Patanjali's yoga sutras

अविद्यास्मितारागद्वेषाभिनिवेशाःक्लेशाः॥३॥

avidyā-asmitā-rāga-dveṣa-abhiniveśaḥ kleśāḥ

The obstacles are:

avidyā – ignorance

asmitā – egotism, self-centeredness

rāga राग – cravings, lust, desire, need, want

dveṣa – aversion, hate, fear

abhiniveśaḥ – attachment, clinging, fear of death or loss

Avidyā is ignorance, literally to not see or not know. It is a compound of the prefix a, meaning not, and vidya, derived from the Sanskrit root vid, which means to see, to knowingly see, to know.

Asmitā is egotism or self-centeredness, literally, I am-ness. Asmi means “I am”. Ta is the suffix “ness”.

Rāga is craving. It literally means color or hue. It derives from ranj, “to glow” or “to be affected, excited”. In Āyurveda, rāga is a medical symptom, the reddening of the skin. In art, rāga is the color crimson. In music, rāga is the type of melody, a particular set of notes that has the power to take hold of the listener and evoke a certain emotion or feeling. In yoga, rāga isn’t always negative. For example, Rāga-Bhakti is the passionate desire to be one with God.

Dvesha (hate, aversion)

The opposite of rāga and dvesha is purnatva, the wholeness of perfect satisfaction and complete fearlessness. Purnatva is personified in the Cosmic Consciousness of Shiva. The individual, seemingly separate, consciousness of the ego is full of insatiable cravings and crippling aversions, but Shiva (universal consciousness) has no wants. The purnatva of Shiva is the total freedom to remain absolutely self-satisfied in a state of perfect peace. Shiva’s purnatva gets a little smushed as it squeezes into the limits of individual consciousness. Trapped within the body, Shiva’s purnatva gets so distorted that need and fear seem constant. It is up to you to remember that purnatva is the life energy that causes you to exist, it is where you come from and who you are. Purnatva is your birthright.