Iyengar: The five afflictions which disturb the equilibrium of consciousness are: ignorance or lack of wisdom, ego, pride of the ego or the sense of ‘I’, attachment to pleasure, aversion to pain, fear of death and clinging to life.
Carrera: Ignorance, egotism, attachment, aversion, and clinging to bodily life are the five obstacles.
Taimni: The lack of awareness of Reality, the sense of egoism or ‘I-am-ness’, attractions and repulsions towards objects and the strong desire for life are the great afflictions or causes of all miseries in life.
This is a very important sutra because the concept of klesa is presented. Klesa means affliction, pain, distress, sorrow, or trouble. But as Taimni points out it also means what causes the affliction, pain, misery.
Iyengar says that klesas are part of three levels: intellectual (avidya- ignorance and asmita – ego), emotional (raga-desire and dvesa – dislike) and instinctive (abhinivesa – desire to prolong life). Iyengar has a diagram that ties this to the four lobes of the brain. This is information that Pantajali did not have and many commentaries connect the latest science discoveries to the sutras.
Carrera describes a chain reaction of these afflictions. Ignorance is lack of awareness and egoism is the first result of ignorance. It is the ego that forms attachments by thinking they will bring happiness. And related to attachment is aversion- the avoiding of something we think will bring discomfort.
Carrera also makes a useful link to the Bible in this sutra. He says that the knowledge referred to in the story of Adam and Eve is the ignorance in the Sutras. Adam and Even understand their individuality but become ignorant of God, when they eat fruit from the tree of knowledge. Good and evil are analogous to attachment.
Taimni lists all the sutras that refer to klesas and there are many. He explains that the philosophy of these sutras is not intellectual but is a direct and useful means to solve the day-to-day problems of humanity (unlike Western philosophy).
The more I contemplate this sutra, the more I believe it. Take any situation where you are unhappy and apply this sutra to the issue in your mind and you may find, like I do: problem solved. Now to actually do it – that’s the hard part.
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