Yoga Sutras - II, 10-11 THE FIVE KLESHAS ? THEIR REMOVAL

[b]II, 10 te prati-prasava heyah suksmah
II, 11 dhyana heyas tad vrttayah

When these
primal causes of suffering
exist in a subtle yet potential form
they are to be reduced then destroyed
by the process of involution
returning them to their source,
the true Self.

Their variations
are reduced or overcome
through
meditation. [/b]

M. Stiles

The kleshas may exist in an active, gross form that creates action or in a potential, subtle form that lies below the surface waiting to become an action. Swamis Shyam and Satchidananda explain that it is easy to begin with that which is gross and manifested and then progress to the subtle. Patanjali provides meditation as the tool to use to address the manifested kleshas. Through the process of meditations, there is a reduction in the the number of kleshas that are manifested as actions. Then with practice the sadhaka can begin to “trace them (kleshas) back into the subtle form (which are samskaras) and see directly that the ego is the basis for all these obstructive thoughts” (p. 94, Sw. Satchidananda). As the sadhaka progresses through the different stages of samadhi, this process of involution eventually takes the aspirant to nirbija samadhi – a state beyond the ego. When the ego is lost, the samskaras and the subtle form of the kleshas are gone too. Sw. Satchidananda likes this process to removing a tree, “when you uproot a tree, you cut the branches first and then dig to the very root.”

Swami Satchidananda. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Buckingham, VA: Integral Yoga Publications. 2004

Stiles, M. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Boston, MA: Red Wheel/Weiser LLC. 2002

Swami Shyam, Patanjali Yog Darshan, India: International Meditation Institute, 2001, 3rd. edition.

A sharing of my short note on II 10,11 that I had found again today from my first attempt through the yoga sutras…

PRIMAL SUFFERING may be manifested in actions or may lay dormant as subtle impressions.

MEDITATION on one’s actions reveals whether the actions may cause primal suffering. IF they will cause suffering, then suffering is averted by not engaging in the activity.

MEDITATION on subtle impressions will bring them to the surface so that one can become aware of them and can therefore control them. However, subtle impressions may only be eliminated when the ego is transcended since the EGO is the source of these subtle impressions.