Kleshas

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Om namah Sivaya, Blessed Self<br><br>You asked

for my interpretation of the kleshas as presented by

Patanjali. The following is offered but only as one possible

interpretation. Others may hold different opinions from which we

may all benefit.<br><br>The kleshas, according to

Patanjali, are the five obstacles to Self-Realization that

each of us in his/her own way must overcome in order

to come to Brahman and know oneself as an expression

of Brahman. <br><br>The kleshas are: (1) avidya,

ignorance of Reality. Believing ones’ self to be rooted in

the phenomenal world, the world of space and time and

being unaware of the eternal atman or Self. (2)

ahamkara, ego, the principle of individuation. Here, the

jiva identifies with the messages of the senses and

sees him/herself to be separate from other beings.

This sets up competition and leads to estrangement and

despair. (3) raga or attraction occurs when the jiva

spends his/her time identifying and acquiring material

things or even immaterial things such as power in the

material world in order to bring pleasure to his/herself.

(4) dvesha or aversion is the flip side of raga. The

jiva attempts to avoid the unpleasant. The pull-push

of raga-dvesha keeps the jiva locked in the illusion

of pairs of opposites, including the reactive power

of karma. Contentment is impossible. (5) the last

obstacle is abhinivesha, the fear of death or the will to

live. This is really the fear of losing one’s identity

as defined by the ego. Unless the jiva has a clear

sense that they are more than their body, ego, senses,

the jiva clings to material life

tenaciously.<br><br>The kleshas are due to the effect of the senses, of

the gunas and of past karmas, all of which obscure

our vision of Reality, The Self. According to

Patanjali, each klesha is the cause of the next: fear of

death and clinging to life is the result of aversion to

the unpleasant and attraction to the pleasant, which,

in turn, is due to the ego’s need to be soothed and

avoid conflict, which, in turn, is based on a

perception of an outer, separated and conflicted world of

the senses, which obscures Reality. <br><br>Patanjali

says that the kleshas can be attenuated, thinned out,

to the point where one can become Self-Realized. The

three niyamas, tapas, svadhyaya and ishvarapranidhana

constitute Kriya Yoga and together overcome the kleshas.

Tapas is austerity, an inner cleansing, a disciplined

approach to finding out who we really are. Tapas includes

all of the yamas which develop discipline,

detachment, discrimination, and connection to the rest of the

material world. Svadhyaya, the study of scripture,

informed religious commentary and biographies of the

Self-Realized and the Seeker inspire us to greater effort and

heights. Svadhyaya is an important feature of this club.

Svadhyaya also includes japa, mantra repetition.

Ishvarapranidhana is devotion to the Lord, offering all actions to

God, making all action suitable for being presented to

God, and renouncing the fruit of all action.

<br><br>When the kleshas have been thinned out, they can be

eliminated by reabsorbing them to into their cause or

substituting the opposite mental modifications. As mentioned

above, each klesha is the cause of the next. Realize

this and they begin to disappear.<br><br>Hari Om Tat

Sat