In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the mind is described as a stream of fluctuations called vrittis. Sutra 1.11 introduces the fifth and final vritti — smriti, or memory. Unlike the first four vrittis, smriti is the mental act of retaining and recalling past experience. Understanding smriti reveals why we cling to old thoughts and how, through practice, we can witness memory without being controlled by it.
What Is Smriti? A Plain-English Look at Sutra 1.11
The Sanskrit text of Yoga Sutra 1.11 reads: “anubhuta vishaya asampramoshah smritih”. Translated word-by-word: anubhuta means “previously experienced”, vishaya means “object” or “sense impression”, asampramoshah means “not slipping away” or “retention”, and smritih means “memory”. Put together, Patanjali defines smriti as the mind’s retention of objects that have been previously experienced.
Notice what this definition includes and excludes. Smriti is not the same as imagination, which conjures something that has never been experienced; that fluctuation is vikalpa, the third vritti. Smriti is also distinct from misperception (viparyaya) and from valid cognition (pramana). Memory is its own category — the storehouse of the mind.
Smriti and the Five Vrittis: How Memory Completes the Pattern
Sutra 1.6 lists the five fluctuations of the mind: pramana (right knowledge), viparyaya (misperception), vikalpa (imagination), nidra (deep sleep), and smriti (memory). Patanjali then devotes sutras 1.7 through 1.11 to defining each one in turn. By the time we reach 1.11, we have a complete map of the territory the yogi is asked to observe and ultimately quiet. For the full overview, see our guide to the five vrittis of Yoga Sutra 1.6.
Why Memory Comes Last
The order is deliberate. Pramana, viparyaya, and vikalpa are all active forms of cognition — the mind reaching outward to interpret current experience. Nidra is a state of inert non-cognition. Smriti, placed last, ties them together: it is the residue of every previous vritti, the imprint that remains after an experience has passed. In yogic psychology, this residue is called a samskara, a subtle impression left in the chitta (mind-stuff).
Memory as Both Tool and Trap
Smriti is the only vritti that can be either klishta (afflicted, causing suffering) or aklishta (un-afflicted, conducive to liberation). Memory of a teacher’s instruction, a mantra, or a moment of stillness on the mat is profoundly useful. Memory of an insult, a failure, or a craving keeps the practitioner bound. The distinction, drawn in Sutra 1.5, is not whether a memory exists but whether it produces clinging.
The Two Types of Smriti: Bhavita and Abhavita
Classical commentators on the Yoga Sutras, including Vyasa and later Vachaspati Mishra, distinguish two kinds of memory:
Bhavita smriti — “imagined” or “constructed” memory. This is memory that arises during dreams or during the spontaneous arising of mental images. The content is loosely based on experience but reshuffled by the unconscious. The dream of an old house you grew up in, recombined with people you met yesterday, is bhavita smriti at work.
Abhavita smriti — “true” or “unconstructed” memory. This is the deliberate recollection of an experience exactly as it occurred. Remembering the steps of a sequence taught last week, or the exact phrasing of a sutra, is abhavita smriti. It is the closer of the two to the original experience, though Patanjali warns that even this form is colored by the mind’s prior conditioning.
Smriti and Samskara: How Memories Become Conditioning
Smriti is not a single act of remembering but a stream fed by samskaras — the subtle imprints left by every experience, intention, and reaction. The same Sanskrit root, smr (“to remember”), gives us both. A samskara is the seed; smriti is the sprout. When a samskara is activated — by a smell, a song, a familiar pose — smriti rises into consciousness as a remembered image.
This is why yoga is so concerned with the quality of attention during practice. Every breath you take consciously, every alignment cue you embody mindfully, lays down a samskara that strengthens skillful memory. Conversely, every distracted or anxious moment lays down a samskara that strengthens unskillful memory. Over months and years, the cumulative direction of your samskaras shapes what your mind remembers — and therefore who you become.
Smriti in Daily Life: Three Practical Examples
1. The Yoga Mat as Memory Cue
You roll out your mat and, before any movement begins, your shoulders drop and your breath lengthens. That is smriti — the body recalling that this surface and this posture mean practice. The cue triggers a constellation of samskaras laid down by every previous session. This is why teachers stress consistency: a daily practice builds a smriti web that pulls you into a meditative state with less and less effort.
2. The Reactive Argument
Mid-conversation, a partner says a phrase that echoes something said by a parent twenty years ago. Suddenly the response is disproportionate. The current speaker is no longer the actual person in front of you — they are filtered through smriti carrying old wounds. Recognizing this dynamic is the first step in dissolving the samskara, a process Patanjali addresses in Sutra 2.10 through the practice of pratiprasava, or returning impressions to their source.
3. Craving and Aversion
The memory of pleasure breeds raga, attachment. The memory of pain breeds dvesha, aversion. These two kleshas — explored in our guides to raga and dvesha — are direct products of unexamined smriti. The yogi’s task is not to erase memory but to meet each present moment without letting yesterday’s pleasure or pain dictate today’s response.
Working Skillfully with Smriti: Yogic Methods
Abhyasa and Vairagya
Patanjali offers two master tools for working with the vrittis, including smriti. Abhyasa is sustained, dedicated practice — repeated effort over a long period without break. Vairagya is non-attachment, the willingness to observe sensations, thoughts, and memories without grasping or pushing away. Abhyasa builds skillful samskaras; vairagya prevents new unskillful ones from taking root.
Pratipaksha Bhavana: Cultivating the Opposite
When an unwholesome memory arises persistently, Sutra 2.33 prescribes pratipaksha bhavana: deliberately cultivating the opposite thought. A memory of betrayal is met with a memory of trust. A memory of failure is met with a memory of competence. Over time, the strengthened wholesome samskara overshadows the unwholesome one. This is not denial — both memories remain — but a redirecting of attention.
Pranayama and the Memory Field
Breath practices have a particularly direct effect on smriti because the breath is the bridge between voluntary and involuntary nervous activity. A slow, lengthened exhale calms the autonomic system and softens the grip of intrusive memories. Practices like Surya Bhedana and Nadi Shodhana are traditionally used to balance the channels through which samskaras express themselves.
Dharana and Dhyana
Within Patanjali’s eight limbs, the later limbs of dharana (concentration) and dhyana (meditation) train the mind to rest on a single object. When attention rests on one point, the random firing of samskaras quiets, and the river of smriti slows. In sustained meditation, practitioners report a curious experience: memories surface, are acknowledged, and dissolve without commentary. This is the yogic taming of memory.
Smriti and the Witness
A frequent misunderstanding is that yoga aims to destroy memory or empty the mind. Patanjali’s project is more subtle. The goal, stated in Sutra 1.3 (tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam), is that the seer rests in its own nature. When that happens, memories still arise — but they are no longer mistaken for the self. The practitioner sees them as passing weather, not as definitions of who they are.
This is the meaning of chitta vritti nirodha, the famous definition of yoga in Sutra 1.2. Nirodha does not mean obliteration; it means restraint, a settling of activity. When smriti is restrained, the practitioner can use memory consciously — remembering a teacher’s instruction at the right moment — without being dragged through the past involuntarily.
Common Misconceptions About Smriti
“Yoga wants me to forget everything.” No. Skillful memory is essential to the path. You must remember sequences, ethics, sutras, and your teacher’s corrections. What yoga asks is that you stop letting unconscious memory run the show.
“If I sit long enough, memories will stop arising.” Also no. The mind is built to remember. Sustained meditation does not stop memories from rising — it stops you from grabbing onto them as they pass. Many practitioners describe deep meditation as a more vivid memory field, not a quieter one. The change is in the practitioner’s relationship to the field.
“Bad memories mean I have bad samskaras and need to fix myself.” Memories are neutral information about what the chitta has stored. Reacting to a difficult memory with self-criticism only adds another klishta samskara to the pile. The yogic response is curiosity and steady practice, not repair.
Bringing Sutra 1.11 to Your Mat
Try this short experiment in your next practice. Before your first asana, sit for two minutes with eyes closed and observe what memories arise spontaneously. Do not engage them; do not push them away. Simply note: “memory of breakfast”, “memory of an email”, “memory of a conversation”. You are watching smriti directly.
Then move into your practice with a single, simple instruction in mind — perhaps “long exhale” or “soft jaw”. Notice how easily the mind drifts back to remembered storylines, and how the cue returns you to the present. That returning is yoga. Each return strengthens a skillful samskara, the slow construction of a quieter and clearer chitta.Smriti is not the enemy of the yogi. It is the material the yogi works with — the field where every act of practice is recorded. Understanding Sutra 1.11 lets you take responsibility for what you are recording. Practice with care, because every breath becomes memory.
Once you understand how the vrittis arise, the next question is how to still them. Patanjali answers that directly in Yoga Sutra 1.12, which pairs abhyasa with vairagya as the two practices that quiet the fluctuating mind.
