II. From this ego springs attachment (rāga) which is the inclination towards pleasure and consequently towards the means necessary for attaining it in a person who has previously experienced pleasures and remembers them.
II. Repulsion from pain also springs from the ego and is of the nature of anxiety for its removal; anger at pain and the means which produces pain, remains in the mind in consequence of the feeling of pain, in the case of him who has felt and remembers pain.
IV. Love of life also springs from the ego. This feeling exists in all persons and appears in a positive aspect in the form “would that I were never to cease.” This is due to the painful experience of death in some previous existence, which abides in us as a residual potency (vāsanā) and causes the instincts of self-preservation, fear of death and love of life. These modifications including avidyā are called the five kleśas or afflictions.
We are now in a position to see the far-reaching effects of the identification of the purusha with the buddhi. We have already seen how it has generated the macrocosm or external world on the one hand, and manas and the senses on the other. Now we see that from it also spring attachment to pleasure, aversion from pain and love of life, motives observable in most of our states of consciousness, which are therefore called the klishṭa vṛtti or afflicted states. The five afflictions (false knowledge and its four modifications spoken above) just mentioned are all comprehended in avidyā, since avidyā or false knowledge is at the root of all worldly experiences. The sphere of avidyā is all false knowledge generally, and that of asmitā is also inseparably connected with all our experiences which consist in the identification of the intelligent self with the sensual objects of the world, the attainment of which seems to please us and the loss of which is so painful to us. It must, however, be remembered that these five afflictions are only different aspects of avidyā and cannot be conceived separately from avidyā. These always lead us into the meshes of the world, far from our final goal—the realisation of our own self—emancipation of the purusha.
Opposed to it are the vṛttis or states which are called unafflicted, aklishṭa, the habit of steadiness (abhyāsa) and non-attachment to pleasures (vairāgya) which being antagonistic to the afflicted states, are helpful towards achieving true knowledge. These represent such thoughts as tend towards emancipation and are produced from our attempts to conceive rationally our final state of emancipation, or to adopt suitable means for this. They must not, however, be confused with puṇyakarma (virtuous action), for both puṇya and pāpa karma are said to have sprung from the kleśas. There is no hard and fast rule with regard to the appearance of these klishṭa and aklishṭa states, so that in the stream of the klishṭa states or in the intervals thereof, aklishṭa states may also appear—as practice and desirelessness born from the study of the Veda-reasoning and precepts—and remain quite distinct in itself, unmixed with the klishṭa states. A Brahman being in a village which is full of the Kirātas, does not himself become a Kirāta (a forest tribe) for that reason.
Each aklishṭa state produces its own potency or saṃskāra, and with the frequency of the states their saṃskāra is strengthened which in due course suppresses the aklishṭa states.
These klishṭa and aklishṭa modifications are of five descriptions: pramāṇa (real cognition), viparyyaya (unreal cognition), vikalpa (logical abstraction and imagination), nidrā (sleep), smṛti (memory). These vṛttis or states, however, must be distinguished from the six kinds of mental activity mentioned in Vyāsa-bhāshya, II. 18: grahaṇa (reception or presentative ideation), dhāraṇa (retention), ūha (assimilation), apoha (differentiation), tattvajñāna (right knowledge), abhiniveśa (decision and determination), of which these states are the products.
We have seen that from avidyā spring all the kleśas or afflictions, which are therefore seen to be the source of the klishṭa vṛttis as well. Abhyāsa and vairāgya—the aklishṭa vṛttis, which spring from precepts, etc., lead to right knowledge, and as such are antagonistic to the modification of the guṇas on the avidyā side.
We know also that both these sets of vṛttis—the klishṭa and the aklishṭa—produce their own kinds of saṃskāras, the klishṭa saṃskāra and the aklishṭa or prajñā saṃskāra. All these modifications of citta as vṛtti and saṃskāra are the dharmas of citta, considered as the dharmin or substance.