---
type: Concept
bundle: yoga-darshana
bundle_version: "0.2.0"
id: nirodha
title: "Nirodha"
iast: "Nirodha"
devanagari: "निरोध"
description: "The cessation of citta's modifications that reveals Puruṣa — not suppression, not control, not emptiness."
darshana:
  - Pātañjala Yoga
  - Sāṃkhya
text_source: "YS 1.2, 1.51, 3.9"
tags:
  - Yoga
  - Patanjali
  - nirodha
  - cessation
  - samadhi
  - citta
  - kaivalya
not:
  - term: "suppression"
    why: "suppression implies forcing a vṛtti down while it continues trying to arise; nirodha is the absence of vṛtti-generation, not the application of force against it; suppression creates new saṃskāras of resistance, nirodha dissolves the conditions for vṛttis altogether"
    instead: "Keep Nirodha untranslated; do not substitute the English term."
  - term: "control"
    why: "control implies a controller exerting dominance over something unruly; nirodha has no controller (there is no separate self controlling the mind); it is the natural resting state of citta when its agitating conditions are removed"
  - term: "stopping thoughts"
    why: "this pop-psychology framing conflates individual thoughts with the five-category vṛtti taxonomy; nirodha is the cessation of all citta-modifications, not just propositional thoughts"
  - term: "emptiness"
    why: "Buddhist śūnyatā is a different philosophical framework; nirodha in Yoga Darśana is the cessation of Prakṛtic modification, after which Puruṣa's presence is revealed — not an empty state but a revealed presence"
  - term: "silence"
    why: "silence is a helpful experiential metaphor but not the definition; external silence can coexist with a highly agitated citta; nirodha is a modification of the citta's fundamental activity, not an auditory state"
related:
  - /concepts/chitta-vritti.md
  - /concepts/vritti.md
  - /concepts/samskara.md
  - /concepts/asamprajnata-samadhi.md
  - /concepts/samprajnata-samadhi.md
  - /concepts/kaivalya.md
  - /concepts/purusha.md
  - /concepts/pratyahara.md
  - /concepts/dharana.md
timestamp: "2026-06-20"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Nirodha — निरोध

**Not:** suppression, control, stopping thoughts, emptiness, silence

The cessation of citta-vṛtti — the defining aim of yoga as stated in YS 1.2. Nirodha is not the suppression, interruption, or management of modifications but their complete cessation: a state in which no new vṛttis arise. In this state, the seer (Puruṣa) abides in its own nature. Nirodha unfolds in degrees — from partial restraint in early practice to the total cessation of asamprajñāta samādhi.

## The Definitional Context (YS 1.2-1.4)

The first four sūtras establish the entire framework:

*yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ* (1.2)  
"Yoga is the cessation of citta's modifications."

*tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe'vasthānam* (1.3)  
"Then the seer abides in its own nature."

*vṛttisārūpyam itaratra* (1.4)  
"Otherwise (without nirodha) there is identification with the modifications."

YS 1.4 states the problem that nirodha solves: in ordinary experience, Puruṣa is so thoroughly identified with citta's modifications that it appears to take their form. When a rāga-vṛtti arises, "I want" appears — the pure witness seems to want. This is asmitā in operation. Nirodha removes the modifications and thereby dissolves the appearing identification.

## Etymology

- *ni* — down, into, completely
- *rodha* — from √*rudh* (to obstruct, to enclose, to stop, to dam)
- *nirodha* — complete enclosure; damming; cessation; blocking the arising of vṛttis

The damming metaphor is important: a dam does not destroy the river; it prevents the water from flowing into the territory beyond. Nirodha prevents vṛttis from arising (or from completing their arising), not from existing in potential in the saṃskāra-base.

## The Two Means (YS 1.12-1.16)

*abhyāsavairāgyābhyāṃ tan-nirodhaḥ* (YS 1.12)  
"The cessation of these (vṛttis) is through practice and dispassion."

**Abhyāsa** — sustained practice:
- *tatra sthitau yatno'bhyāsaḥ* (YS 1.13) — "Abhyāsa is the effort to remain steadily there (in nirodha)"
- *sa tu dīrghakālanairantaryasatkārasevito dṛḍhabhūmiḥ* (YS 1.14) — "Practice becomes firmly grounded when it is attended to for a long time, without interruption, with earnestness"

**Vairāgya** — dispassion:
- *dṛṣṭānuśravikaviṣayavitṛṣṇasya vaśīkārasaṃjñā vairāgyam* (YS 1.15) — "Vairāgya is the mastery-state of one who is free from thirsting after seen and scriptural objects"
- The highest vairāgya (YS 1.16): dispassion toward the Guṇa-s themselves — even Sattvic states are let go

These two form the path's double movement: abhyāsa creates the nirodha-saṃskāras that strengthen restraint; vairāgya removes the rāga-dveṣa motivation that generates new vṛttis. Together they progressively shift the balance from vṛtti-generation toward nirodha.

## Levels of Nirodha

Nirodha is not binary (present/absent) but develops through stages:

1. **Vyutthāna state** (normal arising) — ordinary experience; vṛttis arising freely
2. **Nirodha-pariṇāma** (YS 3.9) — partial restraint; the nirodha-saṃskāra grows, competing with the vṛtti-saṃskāra; the practitioner experiences moments of stillness within movement
3. **Samprajñāta Samādhi** — refined vṛttis (savitarka, savicāra, sānanda, sāsmitā); still-vṛtti states but object-supported
4. **Asamprajñāta Samādhi** — no object remains; even the last vṛtti (the viveka-khyāti of discrimination) has subsided; only the nirodha-saṃskāra persists
5. **Dharmamegha Samādhi** — the nirodha-saṃskāra itself is dissolved; kaivalya follows

## The Nirodha Saṃskāra (YS 3.9)

Paradoxically, the practice of nirodha creates a saṃskāra — the *nirodha-saṃskāra*. This is the mechanism:

- Each moment of restraint (pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samādhi) leaves a nirodha-saṃskāra
- This nirodha-saṃskāra weakens and eventually outweighs the vṛtti-saṃskāras
- In asamprajñāta samādhi, even the nirodha-saṃskāra is dissolved — *dagdhabīja* (burned seed); no further vṛttis can arise from any root

## Nirodha Is Not Sleep

Patañjali explicitly classifies sleep (nidrā) as a vṛtti (YS 1.10) to prevent its confusion with nirodha. Sleep is Tamasic coverage of citta; nirodha is the Sattvic cessation of citta's activity. In sleep, vṛttis continue (as evidenced by the memory "I slept deeply"); in nirodha, no vṛtti arises to form a saṃskāra. In sleep, the separation between Puruṣa and citta is not known; in nirodha, the separation is the very thing revealed.

## Cross-References

- [Citta-Vṛtti](chitta-vritti.md) — what nirodha is the cessation of
- [Vṛtti](vritti.md) — the five types whose cessation constitutes nirodha
- [Saṃskāra](samskara.md) — both the material nirodha dissolves (vṛtti-saṃskāras) and what sustained practice creates (nirodha-saṃskāra)
- [Samprajñāta Samādhi](samprajnata-samadhi.md) — the refined-vṛtti absorptions that prepare the field for nirodha
- [Asamprajñāta Samādhi](asamprajnata-samadhi.md) — the seedless absorption in which nirodha is fully realized
- [Pratyāhāra](pratyahara.md) — withdrawal of senses; the first of the inner limbs; the beginning of concentrated nirodha
- [Dhāraṇā](dharana.md) — binding of citta; the immediate predecessor of dhyāna-samādhi-nirodha
- [Kaivalya](kaivalya.md) — liberation; what is revealed when nirodha becomes permanent

## Audience Metaphor

Nirodha is not turning off the projector. It is recognizing that the screen was always there before the projector was turned on, and will be there when it is turned off. The vṛttis are the projected images. When they cease, nothing is lost — the screen (Puruṣa) is revealed. The projector (citta) is not destroyed; it is simply no longer projecting anything. This is why the Yoga tradition specifies that the practitioner abides 'in the nature of the seer' (YS 1.3) — not in nothingness, but in the natural state of pure witnessing.

## Citations

1. [Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali](/references/yoga-sutras.md) 1.2, 1.12-1.16, 1.51, 3.9-3.10
2. [Yoga Bhāṣya of Vyāsa](/references/yoga-bhasya.md) on YS 1.2 and 3.9
3. [Tattvavaiśāradī](/references/tattvavaisharadi.md) of Vācaspatimiśra on YS 1.2
