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.


For Queries:

Email - vishnushankarpv@gmail.com