The Five Pain-Bearing Obstructions to Liberation

*purely based on Patanjali Yoga Sutras. 

There are five pain-bearing obstructions or Kleshas, which bar the human beings from knowing their higher-self. These pain-bearing obstructions always keep us in ignorance and together with Karmasaya or the sum total of accumulated samskaras (the good and bad deeds) becomes responsible for further rebirth and continuation of suffering in a body.

So, what are they? The five pain-bearing obstructions are 

1. Avidya (Ignorance),
2. Asmita (I),
3. Raga (Attachment),
4. Dvesha (Aversion or Hatred), and 
5. Abhinivesa (Fear of death).

Avidya:

अनित्याअशुचिदुःखानात्मसु नित्यशुचिसुखाअत्मख्यातिरविद्या ॥५॥

anityā-aśuci-duḥkha-anātmasu nitya-śuci-sukha-ātmakhyātir-avidyā ॥2.5॥

Ignorance is to consider as everlasting which is not everlasting, as pure which is not pure, as pleasure which is pain, and as the Self which is not the Self (2.5)

Ignorance of our real-self

          Avidya is nothing but the false notion that we are the body. The vast majority of mankind are not conscious of their higher-self. We are no different from animals expect for the intelligence faculty (for social and material progress) and the discrimination faculty (for spiritual progress), which when best employed take us to the higher reality.

When these faculties are not properly employed for higher pursuit, men behave like animals. And we can see them solely living for their bodies, living at the cost of other beings (by killing), living purely for sensual gratifications, and finally the fear of being killed or decimated. 

          Avidya is taking the body and the body-related objects as final. Men believe in the reality of the body and base their life upon it. But the body is non-eternal—subjected to change, disease, and death; the body is impure; the body brings pain; the body constitutes the lower-self. But what we actually think of the body is this—that the body lasts forever; the body is a desirable object; the body brings happiness; the body is the Atman or absolute bliss. This is ignorance. 

The idea of body brings nothing but pain. Therefore, we must shed the ignorance that we are the body and for that, we have to shed all the remaining pain-bearing obstructions as well. The other four pain-bearing obstructions operate on the lower-self, with ignorance as its basis. When these obstructions are rooted out, the knowledge of our higher-self dawns. 

Asmita:

दृग्दर्शनशक्त्योरेकात्मतैवास्मिता ॥६॥

dr̥g-darśana-śaktyor-ekātmata-iva-asmitā ॥2. 6॥

Asmita is the identification of the Purusha or Pure consciousness with Buddhi or intellect (2.6)

I am the body. 

         

Asmita is the delimiting factor. It is the ‘I’ factor, which says that I am the body. It is the ‘I’ factor which brings all the limitations associated with the body. It is the ‘I’ factor which makes us finite, miserable, and helpless creatures. It is the ‘I’ factor which sees many instead of ‘One’ and which sees the multitude of names and forms.

Instead of identifying ourselves with the higher-self, we identify ourselves with the lower-self or ‘I’. Ignorance forms the basis of this 'I'. The idea of 'I' is nothing but a limitation. All suffering is because of the feeling of this limitation. In order to overcome ‘I’, we must overcome all the pain-bearing obstructions associated with ‘I’. The other three pain-bearing obstructions namely attachment, hatred, and fear, feed the ‘I’ and make it stronger. One has to stop the feed in order to overcome this obstruction.

Raga:

सुखानुशयी रागः ॥७॥

sukha-anuśayī rāgaḥ ॥2. 7॥

Attachment is that which results from Pleasure (2.7)

          The attachment has the objects as its basis. Objects are both animate and inanimate. Animate objects constitute all our loved ones associated with the body. Inanimate objects refer to the material object that we are attached to—Our gadgets, home, car, etc.

          The main basis of attachment is taking the objects and the material world to be real. We believe that these objects bring an everlasting source of happiness. In other words, we look for absolute happiness or Atman or God in the animate and inanimate objects. Attachment is the source of pain, because we cannot find absolute bliss in objects, as objects are subjected to modifications of prakriti. 

          In order to overcome attachment, one has to give up all objects completely or one has to remain detached from it mentally. Those who practice devotion to God associate all animate and inanimate objects with God. In this way, they overcome attachment. They overcome ‘I’ by associating it with God. They say ‘I am the servant of God’, ‘I am God’s child’, etc. The ‘I’ associated with God is harmless and doesn’t bind us to the body. When the ‘I’ associated with God takes a higher turn, the ignorance is overcome and culminates in the realisation of the higher-self.

Dvesha:

दुःखानुशयी द्वेषः ॥८॥

duḥkha-anuśayī dveṣaḥ ॥2. 8॥

Aversion is that which results from pain or misery (2.8)

Love and hatred. 

Attachment always backfires. The object which we are dearly attached to is the object which we often hate. Men who are under the spell of delusion feel the alternating currents of attachment and aversion flowing towards the same object.

Men cannot altogether come out of the objects because of their binding commitments. They neither can completely dissolve themselves into the object nor can they completely extricate out of it. It is like both centripetal and centrifugal forces put together. These men revolve around the object just like the satellite revolves around the earth. And what remains, at last, is the pain of revolving and roaming endlessly.

Aversion occurs because of the modification of pleasure into pain. All enjoyments have body limitations. The suffering is always directly proportional to the enjoyment. One cannot derive infinite pleasure in the body for it results in disease and sickness. We are already infinite and infinite can only be satisfied by infinite and not by finite pleasures. Therefore, we have to overcome aversion by not associating ourselves with the object. 

Abhinivesa:

स्वरस्वाहि विदुषोऽपि समारूढोऽभिनिवेशः ॥९॥

svarasvāhi viduṣo-'pi samārūḍho-'bhiniveśaḥ ॥2. 9॥

As in the ignorant so in the learned the firmly established inborn fear of death is the affliction called abhinivesa (2.9)

Fear of RIP.

After having lived their lives completely surrounded by objects, and with the body as its basis, men become fearful of their non-existence and non-existence of the objects as well.

They fear death, and they desperately hold on to objects as their saviour. Men even feel the loss of existence, even before death, when they lose objects. This is called abhinivesa.

But it can be overcome. A God-centred life or a life based on higher principle dispels this fear of annihilation. A man who leads a life based on higher principles and the one who has overcome ignorance of the body will become immortal. 

Death is meaningless for them, because they never had objects around them, and because they never had an object, they never had the ‘I’ principle associated with it, and with the absence of the ‘I’ principle, the knowledge of the higher reality dawns on them and they become free forever. They merge into the higher reality, a reality devoid of name and form and a reality which is infinite and free from all limitations.

Therefore, come out of this ignorance called the body. Come out! Come out! The body is absolute nonsense.

Thank You.


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The Search for a Perfect Reality

Spirituality is a search for a perfect reality. The reality around us is a flawed one, beset by many limitations. There is a limitation of the body – in the form of pain, disease, and death. There is a limitation in the sensory enjoyments – in the form of duration, the conversion of pleasure into pain, the degrading nature of the sensory pleasures, the loss of energy, and the unsatisfactory nature of such enjoyments. There is a limitation in the emotional level – in terms of pain arising out of the emotional attachment towards a person or a thing, in terms of hindrances which arise as the result of emotional attachment, and in terms of delusion which arise as a result of such attachment.

The present reality can be summed up in one word – limitation. Most of us do not recognize this reality because the present life offers all forms of security – in terms of wealth, and in the form of near and dear ones. Men in general, build the world of reality around these objects. And when the reality crumbles, it leaves them confused. The reality which had been so far a ‘picture-perfect’ had now become ‘picture-imperfect’. But many, instead of finding a perfect reality, again take recourse to the old method of finding reality in the objects. They always try to reconcile themselves to the present reality, irrespective of the calamity that has befallen. They simply lack the essential strength to find out the perfect reality. They had become weak, having had lived their lives around these objects. They cannot altogether shake off these impermanent objects to find the real one. But a time comes when nature will forcibly make us do.

The search for perfect reality.

We have known the imperfections of the present reality, and therefore, the perfect reality should be free from all these defects. And these are the pre-requisites of this perfect reality.

1.   A reality which is free from all bodily limitations – of pain, disease, and death.

2.  A reality which is free from all limitations arising out of the material objects.

3.    A reality which is free from all emotional limitations.

4.  A reality in which we derive infinite joy or bliss, or a reality devoid of pain altogether.

5. A reality which is infinite, not bound by time, space, and causation.

Religion is a way of finding out the perfect reality. There are many spiritual solutions which the religions offer. The Hindu religion offers a wide range of spiritual solutions, starting from a God with name and form, to Brahman, which is devoid of name and form. The Samkhya and Yoga offers a solution of freedom of Purusha from the bondage of Prakriti. The Buddhist religion, offer a solution of middle path and nirvana to arrive at the perfect reality.

One has to choose the right means to arrive at the perfect reality, according to the spiritual temperament.

The perfect reality is universal in character. Men are generally of the opinion that perfect reality involves the annihilation of the individual being, whereas, in reality, the perfect reality is but the expansion of the individual being into a universal being. A universal being, cannot be of infinite stature in the form of a body. One cannot have a body of the stature of this universe. One can exist as a universal being, in the form of a higher reality – a pure, perfect, and a being devoid of name and form.

I am Universal; I live in all. 

Therefore, all spiritual progress is towards a reality devoid of name and form and a reality which gives absolute joy and peace. Therefore, move towards this perfect reality and shed off this unreal images. The idea of body is nothing but ignorance. Shake off  this ignorance and be perfectly free.

Thank You. 


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Email - vishnushankarpv@gmail.com