Kleśas can be roughly translated as flaws of the mind. By the way, all explanations of Sanskrit terms that I give here are only rough translations at best for two reasons: I am no Sanskrit pundit and secondly, these terms do not really have equivalents in English.
Patanjali says that we develop attachments towards anything that gives us pleasure – sukha – and try to avoid anything that brings us pain – dukha.
A few days ago, I began to think of kleśas with respect to the human learning process. We touch the flame of the candle as a child and learn that it can burn us (pain, dukha). We learn to stay away from the candle. But somewhere down the line, we learn that the candle also gives us light and warmth (comfort, sukha). And we learn how to handle it without burning ourselves.
In life, we encounter many things like the candle that can give us pleasure and pain. We embrace the pleasurable, in expectation of the same experience again and again. We turn away from the painful, again in similar expectation of the same experience.
However, our expectations, our learnings, or our memories do not necessarily define reality. The kleśas cloud our mind and do not allow for light, clarity, learning. It’s only when we see the kleśas for what they are and not let them become our filters, we have a chance at learning, light, sattva. And this opportunity comes very rarely, unless we make it a practice to keep observing our mind.
If you look at the progress of humanity so far, we can see that most of it has happened only when we didnt let the kleśas filter reality for us. Take fire itself. We had to overcome our fear of it, our experience of pain from the fire to be able to handle it.
We also had to understand that sometimes we have to give up on our comfort and security (rāga) to achieve something for our survival. Maybe cross the deep, fast-flowing river to get to the land which promised bounties of food.
So, in a way, kleśas enable learning. Fire means hot. Fire can hurt.
Kleśas enable protection of the self. They enable our survival. Avoid the fire, else you will be burned.
However, a greater learning awaits when one is able to learn despite the kleśas. If we always let a previous experience make or mar our present learning, how will we ever touch the new? This is especially true of our emotional learnings.
It is a struggle to unlearn our emotional experiences when the mind is constantly holding on to memories of the pleasurable and shying away from memories of the painful. Do we stand a chance at harmonious living with this person with whom we have struggled for the last 20 years? Are we going to let the memory of each broken promise, each painful encounter dictate the possibilities of this moment?
Yoga says that in reality there are many possibilities. It depends if we can see them. And to see them, we need to practise. Practise yoga in every aspect of our life. And this begins with the most gross part of our existence, our body, and something that is simultaneously gross and subtle, our breath.
As each breath is born anew, can we look at our selves, our day-to-day transactions, our circumstances with a similar newness and freshness? Like the breath, can we learn to travel through the many layers of our existence, yet be capable of being untouched by dukha and touch the ananta, the unchanging and the unending?
2025 awaits us. Let’s resolve to truly live each moment of the new year with mindfulness, with a constant attention to our breath, with an awareness that the klesas can be a part of our learning process. Let’s give ourselves and our relationships a new chance, a new beginning. Let’s practise.
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