Sutra I. 4 Vrtti-sarupyam itaratra

Itaratra: At other times. Else wise. Symbolically or neurotically in place of or as a compensation.

Sarupa: means with form or objects (compare with svarupe).

Vrtti: Restrictive or limiting patterns, mental processing, or distortions which obstruct the mindfield; bias, tilt, spin, skew, recurring patterned fluctuations, modification, limited pattern, conditioned effect, oscillation, vacillation, spinning, rolling, machination, restiveness,  wavering, unstable processing, distortion, disturbances, waves, refractive tendencies, fractures, eddy currents, fractual process, aberration, whirling or swirling, including dullness and sleep. A recurring waveform dependent upon the operations of the biased mind field and/or creating a bias in the mindfield. Vrtti are reoccurring patterns and tendencies that effect the field of consciousness thus occupying, obscuring or coloring pure consciousness (cit). Disparate and disconnected interruptions of the mind-field.

Commentary: A similar translation would read: "At other times the seer falsely identifies with the restrictions of consciousness". Yet another way of saying that in the vernacular, "At other times the seer is seduced into a small box reality of knowing, wherein a limited and confused context is maintained."

When we are not "home" or not present (itaratra) in the great full continuum of eternal NOW consciousness -- when not abiding in our true self nature (swarupa) -- then consciousness (citta) is colored, modified, limited, and disrupted (vrtti). Then the observer identifies with the vrtti and is fooled by symbols and dark representations. Here we assume that the form (sarupa) that is shaped by the modifications of consciousness (citta-vrtti), rather than as unmodified universal cit (the power behind the consciousness) as it truly is in reality. When pure consciousness (cit) is blocked, then as a compensatory reaction the mind field becomes limited according to superficial appearances (fragmented forms).

Otherwise or at other times (itaratra), when the vrtti are operating or dominating, then our body/mind energetics (neurophysiology and consciousness) will be out of synch with the whole -- the citta (consciousness) will be distorted, disturbed, agitated and fluctuate as it becomes swept up identifying with objects (sarupa) and we will be out of sorts so to speak. Then our mind is veiled and occluded. The latter state is the ordinary alienated subject/object dualistic state. Forms are seen but not understood in terms of their causes and conditions, nor is their proper inter-relationship with time and the hologram properly understood.

When the mind patterns (vrtti) habitually create prisons of their own making, limitations of creative possibilities, and a closing off of its great potential. Thoughts box in, distort, and fragment, what is in reality a vast evolutionary potential as the programmed human consciousness becomes chronically occupied and possessed while identifying with mental vagaries, false representations, compensatory, and inadequate  apparitions of an imaginary "self" and "other", which produce mental afflictions, restlessness, tension, confusion, which continue to recur cyclically, thus obscuring clarity and clear full vision. That is how the mind is fooled and the wool is pulled over one's eyes. Anything short of clear vision is a limitation which serves as a dissuasion, an incomplete substitute for the real thing. Beware!

In turn, such chronic programmed and neurotic mental states replace "the real thing", while one becomes accommodated and adapts to them predictably providing a false sense of security and safety. Beware of these conditioning factors which imprison the mindfield and lead to further emotional hindrances, inhibition, premature death, suffering, and bad karma.  

Sa, means with, while rupa means, form. Form objects as appearances appear to the normal mind as discrete and independent objects, but the yogi knows that they are everchanging interdependent results of causes and conditions. When we are not united, aligned, or connected in our true authentic nature (swa-rupa) through yoga, then disharmony and distortion (vrtti) will appear catching us up in "our fragmented dualistic world" where phenomena appear disconnected (sa-rupa) or disjointed - a separation between creation/creator, mother nature/father sky, earth and heaven, root and crown, existence and consciousness, natural manifest order and divine order, the weave of the universe and the universal source obstruct and restrict our synchronistic joyful participation.

Without previously recognizing the fragmented or corrupted or perverse preexisting operating condition, and without having taken up any expedient, proficient, or skillful method of remediation or reintegration [such as yoga], we become habitually lost identifying with the modifications and aberrations (vrtti) of the mind as an ingrained way of corruption (as "reality") to a point of unconsciously reinforcing our own imprisonment and illusion at the hellish altar of familiarity. Thus in this way, the dualistic false identification and spiritual self alienation (as existing separate as an ego) thus become our solidified as our "reality". Indeed what appears to the senses as "form" or "phenomena" has to be recognized, however the ordinary recognition is placed within a limited/fragmented context frozen in place and time -- apart from the whole/hologram. It's true nature (swarupa -sunyam) when seen in samadhi is interdependent -- empty of separate self. In short form/phenomena has a self luminous and wholistic quality which is beyond subject/object duality, thus acting as an open gateway to the timeless vastness of the all pervasive whole/hologram.

In the sacred sense, our everyday experiences are best approached as sacred grounds where authentic yoga is to be practiced as a continuum all the time, while identifying the apparently frozen or solid aspects of "forms/phenomena" or sense objects that the citta-vrtti mistakenly impute as having an intrinsic separate or lasting/eternal solid quality as merely in motion/flux and temporary -- realizing how such a static fixation distorts and colors the rich fluidity of the great integrity -- of holographic "reality". Thus when "things" appear frozen, static, or stuck then we can take it as an opportunity to remediate/transform the fragmented situation into completeness and integrity -- so that we abide in swarupa (our true nature or real condition).

In other words, accessibility to an awesome and profound profound and sacred true experience of our real condition as-it-is, devoid of any mental trickery within the context of eternal Infinite universal and primordial awareness is always present/possible, but the citta vrtti habitually occlude it. The "thinking/processing mind" which extracts/filters us from Living Spirit thinks "about" specific limited situations habitually revolves about one object of thought to another object attachment to another. It gets lost in simple fragmented object relationships. It is asleep to the opportunity of Now consciousness (the Cit) which is thus obscured. That way the ordinary mind has become conditioned to skirt Reality, rather than to abide within it. Normally the ordinary mind spins/whirls outwards into various false identifications (sa-rupa) with the vrtti unless we practice yoga that attenuates and eliminates the vrtti -- unless we are graced to recognize and rest in our true self nature -- in the great Unlimited and Absolute Integrity of All Our Relations

In yogic practices such as meditation we learn how to come back home to swarupa by purifying the occlusions/distortions of the mental continuum -- unfiltered/raw Reality-as-it-is. As we meditate we see how the interpretive mind has the tendencies to get caught up on and fixate upon objects (either physical sense objects or mental) and gradually we learn how to let these temporary fixations go (through vairagya and abhyasa which will be presented in I.13). Thus the vrttis are at first lessened, recognized, then remediated, let go, and eventually they cease.

Sutras 5-11 then identify the specific vrtti (modifications,spins, disturbances, fractuals, agitations, and corruptive influences of the mind-field). Then sutras 12 to the end provide their attenuation and removal (cessation) so that one can eventually stabilize the realization of seedless samadhi (nirbija samadhi).