Swami Nishchalananda online Satsang 29/07/23

The subject for this episode is the ‘Kleshas’

This concept comes from the second chapter of Patanjali’s ‘Yoga Sutras’ and is a simple but elegant exposition of the ‘causes of fundamental unhappiness’

The keyword here is ‘fundamental’ as there are many dramas and experiences in life that bring happiness and unhappiness; the kleshas are on a very basic level.

 The five kleshas are as follows:

Avidya, Spiritual ignorance. Automatically when we are born we lose sight of any basic reality to our being, because of the very nature of having to live in the physical world. We have to learn how to survive and thrive in such a world.

Hence, as part of our survival in the world, Asmita, the sense of ego and identification with a personality arises. A natural consequence of Avidya.

Within that life as ego, we are necessarily driven by Raga and Dvesha, likes and dislikes, and this becomes our story, our drama. It may be that some of these likes and dislikes are already present in a person as ‘Samskaras’, those traits that seem to be already there in a developing child.

Finally, because of that ego sense veiling our true understanding, we believe that we are the body and the personality, hence the final klesha of Abhinivesha which is the fear of death. The fear of dissolution not only of the physical body but also the loss of the personality that we now believe ourselves to be.

The spiritual search retraces the process back to that basic ignorance, Avidya, in an attempt to find an understanding of our true identity.

The meditation that follows allows us to step back and observe the fear of death, our pleasures and dislikes, leading back to our sense of identity, ego, which may be defined to some extent by those likes and dislikes. And when we step back, maybe we get a glimpse that behind the temporary time-based story of life as ego, there is an identity beyond time which is simply Awareness, Consciousness. And that step out of Avidya can stay with us as something like an echo, as we return to our daily life. Ultimately, perhaps the possibility to identify with Awareness instead of with ego.

Questions and clarifications follow then a final short meditation.

Please enjoy.