What Happens When the Mind Becomes Still? A Journey Back to Your True Nature

In just a few compact words, Patanjali reveals the heart of yoga — and the transformation it offers — with stunning precision. In Yoga Sutra 1.2, he defines yoga as:

“Chitta vritti nirodhah”

The cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.

And immediately after, in Sutra 1.3, he delivers the result:

“Tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe avasthānam”

Then the seer abides in their own true nature.

This is not poetic idealism. It’s a clear, direct statement of what happens when the mind becomes still:

You return to who you truly are.

Not your roles.

Not your thoughts or beliefs.

Not your past or your projections.

But the pure awareness that has always been watching — quietly, patiently, behind it all.

The Storm and the Sky

Our everyday lives are filled with vrittis — the ripples and waves of consciousness. Thoughts, judgments, memories, fantasies, fears. They rise and fall like wind across the surface of a lake, creating turbulence that obscures the depths.

We identify with this movement. We think we are our thinking, our emotions, our experiences. But Patanjali invites us to see something deeper:

You are not the storm.

You are the sky it passes through.

You are not your thoughts.

You are the awareness in which they rise and dissolve.

You are not becoming.

You are being.

What Is Nirodhah?

Chitta vritti nirodhah does not mean suppression. It is not forceful control or resistance. Nirodhah is stillness. A deep settling. A return.

It is the moment when the mind no longer tries to be elsewhere. When there is no effort to escape, no need to cling, no grasping for identity.

And in that space — in that quiet between thoughts — something profound is revealed.

The seer rests in their essence.

Not a new self, but the one that was never absent — only forgotten.

This Stillness Is Available Now

This experience is not reserved for monks on mountaintops or mystics in caves. It’s available to anyone — to all of us — in moments of deep presence.

Every time you:

Feel the breath without distraction,

Rest in silence without resistance,

Witness your thoughts without attaching to them...

...you glimpse it.

The timeless Self. The silent witness. The truth of who you are beyond story, beyond form.

Yoga Is Remembering

The journey of yoga isn’t about becoming something more — it’s about uncovering what has always been true.

You are not here to chase enlightenment like a destination. You are here to remember. To return. To abide in your essence. That is the gift Patanjali offers us in just a few verses — a doorway into wholeness.

Ready to Go Deeper?

If you’re called to explore the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali more deeply, check out This is That by Himalayan Master Yogi Anand Mehrotra — a profound and accessible guide to the subtle truths within these sacred texts.

Let the mind become still. Let the Self be seen.

This is yoga. This is you.