The Five Kleshas — Roots of Affliction in Patanjali Yoga
Understand the five kleshas—avidya, asmita, raga, dvesha and abhinivesha—as roots of suffering in Patanjali Yoga, without blame or false diagnosis.
The Five Kleshas
Patañjali names five kleśas, or afflictive roots: avidyā (mis-knowing), asmitā (mistaken identification), rāga (grasping attraction), dveṣa (aversion) and abhiniveśa (deep clinging to continuity). Avidyā is the field for the others. This is a contemplative analysis of bondage, not a tool for blaming illness, trauma or poverty on a sufferer and not a way to diagnose anyone.
Direct answers to common questions
What are the five kleshas?
The five kleshas (kleśa, “afflictions”), in Yoga Sūtra 2.3, are avidyā (ignorance of one’s true nature), asmitā (ego-identification), rāga (attachment to pleasure), dveṣa (aversion to pain) and abhiniveśa (clinging to life, fear of death). They are the roots of suffering and of the actions that bind us.
What is avidya?
Avidya is ignorance in the yogic sense: taking the impermanent for permanent, the impure for pure, pain for pleasure and the non-Self for the Self (Yoga Sūtra 2.5). It is not lack of information but mistaken identity. Patañjali calls it the field in which all the other afflictions grow.
How do you overcome the kleshas?
The kleshas are overcome gradually. Kriyā-yoga — discipline, self-study and devotion — weakens them (2.2). Meditation removes their active forms (2.11). Discriminating knowledge, seeing the seer as distinct from what is seen, finally burns them like roasted seeds that can no longer sprout.
What are the four states of the kleshas?
The four states of the kleshas, in Yoga Sūtra 2.4, are dormant (prasupta), weakened (tanu), interrupted (vicchinna) and fully active (udāra). An affliction may sleep for years and wake under the right conditions. Practice moves them from active towards weakened, and finally to burnt seed.
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The five kleśas and their antidotes
| Kleśa | Meaning | How it shows | Practice that weakens it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avidyā | Ignorance of true nature | Mistaking body and mind for the Self | Svādhyāya, discrimination, meditation |
| Asmitā | Ego-identification | “I am my role, my looks, my success” | Witnessing awareness, service |
| Rāga | Attachment to pleasure | Craving, repetition, possessiveness | Contentment, moderation |
| Dveṣa | Aversion to pain | Resentment, avoidance, anger | Friendliness and compassion (YS 1.33) |
| Abhiniveśa | Clinging to life | Fear of loss and death | Devotion, contemplation of the deathless Self |
What the Shastra says
अविद्यास्मितारागद्वेषाभिनिवेशाः क्लेशाः।
avidyāsmitārāgadveṣābhiniveśāḥ kleśāḥ
Meaning: The afflictions are ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion and clinging to life.
— Yoga Sūtra 2.3 · Sanskrit text: Patañjali, Yoga Sūtra — Swara Yoga Peeth Sanskrit-primary corpus
The five are named in one breath. Seeing them as a family helps: a single reaction often contains ignorance, ego, desire, aversion and fear together.
अविद्या क्षेत्रमुत्तरेषां प्रसुप्ततनुविच्छिन्नोदाराणाम्।
avidyā kṣetramuttareṣāṃ prasuptatanuvicchinnodārāṇām|
Meaning: Ignorance is the field of the other afflictions, whether they are dormant, weakened, interrupted or fully active.
— Yoga Sūtra 2.4 · Sanskrit text: Patañjali, Yoga Sūtra — Swara Yoga Peeth Sanskrit-primary corpus
Ignorance is the soil; the other four grow in it, whether sleeping or active. This is why yoga works on understanding, not just on behaviour.
From subtle tendency to active suffering
Yoga Sūtra 2.4 describes kleśas as dormant, attenuated, interrupted or active. Practice therefore works with patterns before, during and after obvious reaction.
Klesha and karma
Patañjali connects affliction with action and consequence, but responsible teaching preserves compassion and complexity. “Your suffering is your karma” is not a therapeutic or ethical response.
Swara as a pause before reaction
Noticing breath and nostril flow can create a small interval in which attraction or aversion is observed before action. It does not erase structural causes or ordinary responsibility.
The kleshas form a chain of misperception
Avidyā mistakes the changing for the unchanging and the non-self for the self. From that ground arise identification, attraction, aversion and clinging to continuity. The chain explains why merely removing an unwanted object does not end the pattern that recreates suffering.
Kleshas may be dormant, weak, interrupted or active
Patañjali’s degrees help explain why a tendency can seem absent and return under pressure. Practice must address both visible reaction and subtle seed. This requires patience, honest self-study and conditions that do not continually strengthen the same affliction.
Healing is not blame
Recognising an inner pattern does not deny injury, injustice or biological illness. It identifies the part of suffering that can be transformed from within while practical protection, relationship repair and appropriate care address the surrounding reality.
Avidya is the field of the other afflictions
Avidyā mistakes the impermanent for permanent, the impure for pure, suffering for happiness and the non-self for self. It is not ordinary lack of information. A learned person can still be ruled by misidentification. Because avidyā shapes perception at the root, adding facts alone may not remove it; practice, discrimination and direct insight are needed to change the relation between seer and seen.
Asmita confuses the seer with the instrument of seeing
Asmitā joins the power of awareness with buddhi, the instrument through which experience is organised. In ordinary life it appears as the unquestioned certainty that “I am this role, thought or reaction.” A functional sense of identity remains necessary. Yoga addresses bondage through mistaken identity, not the destruction of personality or responsibility.
Raga grows from remembered pleasure
Attraction becomes afflictive when memory of pleasure creates grasping and the conviction that fulfilment depends on repetition. Enjoyment itself is not condemned. Meditation shows the bodily and mental movement of wanting before it becomes speech or action. In that interval, buddhi can ask whether the object is appropriate, whether enough is possible and what consequence follows from pursuit.
Dvesha grows from remembered pain
Aversion protects life when it helps us withdraw from genuine danger. It becomes a kleśa when remembered pain automatically governs present perception and behaviour. A boundary can be wise without hatred, and forgiveness cannot be forced while harm continues. Yogic work distinguishes protective action from the inner compulsion that keeps reproducing the past after the immediate threat is no longer present.
Abhinivesha is the deep clinging to continuity
Patañjali describes this affliction as flowing even in the wise. It includes the instinctive attachment to life and the fear through which finite identity defends itself. This does not mean that safety is spiritually inferior. Practice gradually reveals a ground of awareness not exhausted by the changing body and roles, while ordinary care for life and health remains a responsibility.
Kriya Yoga thins the kleshas
Tapas, svādhyāya and Īśvara-praṇidhāna bring disciplined energy, self-study and dedication to the afflictive chain. Meditation notices the pattern; ethical action refuses to feed it; devotion loosens ownership of the result. The text speaks of attenuation because roots can be dormant or interrupted before they are fully resolved. A temporary calm should not be advertised as permanent removal.
Pratipaksha and discernment interrupt the chain
When harmful tendencies arise, Patañjali recommends cultivating the opposite orientation and contemplating consequences. This is not cosmetic positive thinking. It redirects attention, emotion and action before repetition strengthens the seed. Over time discriminative knowledge reveals that the seer is distinct from the changing pattern. Practical restraint and deep insight therefore work together: one prevents fresh harm while the other addresses misidentification at its root. Compassion keeps this examination from becoming another instrument of self-hatred or judgment of others. Patience is essential because dormant tendencies may return under new pressure.
Where modern science meets this teaching
Psychology studies craving, aversion and fear of death in its own language. Meditation research shows that training awareness can reduce the distress these patterns cause.
- Goyal M et al., JAMA Internal Medicine 2014 — meditation programmes for psychological stress and well-being (systematic review and meta-analysis, 47 trials, 3,515 participants). Mindfulness meditation programmes gave moderate evidence of improved anxiety, depression and pain, with small to moderate effects against active controls. Limit: Meditation was not better than other active treatments such as drugs or exercise, and evidence was weak for sleep, attention and positive mood.
- Lindahl JR et al., PLoS One 2017 — “The varieties of contemplative experience”, interviews with meditators and teachers in three Buddhist traditions. Mapped 59 kinds of meditation-related experience across seven domains, from very positive to distressing, and 26 factors that shaped how people coped. Limit: Qualitative and Buddhist-specific; it describes the range of experience and does not measure how often each occurs.
How this connects to Swara Yoga
Swara practice catches affliction near its beginning: a change in breath may appear before anger, fear or craving becomes speech and action. Observation creates a moment for pratipakṣa, restraint or a wiser response. Learn awareness before action.
Practice, guidance and health
Do not label another person’s trauma response, psychiatric symptoms or protective boundaries as spiritual ignorance to be overcome.
What is the right next step for you?
Courses suit people who want a steady, step-by-step practice with a teacher, online or at the ashram in Rishikesh. A general course is not the right first step for a specific health condition or an acute crisis; that needs practice prescribed for the person’s state.
Read next: Patanjali Kriya Yoga
Swami Charanashrit Giri · Swara Yoga Peeth, Rishikesh
Frequently asked questions
Are the kleshas the same as sins?
No. Kleśas are afflictions — patterns of misunderstanding and reaction — not moral crimes to be punished. Everyone has them until they are understood. The yogic response is clear seeing and practice, not guilt. This makes the teaching compassionate as well as precise.
Why is fear of death called a klesha?
Abhiniveśa, clinging to life, is present even in the wise, says Patañjali (2.9), because it is rooted in deep impressions. It distorts many choices. Yoga does not deny the value of life; it loosens fear by revealing the awareness that does not die.
How are kleshas related to karma?
Patañjali (2.12) says the store of karma has the kleśas as its root. Actions done from ignorance, ego, craving, aversion and fear leave impressions that bring future experience. When the root weakens, actions bind less; this is why kleśa work is central to freedom from karma.
Can therapy help with the kleshas?
Good psychological therapy can loosen patterns of craving, aversion and fear, and many yogis value it. Yoga adds a further aim: seeing the seer distinct from the mind, which uproots ignorance itself. The two can work together, each within its own scope.
What is the burnt seed in Yoga?
Commentators compare fully weakened afflictions to roasted seeds: still present as form, but unable to sprout. A liberated person may still have impressions, but they no longer produce bondage. This image describes the end of kleśa practice, reached through discrimination and meditation.
How does Swara Yoga reveal the kleshas?
Strong craving, anger or fear change the breath at once — its speed, depth and nostril flow. Swara practice trains noticing those changes as they happen, which creates a pause before reaction. That pause is where the kleśas start to lose their automatic power.
Sources
- Patañjali, Yoga Sūtra 2.3–11 and 2.12–16.
- Bhagavad Gītā 2.62–63 offers a related but distinct analysis of fixation, desire, anger and impaired discernment.
- Yoga Sūtra 2.3 — Patañjali, Yoga Sūtra — Swara Yoga Peeth Sanskrit-primary corpus.
- Yoga Sūtra 2.4 — Patañjali, Yoga Sūtra — Swara Yoga Peeth Sanskrit-primary corpus.
- Goyal M et al., JAMA Internal Medicine 2014 — meditation programmes for psychological stress and well-being (systematic review and meta-analysis, 47 trials, 3,515 participants).
- Lindahl JR et al., PLoS One 2017 — “The varieties of contemplative experience”, interviews with meditators and teachers in three Buddhist traditions.
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