anubhūtaviṣayāsaṃpramoṣaḥ smṛtiḥ

Memory is the mental retention of a conscious experience.

Memory management must be a huge task for the mind. Storing and recollecting memory works in conjunction with the other tasks of the mind namely incorrect understanding, correct understanding and imagination. Storing an experience by the mind is influenced by the other activities of the mind. Depending on how the other vrttis of the mind work, there is always the likelihood of a memory leak and corruption. This creates the discrepancy between the reality and the experience of the individual.

Recollecting this piece of memory again is dependent on the other vrttis and the current state of mind. Hence a memory that is an incorrect picture of the reality is fetched back in a distorted way.

Calmer the vrttis of the mind, the storage and retrieval of the data gets cleaner. Distortion is reduced.

anubhūtaviṣayāsaṃpramoṣaḥ smṛtiḥ

anubhūta – experienced

viṣayā – objects of experience, impressions

asaṃpramoṣaḥ – not being stolen, not being lost, not having addition

smṛtiḥ -memory, remembering

viparyayo mithyā-jñānamḥ a-tad-rūpa-pratiṣṭhamḥ

Misconception is that erroneous knowledge not based on the actual appearance of the object.

Patañjali says the most frequent activity of the mind is misconception. I like this sutra. Just when I was typing out what I had understood from the class, I got confused between inference (from the previous sutra) and misconception.  Clarity is the ultimate goal of yoga, so I refer to the dictionary for precision. Its getting better now.

If one were to draw a pie chart of the activities of the mind, then this activity would be a big piece of the pie. So, this is what the mind is involved with for most of the people. Misconception is not getting the picture right. Even though the entire scene is there to see, the mind is viewing it through its own lens. The things that muck the picture could be from the conditioning and memory. The fact that there is something wrong with the picture may never be understood at all.

On an aside, I understand that viparita means accident/danger (as in viparita karani the inversions), which is not normal or incorrect. May be viparyayo is related to viparita.

viparyayo mithyā-jñānamḥ a-tad-rūpa-pratiṣṭhamḥ

viparyayo – Misconception
mithyā – false, erroneous, from root word mith ‘to conflict with’
jñāna – knowledge, from root word jna is to know
a-tad – not that
rūpa – form, appearance
pratiṣṭha – steadfast, here: based on, from pra + root word stha is to stand

Patanjali describes the mind by the activities of the mind. There are five activities and each one of them can be beneficial or cause problems. Whether these activities are beneficial or cause suffering cannot be immediately seen. Time alone will confirm their effects.

Vrtti – fluctuation
pancataya – five fold
klista – afflicted, from root word klis to trouble/ be troubled
aklistah – non-afflicted

We will move on to the next sutra which describes the activities of the mind.

pramana viparyaya vikalpa nidra smrtayah

The five activities are comprehension, misapprehension, imagination, deep sleep and memory.

Each mental activity has its own characteristics and although not always apparent, they can be individually recognized. Their dominance and effects on our behavior and attitudes combine to make up our personalities.

pramana – valid cogintion from pra + ma which is to measure
viparyaya – misconception, from vi + pari + i which is to go
vikalpa – conceptualisation from vi+ klp which is befit/serve
nidra – sleep from ni + dra ‘ to sleep’
smrti – memory from smr which is to remember