haka will be clear when we have considered the ultimate results of practising Tapas,
Svadhyaya and Isvara-Pranidhana in II-43-45.
The ultimate stage of Samadhi is, of course, reached through the practice of Is-
vara-Pranidhana as indicated in I-23 and II-45. Although the two results of practising
Kriya-Yoga enumerated in II-2 are related to the initial and ultimate stages of Yogic
practice they are really very closely connected and in a sense complementary. The
more the Klesas are attenuated the greater becomes the capacity of the Sadhaka to
practise Samadhi and the nearer he draws to his goal of Kaivalya. When the Klesas
have been reduced to the vanishing point he is in habitual Samadhi (Sahaja-Samadhi),
at the threshold of Kaivalya.
We shall take up the discussion of these three elements of Kriya-Yoga as part of
Niyama in II-32.
- The lack of awareness of Reality, the sense of egoism or ‘I-am-ness’, at-
tractions and repulsions towards objects and the strong desire for life are the great af-
flictions or causes of all miseries in life.
The philosophy of Klesas is really the foundation of the system of Yoga out-
lined by Patanjali. It is necessary to understand this philosophy thoroughly because it
provides a satisfactory answer to the initial and pertinent question, ‘Why should we
practise Yoga?’ The philosophy of Klesas is not peculiar to this system of Yoga. In its
essential ideas it forms the substratum of all schools of Yoga in India though perhaps it
has not been expounded as clearly and systematically as in the Samkhya and Yoga
Darsanas.
Many Western scholars have not fully understood the real significance of the
philosophy of Klesas and tend to regard it merely as an expression of the pessimism
which they think characterizes Hindu philosophical thought. At best they take it in the
light of an ingenious philosophical conception which provides the necessary founda-