūtaviṣayāsaṃpramoṣaḥ smṛtiḥ*  
"Memory is the non-forgetting of an experienced object."

- The re-activation of a previously formed saṃskāra
- Memory does not re-experience the original object but re-activates its stored impression
- Smṛti is the primary mechanism through which past rāga/dveṣa shape present response
- All habits, preferences, cultural assumptions, and learned responses operate through smṛti-vṛttis
- The saṃskāra-smṛti-vāsanā chain: a saṃskāra is stored; smṛti activates it; the activation generates a vāsanā (subtle tendency) that drives future behavior

## Cross-References

- [Citta-Vṛtti](chitta-vritti.md) — vṛttis are modifications *of* citta; this file gives the context; vritti.md gives the taxonomy
- [Nirodha](nirodha.md) — the cessation of all five vṛtti-types; the definition of yoga
- [Saṃskāra](samskara.md) — the impressions that vṛttis leave; and the stored material from which future vṛttis arise
- [Vāsanā](vasana.md) — the behavioral tendency arising from accumulated saṃskāras; the link between past vṛttis and future vṛtti-generation
- [Samprajñāta Samādhi](samprajnata-samadhi.md) — absorptions that are themselves refined pramāṇa-vṛttis of progressively subtler objects

## Audience Metaphor

The five vṛtti-types are like five different kinds of marks a stylus can make on a wax tablet (citta). Correct knowledge (pramāṇa) leaves a mark that corresponds to what was actually there. Error (viparyaya) leaves a mark that inverts or distorts what was there. Imagination (vikalpa) leaves a mark with no corresponding object at all. Sleep (nidrā) leaves an impression of absence — surprisingly deep. Memory (smṛti) re-traces an earlier mark. The yoga project is to make fewer and finer marks until the tablet is still.

## Citations

1. [Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali](/references/yoga-sutras.md) 1.5-1.11
2. [Yoga Bhāṣya of Vyāsa](/references/yoga-bhasya.md) on YS 1.5-1.11
3. Āgama Pramāṇa discussion in [Vyāsabhāṣya](/references/yoga-bhasya.md) on YS 1.7
