3. KLESHAS AS A ROOT OF MAJOR ATTITUDES.
Roots of our major attitudes are 5 kleshas which can be defined as affective archetypal structures which causes suffering, pain in our mind and the whole being. "Klesha is a kind of agony which is inside our very being."1 Kleshas exist in unconscious level and from there govern our everyday behaviour being a substratum from which our major and then minor attitudes arise. "Everyone feels subconscious pain, but our superficial daily activities do not allow us to be aware of it, otherwise we would see pain in all its vividness… The inner life may be very different from the outer life". But even in the outer life we do suffer and our feeling of pain and suffering always tries to find a cause and eradicate it. However, in many cases we fail to find a real cause of suffering. We are so bound in false causes of our unhappiness, that we cannot recognise the kleshas. That is why it is so important to know real sources of inner and outer suffering in order to be able to correct our attitudes in the right direction.
"The kleshas have four states of expression. They may be dormant, when you cannot persive them, sometimes they become thin and they are experienced in mild fashion. In the scattered condition they give rise to an oscillating state; otherwise they may be fully expressed. These various stages of the kleshas are observed in various people at different times. Usually we are never free from them. Except in the case of a great yogi who overcomes them, the kleshas are found in other persons." 2
There are 5 kleshas which are described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. They are Avidya, Asmita, Raga, Dwesha and Abhinivesa. They can be translated into English as ignorance or unawareness of reality, I-feeling, likes or attraction towards objects, dislikes or repulsion towards objects, and fear of death respectively. Actually these kleshas are not separate; one leads to the next.
Ignorance of the true reality is the root cause. Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras defines avidya in the following way: "Avidya is to mistake the non-eternal, impure, evil and noumenon for the eternal, pure, good and atman (respectively)". Basically it is complete unawareness of Atman, the ultimate reality, the True Self and one's identity with Atman, with the Supreme Consciousness in its unmanifested as well as manifested aspect, one's complete, unbroken, undivided fullness, unity and harmony.
This ignorance leads to all the other kleshas, the second of which is asmita or I-feeling, or ego. This is a force of self-identification, another term for which is ahamkara, that sticks itself to a piece of manifested reality, i.e. body, actions and mind in case of a human being. Due to our self-identification with the body we consider this particular piece of flesh and blood to be ourselves that is completely separate and different from the outer world. In the case of a primitive person with an underdeveloped intellect, asmita is predominantly rooted in the body. Intellectually developed person identifies more with the higher functions of mind. So, asmita is a consciousness which mistakenly identifies the purusha, or atman, with its vehicle.
Asmita brings about raga and dwesha. Patanjali describes raga as the liking accompanying pleasure and dwesha is the repulsion accompanying pain. They are two sides of the same coin. Liking for one thing involves repulsion for something else, so they are not opposite to each other, but are the two sides of the mind. Whenever there is a object of pleasure, the mind runs after it, wishing to have the pleasurable experience again and again, and on the other side we do our best trying to avoid things, situations, relationships which seem painful for us. It is said that man is affected more by dwesha than by raga as dwesha is more powerful binding force.
Constant involvement of ego in raga and dwesha in the outer world leads to the 5th klesha that is abhinivesa. Abhinivesa is interpreted in two ways. From one side it is the desire for life sustained by its own force, it is clinging to life. On the other side it is strong aversion or fear of death. It is associated with each incarnation. You will find this klesha in latent, dormant or active condition. It is latent in sannyasins, it is on the verge of extinction in those who have attained viveka, but in most people you will find it in a most active condition.
1. Swami Satyananda Saraswati, "Four chapters on Freedom", p.143.
2. Swami Satyananda Saraswati, "Four chapters on Freedom", p.146.
"The kleshas have four states of expression. They may be dormant, when you cannot persive them, sometimes they become thin and they are experienced in mild fashion. In the scattered condition they give rise to an oscillating state; otherwise they may be fully expressed. These various stages of the kleshas are observed in various people at different times. Usually we are never free from them. Except in the case of a great yogi who overcomes them, the kleshas are found in other persons." 2
There are 5 kleshas which are described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. They are Avidya, Asmita, Raga, Dwesha and Abhinivesa. They can be translated into English as ignorance or unawareness of reality, I-feeling, likes or attraction towards objects, dislikes or repulsion towards objects, and fear of death respectively. Actually these kleshas are not separate; one leads to the next.
Ignorance of the true reality is the root cause. Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras defines avidya in the following way: "Avidya is to mistake the non-eternal, impure, evil and noumenon for the eternal, pure, good and atman (respectively)". Basically it is complete unawareness of Atman, the ultimate reality, the True Self and one's identity with Atman, with the Supreme Consciousness in its unmanifested as well as manifested aspect, one's complete, unbroken, undivided fullness, unity and harmony.
This ignorance leads to all the other kleshas, the second of which is asmita or I-feeling, or ego. This is a force of self-identification, another term for which is ahamkara, that sticks itself to a piece of manifested reality, i.e. body, actions and mind in case of a human being. Due to our self-identification with the body we consider this particular piece of flesh and blood to be ourselves that is completely separate and different from the outer world. In the case of a primitive person with an underdeveloped intellect, asmita is predominantly rooted in the body. Intellectually developed person identifies more with the higher functions of mind. So, asmita is a consciousness which mistakenly identifies the purusha, or atman, with its vehicle.
Asmita brings about raga and dwesha. Patanjali describes raga as the liking accompanying pleasure and dwesha is the repulsion accompanying pain. They are two sides of the same coin. Liking for one thing involves repulsion for something else, so they are not opposite to each other, but are the two sides of the mind. Whenever there is a object of pleasure, the mind runs after it, wishing to have the pleasurable experience again and again, and on the other side we do our best trying to avoid things, situations, relationships which seem painful for us. It is said that man is affected more by dwesha than by raga as dwesha is more powerful binding force.
Constant involvement of ego in raga and dwesha in the outer world leads to the 5th klesha that is abhinivesa. Abhinivesa is interpreted in two ways. From one side it is the desire for life sustained by its own force, it is clinging to life. On the other side it is strong aversion or fear of death. It is associated with each incarnation. You will find this klesha in latent, dormant or active condition. It is latent in sannyasins, it is on the verge of extinction in those who have attained viveka, but in most people you will find it in a most active condition.
1. Swami Satyananda Saraswati, "Four chapters on Freedom", p.143.
2. Swami Satyananda Saraswati, "Four chapters on Freedom", p.146.
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