What are the five afflictions (Kleshas) that cause suffering, according to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras?

The five kleshas

The Yoga Sutras name five kleshas. The word klesha means something that causes pain or distress. These five are seen not as separate problems but as a chain, with the first one feeding all the others.

Avidya is ignorance. Not ignorance of facts, but a deep confusion about what is real and what is lasting. The tradition calls it the root klesha. When we mistake the temporary for the permanent, or the body and mind for the true self, the other four follow.

Asmita is ego, the sense of being a fixed, separate self. It comes from fusing the pure awareness inside us with the body and mind we happen to have.

Raga is attachment or craving. We chase things that once gave us pleasure, expecting them to do so again.

Dvesha is aversion. We push away things that once caused pain, even when they are no longer a threat.

Abhinivesha is the clinging to life, the deep fear of ending. The tradition notes that even the wise feel it. It is said to run in every living being.

Why ignorance sits at the root

The Yoga Sutras treat avidya as the soil in which the other four grow. Ego, craving, aversion, and the fear of death all depend on a mistaken view of who we are. If we take the changing, temporary self to be our true nature, we will naturally cling to what pleases it and fight off what threatens it. The tradition holds that the other four kleshas cannot be fully uprooted until this root confusion is addressed.

How the tradition says they are removed

The Yoga Sutras describe a practice called Kriya Yoga as the way to weaken the kleshas. It has three parts.

Tapas means discipline or effort, showing up consistently in practice even when it is hard.

Svadhyaya means self-study, which includes both honest self-reflection and engagement with teachings that point toward the true self.

Ishvara pranidhana means surrender or dedication to something greater than the small self.

The text does not promise that the kleshas vanish overnight. It describes them as becoming thinner, like a seed that has been roasted and can no longer sprout. Deep meditation is seen as the final ground where they are fully resolved.

How people engage with this today

Many people today come to the kleshas through yoga classes or reading, often without a traditional teacher. Some find the framework useful as a way to name what drives stress and reactivity. Others study it more formally within a lineage. How much weight people give to the spiritual side versus the psychological side varies widely. The kleshas are sometimes compared to patterns studied in modern psychology, though the traditions are not the same thing and the comparison has limits.