Sutra 5 Vrttayah panchatayah klishtaklishtah

Vrttayah: recurring wavelike psycho-energetic patterned fetters imposed upon the field of consciousness which distort, spin, and modify clear vision appearing as aberrations upon the innate psychic field of open and pure awareness. Plural possessive or vrtti.

Klishta: Having the characteristics of klesha (tainted, obscured, afflicted, hindered, poisoned, or pained)

Aklishta: Devoid, empty, or the absence of kleshic taint. Uncolored and unaffected by kleshic association.

Klesha: Obstruction, obscuration, hindrance, affliction, or taint. As we will see the kleshas lead to duhkha (suffering, discomfort, or mental pain/sorrow).

pancha: five

Tayah: Types or categories.

Commentary:

These vrtta (particular wavelike patterns of conditioned thought), which limit and fetter clear vision are of five types, which in turn can be classified as either those which lead to and are afflictive (klishta) or non-afflictive (aklishta). Afflictive means that they are derived from obstructions and hindrances (klishta) and/or they produce more obscuration (kleshas) and pain. Pain (duhkha) because kleshas produce pain (see Pada II). Those citta-vrtti that are devoid of such hindrances or afflictions (aklishta), are classified by Sri Patanjali as being neutral (aklishta). In yoga, ignorance or unawareness (avidya) is the chief klesha. It is said to be the karmic source of all the other kleshas, while the kleshas in turn are the cause of the samsaric mind and pain (duhkha). This is a two fold process, wherein the mental state of unawareness/confusion (avidya) creates duhkha' and the duhkha in turn is the cause of reinforcing the kleshas such as the desire to escape or dissociate from the pain (dvesa) and seek pleasure (raga( as a dualistic being (ego) through aversion, neurotic craving, and prideful delusion. Pada two goes into detail regarding these mechanisms. The main point here is that the citta-vrtti has to cease in that the citta-vrtti is the limited mindset. When it ceases (nirodha) then the unbound, limitless, and timeless awareness shines forth naturally. This is the essential point.

Here Patanjali classifies the vrtta in five broad categories each of which may be afflictive (kleshic) or be neutral (free of afflictive results or aklishta). We remember from the previous sutras that yoga is the cessation of the influences of all citta-vrtti (fragmentary, conditioned, and biased thought patterns), so that reconnection with our original integrity as union (yoga) with primordial spirit in All Our Relations is made whole and continuous through the cessation (nirodha) of all the citta-vrtti. The kleshas are defined as afflictive emotional patterns, which when activated trigger activities of body, speech, or mind which in turn, cause suffering (duhkha). These kleshas are generally agreed upon to stem from the primary klesha, egoic generated ignorance or confusion (called avidya) of our true nature. Egoic identification is not a mere misidentification with the body, but identification as a separate/independent self, apart from a non-dual whole -- a separate sense of "self-existence" or ego delusion (called asmita), where attachment (raga) or aversion (dvesa) to things as well as the body (such as fear of discontinuity or physical death called abhinivesa) are closely interrelated. Hence the kleshas are avidya, asmita, raga, dvesa, and abhinivesa. They can be broken down further in many permutations of the above such as in lust, greed, pride, jealousy, hatred, anger, arrogance, scorn, paranoia, and so on; but the major point is that the kleshas are poisons which severely taint and enslave our mind-field and dictate behavior which results in negative consequences forming vicious circles difficult to break. Thus Patanjali's essential message is that our liberation is dependent upon the purification (cessation) of the citta-vrtti which will at the same time break up the kleshic patterns, negative karma, and suffering (duhkha). This basic theme is repeated throughout the Yoga Sutras. These relationships are detailed by Patanjali in Pada II.

Patanjali in I.5 does not attempt to delineate the specific kleshas are caused by specific vrtti, nor conversely delineate what vrtti add to what klesha. Suffice it to say that these relationships are associated in constructing, holding together, and fixating the mental habituation fields (citta-vrtta) that compose the spiritual malaise of alienation, disconnection and separation preventing union (yoga). The citta-vrtti imply the kleshas (although not all citta-vrtta lead to or stem from kleshas). Both kleshas and citta-vrtti limit and obscure consciousness and being (pure cit and pure sat). Citta-vrtti describes the process from the point of view of psycho-energetic wave patterns emanating from specific psychic processes or manifesting them. Kleshas (as we will see in Pada II) are limitations described from the perspective of subjective states of being (such as ignorance, ego-sense, craving, aversion, desire for continuity/wholeness, etc). They are thus traced back to their causes and effects in terms of karma and samskaras. Effective yogic practices such as meditation will activate our innate awareness and hence the kleshas will become revealed and allowed to self liberate. Special practices remove the causes of kleshas (II.1 and II.2). This condition is described by the cycle of samsara (wheel of suffering), which says that because of limited awareness avidya (the primary klesha), which is itself is produced by (citta-vrtta), beings act (karma) creating negative afflicted future conditions and so on, until the cycle is broken through the cessation of the citta-vrtta and kleshas. That is how kleshas and karma are related.

Later we shall see that Patanjali suggests effective tools as yoga processes/practices (called sadhana) that are designed to release these fragmentary fluctuations of the mind (citta-vrtti) by practices that remove the kleshas, samskaras, vasana, negative karma, and duhkha or better their causes. Again as such, this is a process of purification or cessation (nirodha). Better still they are practices that move us into luminosity, love, and clarity.

A practitioner of authentic yoga can thus gauge their success in practice, by asking if the yogi is less enslaved and burdened by the oppressions of the vrttis, kleshas, samskaras, vasana, and karma or not? Are we less agitated, more empowered, more creative and fulfilled, not only in our yoga practices, but also in our daily activities as well? Do we notice (viveka) the disturbances coming up sooner and do we stay in awareness residing inside of our core energy, our true nature, our center, or heart ever more increasingly? We may ask what helps remove (nirodha) the vrttis and their manifest distractions, dissipations, cravings, anger, grief, jealousies, greed, and other kleshas fall away and cease?

Patanjali simply says that some vrtti are associated with klesha and others are neutral in respect to klesha (aklishta), but all kleshas are related to citta-vrtti. As will be elaborated upon in pada 2, the word, "klishta" is most often mis-translated as pain or suffering, its root being "klesh", which relates to the five chief kleshic afflictions. However, the Sanskrit word, "duhkha", is more directly used by Patanjali to mean pain or suffering. So we will use the English words, hindrance or affliction, for klesha, remembering that kleshas create duhkha (suffering) and generate unfortunate karma; therefore their relationship is established. Klesha can be described as afflictive states that obscure/cloud the innate intelligence or stain/disfigure the primordial awareness, so that it is not recognized as-it-is in its true form (as swarupa sunyam). See the extensive discussion in Pada 2 that details the negative/painful influences of kleshic activities.

Similarly "aklishta" is often misinterpreted as something desirable, good, beneficial, or even meritorious by some translators; however, it is cogent to point out that aklishta merely means the absence of hindrances, obscurations, or afflictions (the kleshas) -- neutral in this regard. This common misinterpretation of klishta/aklishta occurs because of the bias of some ideologues, religious fundamentalists, intellectuals, and academicians, who attempt to exhort the "goodness" of pramana-vrtti (the first vrtti translated as proven theories or "right" knowledge). Such is a grave error and severe misreading of Patanjali. The common misinterpretation of pramana will be cleared up in the commentary on the immediately proceeding sutras (mainly in I.7).

What Patanjali simply states here, in I.5, is that the following five categories of vrttis are capable of reinforcing or exacerbating kleshic activities (which eventually lead to suffering or duhkha) or at best they simply may be neutral in this regard. In the reverse way, not only do the citta-vrtti promote kleshas, but also the kleshas exacerbate the citta-vrtti -- amplifying the whirling of the mind (vrtti) or what we will label the samsaric cycle of suffering. In any case when the citta-vrtti cease, so do the kleshas. Then thee is cessation (nirodha), while yoga becomes accomplished. One way to get HERE (free of karmic causes and conditions) is to abandon the kleshas, as we will see in later chapters. No where does Patanjali suggest these citta-vrtti as a path, a practice, or something other than to be errors to be discarded including pramana, which is most evidently the most dangerous and sticky of the vrtta.