When the difficulty is in the mental fluctuation, it is said to be only fluctuation; in the state of mind without fluctuation, no difficulty exists.

Patañjali defines yoga as the nirodha (cessation) of the vṛtti (modifications) of the citta (mind). Vasiṣṭha applies this: suffering (kaṣṭa) is merely vṛtti-mātra — a mere fluctuation, a passing ripple. In the citta-pada — the pure state of mind — there is no ripple; therefore, there is no kaṣṭa. This does not deny the reality of kaṣṭa as a vṛtti; it denies its reality as a vastu, as an independent entity. The fluctuation is real as a wave, but the wave is not an entity distinct from the water. Kaṣṭa is real as a vṛtti, but there is no kaṣṭa-vastu — no “thing-suffering” — that persists when the vṛtti cease. Vṛtti-śūnyatā — the absence of fluctuation — is not a special state, but the recognition that fluctuations do not touch the foundation. The ocean remains the ocean, whether with waves or without them.

Patañjali defines yoga as the nirodha (restraint) of the vṛtti (modifications) of the citta (mind). Vasiṣṭha applies this: suffering (kaṣṭa) is merely vṛtti-mātra — a mere fluctuation, a passing ripple. In the citta-pada — the pure state of mind — there is no ripple; therefore, there is no kaṣṭa.

The reality of kaṣṭa as a vṛtti is not denied; what is denied is its reality as a vastu, as an independent entity. The fluctuation is real as a wave, but the wave is not an entity distinct from the water. Suffering is real as a vṛtti, but there is no kaṣṭa-vastu — no “thing-suffering” — that persists when the vṛtti cease.

Vṛtti-śūnyatā — the absence of fluctuation — is not a special state, but rather the recognition that fluctuations do not touch the foundation. The ocean remains the ocean, whether with waves or without them.