When memory is purified, the mind appears empty of its own nature and shines forth as the object alone; this is nirvitarka samāpatti.

Purifying Memory

Sutra 1.43 advances directly from the mixture described in 1.42. Here Patanjali specifies the condition under which that mixture dissolves: smṛtipariśuddhi, the purification or emptying-out of memory. Vyasa explains that smṛti here refers not to ordinary recollection but to the storehouse of verbal and conceptual associations that normally attach themselves automatically to any perceived object. When this associative layer is stilled, the mind is no longer feeding words and prior concepts into the act of perceiving.

The Mind Appearing Empty of Itself

The phrase svarūpaśūnyā, "as if empty of its own form," is one of the more striking claims in the whole text. Vachaspati Mishra reads this as meaning the mind's own reflective, interpreting activity becomes so transparent that it seems to have no separate nature of its own; it simply becomes the shape of whatever it holds. Only the object stands forth, arthamātranirbhāsā, "shining as the object alone," without the accompanying commentary of name and category that colored savitarka samāpatti. This is not the object being altered or magically transformed; it is perception finally arriving unmixed with the automatic verbal tagging that usually accompanies every act of cognition.

The Leap From Savitarka to Nirvitarka

This sutra therefore names the second grade in the fourfold scheme Patanjali is constructing across 1.42 through 1.44: savitarka, nirvitarka, and — extended to subtle objects — savicāra and nirvicāra. Bryant emphasizes that nirvitarka is still concentration on a gross object, the same kind of object used in savitarka, but purified of the word-meaning-knowledge overlay. Feuerstein describes this transition as the mind's shift from thinking about an object to a kind of direct, wordless cognitive contact with it — an epistemically significant claim, since Patanjali is asserting that ordinary perception is always already conceptually mediated, and that a rarer, unmediated mode of knowing is achievable through this purification. Taimni notes that this state is sometimes glossed as objects being known "as they are," since the interpretive apparatus that normally stands between the perceiver and the perceived has, for the duration of the absorption, gone quiet. The importance of this sutra for the rest of the chapter is structural: without grasping the distinction it draws between conceptually mixed and conceptually unmixed absorption, the later sutras on ṛtambharā prajñā, the special truth-bearing insight that arises from these purified states, cannot be properly understood. Hariharananda Aranya notes that nirvitarka samāpatti, though rare, is described by Vyasa as attainable even by comparatively early practitioners on particular gross objects, distinguishing it from the far more demanding subtle-object absorptions treated in the sutras that follow.

Letting Naming Drop Away

Where the practice for 1.42 involved noticing the overlay of word and concept on a gross object, the practical orientation for 1.43 is to let that overlay progressively thin, without forcing it. Memory purification of this kind is described by Vyasa as a result of long, steady practice, not something achieved by an act of will in a single sitting, so the practice below is oriented toward cultivating the conditions rather than manufacturing the state directly.

A Short Practice

1. Return to the same simple object used in previous sittings, such as a flame, so familiarity does not require fresh conceptual labeling.
2. Settle into posture and let the breath become slow and even before beginning to concentrate.
3. Hold attention on the object, and each time a word, category, or association surfaces, let it pass without engaging it, returning attention to the bare form of the object.
4. Notice any moments where the sense of "I am looking at a flame" briefly drops and there is simply the flame, without the labeling voice.
5. Do not try to sustain or grasp at such moments; let them arise and pass, returning gently to steady attention if the mind reasserts commentary.
6. Close the sitting by recalling, if possible, any interval that felt unusually direct or wordless, without over-analyzing it.

A Long-Term View

Vachaspati Mishra's framing suggests that these openings toward nirvitarka absorption appear more as fruits of sustained practice over time than as techniques executed once. Swami Vivekananda likewise treated the movement from savitarka to nirvitarka as a natural refinement that occurs as concentration deepens through repetition, rather than as a separate method requiring new instructions. Hariharananda Aranya cautions that attempts to force memory to fall silent tend to produce strain rather than the described purification, and that smṛtipariśuddhi is better approached as a byproduct of relaxed, sustained familiarity with the object than as a goal pursued directly.

Assuming the Object Disappears

A recurring misreading takes svarūpaśūnyā to mean the object vanishes and the meditator experiences pure emptiness. Vyasa's commentary is explicit that the object remains vividly present — indeed it is described as shining forth, nirbhāsā — while what recedes is the mind's own interpretive commentary and the associated word and concept. It is the perceiving apparatus that becomes transparent, not the perceived thing that dissolves.

Treating Nirvitarka as Formless Meditation

Because the sutra describes a kind of dissolution, some readers conflate nirvitarka samāpatti with formless, objectless meditation. Bryant is careful to note that nirvitarka still belongs to the samāpatti on gross (sthūla) objects; it has not yet moved to subtle objects, which is the next distinction Patanjali draws in sutra 1.44, nor has it moved beyond having an object at all, which only occurs with the nirbīja samādhi described at the very end of this section in sutra 1.51.

Assuming Nirvitarka Is Permanent Once Touched

Another misreading assumes that once nirvitarka samāpatti has been briefly experienced, the purified, wordless mode of perception will simply continue afterward in ordinary life. The commentators describe nirvitarka as a state that holds only within the specific absorption itself; Vyasa gives no indication that a single episode permanently alters ordinary waking cognition, which continues to be mediated by word and concept as before.