yoga philosophy
How does Patanjali's Yoga Sutra define attachment (raga) and list it among the five kleshas?
The five kleshas
The Yoga Sutra lists five kleshas. The word klesha means something like affliction or cause of pain. The five are: avidya, which is ignorance of the true nature of things; asmita, a strong sense of 'I' tied to the ego; raga, attachment to pleasure; dvesha, aversion or pulling away from pain; and abhinivesha, the clinging to life and the fear of ending. These five are seen as the root causes of suffering and of the mind's restlessness.
What raga means
Raga is defined in the Yoga Sutra as the mind dwelling on pleasure and on whatever has brought pleasure before. It is not just enjoying something in the moment. It is the lingering pull, the wanting more, the way the mind keeps returning to a good experience and reaching for it again. The tradition sees this as a trap because pleasure changes and does not last, so the mind chasing it stays unsettled.
How the kleshas feed each other
The tradition treats avidya, ignorance, as the root from which the other four grow. Because we misread what is real and lasting, we build a strong sense of self. From that sense of self, we reach toward what feels good, which is raga, and push away what feels bad, which is dvesha. Abhinivesha, the fear of ending, sits underneath all of them. So raga is not a standalone problem. It grows out of a deeper confusion and keeps the others alive. Vyasa's commentary on the Sutra develops this picture of the kleshas as a chain, each one supporting the next.
Why this still matters
People come to this teaching from many directions today, through yoga practice, through Vedanta study, or simply through curiosity about why the mind keeps wanting things it already has or has lost. The teaching does not say pleasure is wrong. It points to the clinging as the problem, the way the mind cannot let a good thing simply be what it was. That distinction between enjoying and clinging is what practitioners and students tend to sit with most.