A chant in English: “Your blindness, ego, loves, hates, and clinging to body life will keep you from connecting to pure Being.”

Definition: In this sutra, Patanjali lists the five major klesa. Klesa are obstacles, afflictions, or problems that keep a person from having a clear mind. After this list, he then details these five problems in Sutras 2.4-2.9.

These five afflictions are what some translators call Patanjali’s “theory” or “philosophy” of yoga. However, calling them such is somewhat misleading, at least in Western terms. “Philosophy” in Western culture usually means abstract ideas or beliefs that work for establishing a philosophy or theory of living. However, in India, a “philosophy” is something you see, feel, or know directly by intuitive perception.

In India, then, Patanjali’s insights are not abstracts. Instead, they are what in the West might be called a practical psychology that is learned from immediate experience. As a villager, teacher, neighbor, and part of a rishi community, Patanjali saw these personalities and their traits regularly. In addition, the core of each of these five personality constructions appear more clearly in deep meditation.

Iyengar notes, for example, that these five afflictions appear to meditators in reverse order in their subtle form. He says they “begin with attachment to life, move in the reverse order, contrary to spiritual evolution,...and end with...ignorance.” This certainly can be true when a meditator comes out of a samadhi meditation. A rough correspondence in the same reverse order –clinging to life, desires, fear, anger, egoism, and spiritual blindness –also exists in the major Hindu “chakras” or energy centers of the body, if you do not include the two centers said to be the most spiritual, the heart and above the head. Patanjali would have been fully aware of these bodily correspondences in his own meditation practices.

This reverse order also may be how personality problems gradually occur from birth. One might imagine the development of a child in its early years: first it naturally develops a deep clinging to body life. As it experiences more of being alive, it learns to avoid what is painful or uncomfortable, even to become fearful or angry about it. Soon the child develops a number of attachments to what is pleasurable, desiring more of them. From these experiences, it then develops a sense of me-ness or ego, thinking “I am this body and these feelings.” As a result, it misses “true seeing” because it is so busy with its bodily identity, dislikes, desires, and self-identity.

And the child cycles through this pattern repeatedly as it grows older. It learns to further develop security in its body, avoid discomforts (sometimes in fear or anger), choose what it desires to pursue (with longing and lust), and construct a mental ego that explains all of this. The result is a central Awareness that is unable to see truth.

Comment: Reading descriptions of negative psychological traits sometimes is unpleasant. This may be so because, as the joke goes about a college student taking their first Abnormal Psychology course, you tend to think you have each neurosis or psychosis as you read about it.

Sutras 2.3-2.9 hold up a mirror to humanity, describing five of the world’s major personality problems that hamper the clearing of the mind. All five patterns exist in almost every person to at least a small extent: they are, simply, part of being human. Moreover, they keep us so busy, within the demands and energies of each, that we can’t think of much else.

Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh offers a helpful observation on how people live with such personality problems. He says,

There is a Zen story about a man riding a horse which is galloping very quickly. Another man, standing alongside the road, yells at him, “Where are you going?” and the man on the horse yells back, “I don’t know. Ask the horse.” I think that is our situation. We are riding many horses that we cannot control.... Our lives are so busy.

The most important question is not which problems afflict you or how much; rather, it is how badly you want to be free of them or at least to decrease their hold on you. Once you’ve decided, then it is time to identify the path to take through the forest of problems and possibilities.

Patanjali teaches that in meditation, preferably at least for a time each day, you can move away from these five personality patterns and toward real peace, a sense of joy and love, and the development of inner strength or will-to-meditate. Meditation thus can become, in its early stages, a refuge from problems, a time to recoup one’s energy, and an opportunity to self-heal. It is a brief vacation, a chance to step outside the door of your personality house. Over the weeks, months, and years, its positive attributes increase.

Kriya yoga is Patanjali’s introduction to that beginning course in abnormal psychology. Vyasa, Patanjali’s first editor, says these five negative afflictions are “vibrating” and thus “give rise to the continuous flow of cause and effect,” creating ever more negative karma. Instead of living with those conditions, says Patanjali, you should take a look at yourself when you are negative and ask, “Is this really how I want to be?”

Also note that Patanjali does not condemn positive experiences in life. Such positive experiences can be so deeply imbedded in your normal life that you may think you have to get rid of them, too, to pursue the clear mind. However, this is not necessarily so. Patanjali already has stated in Sutra 1.33, “Loving kindness, no-matter-what caring, gladness, and equanimity, all of them–when applied to life’s ups and downs, and its virtues and vices–will calm your swirling energy forms.” He is not against every single thought, feeling, and physical experience, just those that take you nowhere.

Sutra 2.4: Avidyā kṣetram uttareṣām prasupta tanu vicchinna-udārāṇām

Literal translation: “Avidya [‘not seeing’ in Sutra 2.3]–the fertile ground of soil for the others (in 2.3): whether dormant like a seed, thinly stretching up, partly cut off, or growing vigorously”

Meaning: “‘Not seeing’ (the first obstacle in Sutra 2.3) is the field of soil from which grow the other four obstacles in 2.3. Any of these other four obstacles may exist like weeds in one of the following ways:

A chant in English: “Not seeing nurtures your weeds: seeds, spindly stalks, cut stubs still rooted, and wild growths.”

“Your blindness is the dark soil that bears weeds: as seeds, thin growths, plants cut but still rooted, and mature wild growth.

Definition: “Not seeing” is the first of the five klesa or problems Patanjali listed in Sutra 2.3. It means not seeing the truth of spiritual reality. Here, in Sutra 2.4, he says that it leads to the other four problems.

To explain this, he uses an agricultural metaphor. He calls the first klesa of “not seeing” a “fertile soil” or “field” in which the other four klesa grow. He then compares the others to how weeds appear in a farmer’s field. Each of the other four can appear in any one of these modes:

(1) “Dormant” or “sleeping” in the fertile soil, says Vyasa, is like “having a seed” that, lying in the dark, then might be awakened.

(2) Patanjali’s “thinly stretching” weeds also come from this soil, the type of weak plants that are relatively easy to pull up so that, perhaps like a farmer, you can destroy them by drying them in the sun or burning them in a fire.

(3) Some types of weeds have been “half cut” in pieces, likely meaning that they have been cut above ground but still have roots from which they keep growing and bothering a person.

(4) Vigorous, fully growing weeds are the blooming, whirling, negative energies that we often think about or feel. They also may be compared to perennials that revive themselves each year, spread, and grow out of hand, becoming a nuisance or infestation. These are old habits that die hard.

Comment: Here in Sutra 2.4, Patanjali develops his symbol of the karmic field of soil. Hariharananda, a twentieth-century founder of Kriya Yoga Centers throughout the world, speaks in a similar way of the types of growths from this soil. He says a person’s own “reservoir of karma is analogous to a seed; desire, greed and lust are shoots from the field; life is the plant and life’s pain and pleasure are the flowers and fruits.” While the specifics may differ regarding what types of growth are meant, the idea of different types of plants or weeds is the same as Patanjali’s.

Some translations accurately state the first two words of this sutra, avidya kṣetram, as the blindness of avidya being a “fertile field.” Unfortunately, most translations miss the additional development of this lengthy agricultural metaphor. Patanjali proposes a progression through four types of plants infesting the soil of a pasture. He moves from underground, dormant seeds to thin, spindling weeds, then to “half-cut” plants like those chopped just above the dirt but with roots still growing, and finally to fully blossoming weeds. In this sutra, you might say, the farmer is not taking proper care of the land, and so he cannot see its underlying Self/Being.

This sutra implies a very important set of questions: “How do you actually see your own negative thoughts and feelings that sprout, grow, and blossom within you?” Patanjali is asking you to move apart from each negative energy within you and–instead of becoming caught up in it–examine it. Learn to watch it begin and develop. Discover its source, pattern of grown, and blossoming result.

More specifically, one way of grappling with a negative energy is to ask yourself how–using Patanjali’s metaphor–it acts as a weed. Is it a wildly growing bush bothering you regularly? Or is it a weed you keep cutting but which then grows back? Is it, instead, a thin plant you can pull up by its loose roots to dry out? Or it is a surprise plant: something long ago buried and forgotten–or even a new and troubling thought that comes to you from the seeds of negative energies of others around you? Being able to back away from your and others’ negative energy and identify it will help you get rid of it, says Patanjali.

Even more important, though, is that these patterns of nurturing your weeds are caused by a blindness: your “not seeing.” In Kriya yoga, you gradually learn to recognize, appreciate, and join into the chorus of the True Self/Being–within or without–and let it help you clear your soil of weeds.

What is the “True Self/Being”? Patanjali explains it in Chapter 1. Your “Self/Being” from the first chapter is your connection to your inner True Self (Atman, Purusha, or the “I Am” spark of God within); or the wonderful parade and presence of Being everywhere around you whether you call it God, Isvara (Patanjali’s name), or something else. Becoming increasingly aware of “Self/Being” gradually cures you from the klesa of “not seeing.”

Sutra 2.5: Anitya-aśuci-duḥkha-anātma-su nitya śuci sukha-ātma-khyāter-avidyā

Literal translation: “Ephemeral, shadowy, bad-axle-hole troubled, and unaware of Atman/Self–[however] pretending to be eternal, glowing, rejoicing, and aware of Self = [all of this is] avidyā (not seeing)”

Meaning: “If you live as noneternal, dark, with pains, and with no true Atman or Self/Being–but you pretend to yourself that you are eternal, pure, joyful, and know Self/Being–then you are living in an illusion of not seeing.”

A chant in English: “A life impermanent, dark, and hurting with no light of Self/Being is blindness. The opposite of these means Knowing.”

Definition: This is another explanation of the first klesa or problem from Sutra 2.3, “not seeing.” In the previous sutra, Patanjali told us that this problem is the fertile soil for weedy growth of the other four major problems. Now here in Sutra 2.5, he further describes “not seeing.” He tells us that it refers specifically to people who say they are living a happy, meaningful life when really they are filled with negativity.

Comment: Who are these people who apparently are faking it–to others, themselves, or both? The Christian New Testament’s Book of Revelation has one example: “You say, ‘I am rich and have grown rich, and want for nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked!” The scriptural passage refers to people who think having all the material goods they want is the most important sign of happiness, no matter how unhappy they may be from day to day or even hour to hour.

Another example of someone faking it, in this case to himself, is the famous early-Christian theologian Saint Augustine of Hippo. He started his life as a well-to-do young man who ate, drank, and made merry on many occasions. When he began to understand how to meditate–to find Being–he infamously prayed to God, “Lord, grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.” His example demonstrates that people who pursue a life of constant pleasure think they’re happy, even while each morning their recovery time increases from the previous night’s excesses, and they grow steadily more bored with their pleasures or more trapped within them.

Yet another famous example is a world leader in the 1900s who started his career by passing out picture postcards of himself. Next, he wrote a semifictional autobiography inventing wonderful things about himself. In order to avoid sounding egotistical, he talked another writer into taking credit for authoring and publishing it as a biography. This self-aggrandizing young man worked his way up in politics to become the most powerful person in Europe for a time. However, his personal life was filled with increasing physical pains, diseases, drug dependencies, and fits of anger, paranoia, and melancholy. His name was Adolf Hitler. Many people adore power, seeing it as the ultimate success and happiness in life. However, without knowing True Self or Being, they grow increasingly empty, unhappy, and even mentally and physically ill.

However, before you start comparing yourself to people like these, remember that Patanjali appears to have been an astute observer of psychological problems in himself, too, as well as in those around him. He understood that if people didn’t have problems, they wouldn’t need to clear their minds. In other words, all of us are human, imperfect, troubled at times. Anthony the Great, one of the early Egyptian Christians who withdrew to live in the African desert west of Alexandria, said, “Whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” He added, “Without temptation, no-one can be saved.” In other words, you–and every other person alive–has negative energies. The key is to accept that this condition exists, identify the whirling negativities, and then let the light of Self/Being dissipate them.

It may help to remember, too, that Patanjali believed you can indeed feel “the eternal [and be] glowing, rejoicing, Aware of Self.” You gain these qualities increasingly, he says, the more you see Self/Being.

Certainly, there are times in life when you become closer, within or without, to Self/Being. Those are the times when you experience great peace and quiet, joy and love, or deep inner strength. Lowenstein, a physician, says that as you pursue meditation or expanded awareness of Being, “A feeling of deep pervasive relaxation and embodied joy spills into the whole body and mind...that were previously experienced in fleeting moments but can now be utilized as easily as spoken language.” Such experiences of Self/Being, he says, as they become more common in your life, “allow for extended periods of time...in the orgasmic moment of bliss....” Lowenstein declares that through such practices, “humans are hard-wired for joy.”

Sutra 2.6: Dr̥k (dr̥g) darśana śaktyoḥ (śaktyor) eka-ātmata-iva-asmitā

Literal translation: “Perceiver and the instrument of perceiving, twinned but enmeshed as single = a self in appearance: a me-ness”

Meaning: “The Seer or True Self, plus the experience of seeing/sensing, are separate; but if you enmesh them as one, together they appear as a false self or ego that feels like a real ‘me.’”

A chant in English: “Your thoughts and constructions are not your real You.”

Definition: This is the second klesa or problem Patanjali lists in Sutra 2.3: “me-ness” or egoism. Patanjali defines your real “You” as an eternal, infinite, pure, crystal-clear Awareness. If you say you are, instead, this or that type of person, thinker, actor in life’s dramas, whether controlled or uncontrollable, then you are living an illusion because these are only your outer self. You, the Awareness within this personality, are the real Self.

Comment: In his discussion of this second major problem, Patanjali is talking about having too much ego. Another way of saying it is that each person has a personality, and if you identify with it too closely, it gets in the way of seeing Self/Being.

On the one hand, it is normal to see a “personality” or constructed self in others and in yourself. Even the great founders of major religions such as Buddha, Lao-Tzu, Confucius, Jesus, Mohammed, and others appear to many people to have a personality of some kind.

However, this does not describe their inner lives. Nor does your outer personality need to limit what you are. Each person alive has a collection of tendencies, thoughts, dreams, feelings, and actions. But these are not your True Self. Your real Self is your eternal, pure Awareness, your “I-Am” with nothing else attached, rather than just a “me-ness” that is a construction. You live in this house called a personality, but you are not the house. The house surrounds you, but it is not you.

Patanjali’s purpose in this sutra is to help you step behind your normal egoisms–your limited small self or selves–and start you on the path to realizing these egoisms are constructions. He is not saying you have to give them all up and flee to the desert. Rather, he is saying, “Look for Self/Being. Then see what happens.” You’ll gradually develop a new, more true center. Many parts of your personality may remain the same; others may fall away. But you’ll be more really You.

Note: English versions of the Sutras sometimes translate this asmita or false self as an “I”-ness or “I am”-ness. Here, though, it is called a “me-ness” and egoism, instead. This is done to avoid confusion when the Hindu tradition of Atman (the individual’s True Self or spark of God) sometimes is called the “I”; in addition, the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions of the name for God “YHWH” or “Yahweh” often is translated as “I Am That I Am.” In those meanings, the “I” is Self/Being. Asmita means the lower, smaller, “me” self.

Meaning: “Pleasure is the substratum for desires that create attachments.”

A chant in English: “Pleasure may come and go, but longing for it is a distraction.”

Definition: Here in Sutra 2.7, Patanjali discusses the third klesa or problem from his list in Sutra 2.3: longing or attachment to pleasure. Note that he says the problem is longing or attachment–not pleasure itself. In Chapter 1, he listed many pleasures from ethereal to physical that are acceptable. The key is not to become attached to them. Longing too much or too long means you are attached. This attachment itself can become a whirlpool of distractions from seeing Self/Being. This is especially so if you develop an entire part of your self –it could be called the pleasure-seeking self–in which you center thoughts, desires, and plans around how to capture and recapture the pleasure. It is this small self that can keep you from seeing Self/Being.

Comment: In reading Sutra 2.7, it may be helpful to think of Sutras 2.7 and 2.8 as a sukha-duhkha pair. Sukha, here in 2.7, is pleasure, rejoicing, and feeling happy. In contrast, duhkha in 2.8 is “bad axle hole” experiences of unease and difficulties. The pair also appeared in Sutra 2.5 as opposites, and elsewhere in the Yoga Sutras.

Also noteworthy is the final word in this sutra. Raga means “longing” or “attachment.” However, it also means “color” or “passion.” Patanjali’s choice of words emphasizes that longing and attachment are a coloring of your mind, like the ink a squid squirts into the water around it to distract you from finding it. Raga can fill you with passionate desire for what you want to retain or regain–a heavy, thick energy of wanting that may be hard to dissipate. Occasionally such desire is a longing for Self/Being itself, which can be good if you then pursue it. However, much of the time, the whirling of such craving, hunger, or thirst is a strong distraction that leads you ever deeper into the complex spider’s web of desire.

There is a famous saying in the Christian Bible that speaks of passion. Paul of Tarsus, author of a number of the Letters in the Christian New Testament, speaks of one form of such pining or burning: sexual desire. After telling his readers that they are better off abstaining from sex, he then says, “But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to be consumed with passion.” Paul, a mystic, understood that some attachments to pleasures can be so strong that compromise may be needed by bridling them.

A similar point of view can be said of the biological requirement that we eat. Patanjali, who appears to teach moderation (like Buddha before him, who taught the “Middle Path”), might say that taking pleasure in foods that taste good to the palate is acceptable, not to mention the good feeling that comes to your body after eating food it needs. However, you should not become attached to these foods. On the one hand, it is good when your body prompts you to desire the right foods at the right time: that is a natural action on the part of the body. On the other hand, lusting after certain foods can become a problem, especially as the desires increase in frequency each day. For food, as with other pleasures, compromise and control often are the key so that you can continue to “see Spirit” instead of a constant parade of out-of-control cravings.

Literal translation: “‘Bad-axle-hole’ troubles [duhkha] leading to dislikes”

Meaning: “Earthly discomforts result in the negative-energy aversions”

Definition: In this sutra Patanjali defines the fourth klesa or problem from his list in Sutra 2.3. This time, the problem is the latter half of the sukha-duhkha pair: bad-axle-hole pains in life. Such troubles can too easily lead, says Patanjali, to avoidance behaviors. This means that a person builds a construction around within one’s small self in which you make an automatic list of what to avoid so that you feel no discomfort in life.

Thus, for example, whenever a muscle starts hurting, you stop exercising. Or, perhaps, every time you feel tired at breakfast, you decide to skip work. Does someone occasionally make you angry, such that you decide to completely avoid them? Do you dislike talking with a neighbor because they look ugly, haggard, or unkempt? If you build permanent habits based on occasional or small negative events, then you are creating a duhkha-avoidance self.

Comment: Patanjali is not talking about clear, rational decisions to stay out of significant trouble. Such reasoned thinking can help you stay safe, sane, and better able to clear your mind. Rather, he is describing using small or occasional discomforts, or one-time accidents or mistakes, as a false reason to stay away from the discomfort permanently. Yes, not jaywalking on a freeway is smart thinking, as is staying away from a harmful, toxic person. But keeping yourself aloof from situations that are small or infrequent obstacles means you miss out on what can help you grow and make you happier. How do you decide? “See the truth” in life by seeing it through Self/Being, and through that lens make your decisions.

It is worth a reminder, too, that in Chapter 1, Patanjali wrote about normal and even spiritual pleasures. He has given us positive methods in Chapter 1 for learning to see Self/Being. In Sutra 1.15, for example, he says, “What you’ve seen and heard are attractive objects; but you–without thirst for them, and ruling over them–can, in your pure, clear knowing, remain separate from them.” And in 1.17 he states, “Analytical thinking, creative movement, bliss, and an awareness of one’s own Self–all four can take you to a crystal-clear mind or level of pure Awareness (samadhi with seed).” These four and similar traits can help guide you in breaking up a negative, reactive personality trait.

Sutra 2.9: Sva-rasa-vāhi viduṣah (viduṣo)-api thathā rūḍhah (rūḍho)-abhiniveśaḥ

Literal translation: “One’s bone marrow [life] and sap flow through sages even, also growing downward as roots, dwelling deep (in the soil), intent on living”

Meaning: “Within a person, the marrow of the life force can dominate even the wisest, who find themselves rooted deeply in the ground of self with the intent to stay alive.”

A chant in English: “Like a plant grown deep in its soil, each of us is rooted to staying alive.”

Definition: This is the fifth and final cause from the list in Sutra 2.3 of major personality complexes leading to “not seeing.” It states, simply, that a too-strong love of life or of the life force–or a too great fear of death–can be a major distraction from seeing Being. Some people are so in love with the act of living that they want to experience everything; others are so afraid of death, especially nearer the end of life, that they do anything to avoid it.

Patanjali’s point of view–that you should not be trapped by attachment to the life force–is so hard to achieve at times that even otherwise very wise people are trapped in it. The life force is a biological imperative in a majority of species: stay alive at all costs. However, death also, at the right times and in the right places, should be accepted, especially when it is inevitable.

Comment: Was Patanjali simply saying in this sutra, “Don’t get stuck on the relishing taste of body life”? If so, he was expressing it as an extreme. In other words, he was not issuing a call to become a ascetic who lives in the desert or a bricked-up cell to forsake all pleasure in life. Loving life and enjoying it is, when not pursued too absolutely, a normal part of being human.

Patanjali told us in Chapter 1 about some of the normal joys of such living. In 1.21, he encourages us: “With your strong cheerfulness, you will quickly have success.” In 1.33, he remarks, “Loving kindness, no-matter-what caring, gladness, and equanimity, all of them–when applied to life’s ups and downs, and its virtues and vices–will calm your swirling energy forms.” He offers even more suggestions in 1.34-1.39.

Other religions state the same. Buddha made a very important point of it: those who seek through his Eight-fold Path of liberation should follow a “middle” way between extremes of ascetic denial and excessive pleasure. Several Greek philosopher-mystics recommended a life of reasonable self-discipline: The best-known, Plato, recommends moderation and temperance in his Republic: he imagines what a perfect society would be like, and he says that its leaders, known as “philosophers,” “will have the quality of gentleness. And...if educated rightly, will be gentle and moderate.... And [these philosophers] ought to have both these qualities...in harmony...[a]nd the harmonious soul is both temperate and courageous....”

The Jewish Bible’s Book of Isaiah offers several traits of the spirit such as “wisdom,” “understanding,” “heroism,” and “knowledge.” And the Christian New Testament’s Letter to the Galatians describes “fruit produced by the spirit”: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindliness, generosity, trustfulness, gentleness, self-control.” These fruits should not be mistaken for mere external acts; rather, they also are internal feelings.

Sanskrit Text: Patanjali, c. 400 BCE-400 CE

Contact: richard.jewell.net/contact.htm. Free Use Policy

URLs: YogaSutras.org or PatanjalisYogaSutras.org

Natural URL: http://www.richard.jewell.net/YogaSutras

See also Meditationary, a Meditation Dictionary.

About the Author