The Five Afflictions (Kleśas)
Five poisons of the mind — and the deepest, the clinging to life, grips even the wise.
The kleśas are the five deep 'afflictions' that, in Patañjali's analysis, poison the mind and keep it bound: ignorance of one's true nature; egoism, the false identification of the self with the mind; attraction toward pleasure; aversion toward pain; and abhiniveśa, the instinctive clinging to life and dread of death that grips even the wise. Ignorance is the field in which the other four grow. The whole practice of yoga aims to thin and finally uproot them.
How it traveled
- Yoga-sūtraKāśī (Varanasi) · 375explains
Key passages(15)
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
Vijñāna-bhairava · Anonymous (Bhairava Āgama / Tantra)
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)