Avidya, asmita, raga, dwesha, abhinivesha, the five kleshas, five sources of misery.

Chapter 8 - The Veils Of Misery 

Day 65

Prachchinna means one is dominant and the others have gone underground. And Udaara, means very generous, fully active. This you can find in the societies all over the world. All the miseries are present in their generous form in people who are not doing any practice or meditation. 

It is so nice of Patanjali to call them generous. There is no shortage of frustrated and miserable people all through the ages. Udaara is the form when they are fully active. A little fear should be kept in the body, so that the body can be maintained. 

It should be lesser than salt, less than a pinch. That is why it is called vidushoopi. It is found even in persons who gave much knowledge about scriptures. Actually, it is not fear. It is alertness. There is a difference. Alertness implies being careful. 

There is a similarity between alertness and fear. That is why Patanjali has used the word abhinivesha, and not bhaya, which means fear. There is no equivalent word for Abhinivesha in English. Abhinivesha in its crude form is fear and in its subtle form is care. 

You may be walking on the edge of a lake. You are walking carefully so that you do not fall into the water. If this care is not there for the body, then the body could just vanish, disappear. You may feel that when you are not the body, you do need not attend to it at all. 

To maintain the body, a certain amount of care is essential. And when this care increases little more than what is really needed then there is insecurity. If there is a further increase, then there is fear. If it increases beyond fear it becomes paranoia. It is just like increasing the amount of salt in food. After a certain amount, it becomes impossible to eat that food.

But here, one cannot justify, saying that a bit could be there. That a little ignorance can be acceptable. Tanu karana - think then down and reduce them to their minimum. Avidya, asmita, raga, dwesha, abhinivesha, the five kleshas, five sources of misery.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS