current of self-energy.... He understands that the current of self, the life-
force, active while he is alive, merges with the universe when it leaves his
body at death.”^28 Aversion to death involves asmit ̄a and the mis-
identification of body, mind, and senses as the Self. Clinging to life indi-
cates attachment to sensory and cognitive experience, and makes one
subject to suffering as a result of separation from pleasant experience and
contact with painful experience. Fear of death derives also from attach-
ment to a sense of ‘I’: “In all living beings exists the self-benediction,
‘Would that I were never to cease’” [YBh 2.9].
Along with the five kle ́sasare the nine obstacles or antaray ̄ a ̄Óh(√antar,
‘between’; √ay, ‘to go’):
- Illness
- Apathy
- Doubt and indecision
- Carelessness
- Physical and mental laziness
- Lack of detachment or sensual incontinence
- Erroneous views
- Failure to achieve one of Yoga’s eight stages
- Instability in maintaining an achieved stage [YS 1.30]
Illness, vy ̄adhi, is first on the list of obstacles and is significant for reli-
gious therapeutics because physical illness is specifically identified as
interfering with religious progress. Illness and the other obstacles disturb
the mind and “turn the aspirant away from the direct path of Yoga” [TV
1.30]. Yoga conceptualizes illness in Åyurvedic terms, as disequilibrium
of the body’s three constituent dhatus ̄ or supports [YBh. 1.30; TV 1.30].
Besides the fact that illness can be an obstacle to religious progress, it can
be conditioned by mental states, which suggests the hygienic dimension
of religious therapeutics in Yoga: the therapeutic value of Yoga for treat-
ing psychophysical problems. Swami Adidevananda asserts:
... functional diseases are caused by mental conditions which affect the
nervous system. Maladjustment, insecurity, inordinate ambition, fear,
frustration and similar tensions affect mental conditions. Spiritual psy-
chology properly used at an early stage could arrest the progress of
symptoms. Hence the contribution of Yoga therapeutics should be
properly understood.^29
classical yoga as a religious therapeutic 103