Seeing Beyond the Eyes: Freedom from Avidya and the Kleshas, From the Untruth to the Truth

In a world dominated by appearances, achievements, and distractions, it's easy to become tangled in illusions about who we are and what truly matters. Yoga, in its fullest expression, invites us to peel back these illusions and move toward a life rooted in clarity, awareness, and truth. One of the most powerful philosophical teachings that guide us on this journey is the exploration of Avidya and the Kleshas.

If you've been practicing Yoga for a while and are ready to go deeper, to truly embody the teachings off the mat as well as on, then the concepts of Avidya and the Kleshas offer a rich, transformative perspective.

What Are the Kleshas?

The Kleshas, as outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra (Book II, Sutras 3–11), are the root causes of suffering. The word Klesha can be translated as "affliction" or "obstacle." These are the mental and emotional patterns that cloud our judgment, bind us to suffering, and obscure our connection to our highest self.

There are five primary Kleshas:

1. Avidya – Ignorance or misperception of reality

2. Asmita – Egoism or false identification with the self

3. Raga – Attachment to pleasure

4. Dvesha – Aversion to pain

5. Abhinivesha – Clinging to life or fear of death

   
   

Patanjali suggests that all suffering can be traced back to these five root causes and at the very core of them all is Avidya.

Avidya: The Root of All Suffering

Avidya doesn’t mean a lack of education or book knowledge. It’s a spiritual ignorance, a forgetting of who we really are. It’s the mistaken belief that we are our thoughts, our bodies, our accomplishments, our pain, or even our personalities. Avidya is when we take the impermanent as permanent, the impure as pure, the painful as pleasurable, and the non-Self as the Self.

In other words, Avidya is the lens through which we see the world when we’re disconnected from our truth and as long as this lens is distorted, the other Kleshas naturally follow.

When we don’t see clearly, we over-identify with our ego (Asmita), crave pleasurable experiences (Raga), reject or avoid anything that feels uncomfortable (Dvesha), and hold onto life as if it's all there is (Abhinivesha).

Seeing Beyond the Eyes

Most of us live life looking out through our physical eyes, interpreting what we see through the filters of past experience, conditioning, societal expectations, and subconscious fears. Yoga, however, asks us to start seeing with our inner eye — our intuitive wisdom, or what some call the third eye. This is the seat of discernment and inner knowing. When we begin to "see" from this place, we start to unpick the layers of Avidya.

Seeing beyond the eyes means:

• Questioning our knee-jerk reactions.

• Noticing where we're attached to an identity or a story.

• Becoming aware of when we’re grasping for pleasure or avoiding pain.

• Watching how fear and resistance shape our actions and thoughts.

And, perhaps most importantly, it means creating enough stillness in our lives through Meditation, Asana, breathwork, or contemplation, to begin to observe rather than react.

Freedom from the Kleshas: A Return to Truth

The process of freeing ourselves from the Kleshas is not about becoming perfect or eradicating all desire, pain, or fear. It’s about waking up to what is true. It’s about seeing with more clarity and compassion, both for ourselves and others.

So how do we begin?

1. Cultivate Awareness

Awareness is the first and most essential step. Begin to notice the thoughts and feelings that arise during your Yoga practice, especially the uncomfortable ones. Can you sit with them without judgment? Can you trace them back to one of the Kleshas?

For example:

• When you feel triggered in a class because you couldn’t hold a pose, maybe Asmita (ego) is at play.

• When you keep returning to the same teacher or sequence because it “feels good,” maybe Raga (attachment) is present.

• When you avoid meditation because it brings up discomfort, Dvesha (aversion) might be there.

2. Practice Svadhyaya (Self-Study)

Yogic self-study means more than just reading spiritual texts (though that can help!). It means turning the mirror inwards. Start journaling, reflect on your motivations, notice your patterns. What roles do you play? Where do you cling to? What are you afraid to let go of?

Svadhyaya breaks down Avidya by revealing the truth behind our illusions.

3. Meditate on the Eternal Self

Yoga teaches that beyond all the changing phenomena (your body, your thoughts, your emotions), there is something unchanging and eternal: Purusha, the seer, the true Self. The more we connect with this presence, the less grip the Kleshas have.

Even five minutes a day of sitting in stillness and simply watching your breath can help shift your identity from the temporary to the eternal.

4. Apply the Opposite (Pratipaksha Bhavana)

This is a practice Patanjali recommends when we’re stuck in negative patterns. For example, if you catch yourself in Raga (grasping for something), practice Aparigraha (non-attachment). If you're steeped in Dvesha (aversion), practice acceptance.

Bringing the opposite quality into awareness weakens the grip of the affliction and restores balance.

5. Live Your Yoga Off the Mat

Asana helps prepare the body and mind, but the real work of freedom from the Kleshas happens in everyday life, when you pause before reacting, when you take a breath instead of a bite, when you let go of being right to stay in relationship.

The Kleshas don’t disappear overnight, and even the most advanced Yogis continue to work with them. But the more we become aware of them, the more freedom we create.

From Untruth to Truth

There is a beautiful line from the Upanishads that encapsulates the journey of Yoga:

"Lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality."

This is the journey from Avidya to Vidya, from ignorance to wisdom, from the conditioned self to the true Self.

Yoga doesn’t ask us to become something different, it invites us to remember who we already are. When we see beyond the eyes, when we gently dissolve the Kleshas through practice and presence, we don’t just “feel better”, we live better. More rooted. More open. More free.

And that, ultimately, is the gift of Yoga. 

If you are interested in learning more about the Kleshas and Avidya, join us for classes at Eden Hot Yoga during May as this is our theme of the month!