Klishta and Aklishta Vrittis — Painful and Non-painful Mental Modifications
Patanjali distinguishes between mental modifications that cause suffering (klishta) and those that do not (aklishta), teaching the practitioner to recognize the subtle difference and gradually withdraw energy from the former.
Sutra 1.5 makes a distinction of profound practical importance: all vrittis are either klishta (painful, afflicted — those that reinforce the kleshas and accumulate karma) or aklishta (non-painful — those not reinforcing the afflictions). This is not a binary moral judgment but a practical diagnostic tool: the practitioner learns to recognize which mental movements deepen suffering and which lead toward freedom. A thought of genuine compassion is aklishta even if it produces emotional pain; a thought of self-righteous anger is klishta even if it produces momentary satisfaction. The discrimination of klishta from aklishta vrittis is the beginning of viveka — discernment — which is the core competency yoga practice develops.
The modifications of the mind are of five kinds, and they are either painful or non-painful.
Buddhist scholar Mark Siderits connects Patanjali's klishta/aklishta distinction to the Buddhist concept of wholesome and unwholesome mental factors, noting that both systems are engaged in the same project: teaching practitioners to discriminate between mental movements that liberate and those that bind.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Written about in
- What the Yoga Sutras say about doubt
Sutra 1.5 divides every mental movement into klishta and aklishta, afflicted or unafflicted. Some doubt is afflicted: it defends a position or feeds discouragement. Some is not: it is discernment doing its job. The tradition asks you to tell which yours is before you try to get rid of it.