10.4 Potential Causes of Ill-Health: Tapatraya, Kleshas & Anatraya
Key Takeaways
- Tapatraya names three classes of affliction: Adhyatmika arising from oneself, Adhibhautika from other living beings, and Adhidaivika from cosmic or natural forces.
- Adhyatmika divides further into Sharirika (bodily) and Manasika (mental) suffering, so the classification covers physical illness and psychological distress alike.
- The three repetitions of Shantih in the closing mantra correspond to the three Tapas, which is why the closing chant and the pathology syllabus are the same topic.
- The five Kleshas of PYS 2.3 are the yogic account of the root cause: Avidya is the field in which Asmita, Raga, Dvesha and Abhinivesha grow.
- Anatraya is the classification of mental and emotional ill-health used alongside Tapatraya; Prajnaparadha - the failure of judgement in which one acts against what one knows - is the Ayurvedic term for the corresponding cause.
10.4 Potential Causes of Ill-Health: Tapatraya, Kleshas & Anatraya
Item 3.17 reads: "Potential causes of ill-health: Tapatrayas and Kleshas, Mental and Emotional ill Health: Anatrayas." It is asking for the tradition's aetiology — where suffering comes from — under three headings.
Tapatraya: the threefold affliction
Tapa means heat, burning, torment; traya means three. The Tapatraya classifies all suffering by its source, and the scheme is common to Samkhya, Vedanta and the Puranas — it opens the Samkhya Karika itself, which begins by asking how the threefold suffering may be ended.
| Tapa | Source | Content | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adhyatmika | From oneself | Internal to the body-mind complex | Sharirika: disease, injury, ageing, fatigue, organ dysfunction. Manasika: desire, anger, greed, fear, grief, envy, delusion |
| Adhibhautika | From other beings | Caused by other living creatures | Human violence, exploitation, betrayal; animal attack; insect bite; infection by micro-organisms |
| Adhidaivika | From cosmic / natural forces | Beyond the control of any living agent | Earthquake, flood, drought, lightning, extremes of heat and cold, epidemic, planetary influence |
The subdivision that carries marks
Adhyatmika splits in two — Sharirika (bodily) and Manasika (mental) — which means the scheme covers physical illness and psychological distress within a single category, rather than treating them as different kinds of thing. A candidate who can state this subdivision has demonstrated more than list-recall.
Why Shantih is chanted three times
Because there are three Tapas to be pacified. The closing invocation of every session is a request for peace from suffering arising from oneself, from other beings, and from cosmic forces. Section 4.6 covers the prayer; this section supplies its content. The connection is worth stating in a viva — it demonstrates that the syllabus has been read as a whole.
Which are amenable to yoga?
| Tapa | Yogic leverage |
|---|---|
| Adhyatmika | High. Directly addressed — asana and shatkarma for Sharirika, the whole psychological apparatus for Manasika |
| Adhibhautika | Partial. Conduct governed by the Yamas reduces the suffering one causes and, over time, some of what one attracts; the response to what remains can be trained |
| Adhidaivika | Minimal at the source. Nothing in yoga prevents an earthquake. What can be trained is the response — Titiksha, Samatvam, Dvandva-anabhighatah (PYS 2.48) |
That honest gradation is the answer to the question "can yoga prevent all suffering?" The tradition's own answer is no: it can prevent much of one class, mitigate a second, and transform one's relation to the third.
The Kleshas: the yogic root cause
Where Tapatraya classifies suffering by source, the Kleshas explain its mechanism.
Avidya-asmita-raga-dvesha-abhiniveshah kleshah — PYS 2.3
| Klesha | Definition | Sutra |
|---|---|---|
| Avidya | Taking the impermanent for permanent, the impure for pure, the painful for pleasurable, the non-Self for the Self | 2.5 |
| Asmita | Identifying the power of seeing with the instrument of seeing | 2.6 |
| Raga | Attachment following upon pleasure | 2.7 |
| Dvesha | Aversion following upon pain | 2.8 |
| Abhinivesha | Clinging to life, flowing by its own force, present even in the learned | 2.9 |
PYS 2.4 makes the structural claim: Avidya kshetram uttaresham — Avidya is the field in which the other four grow. It is a field, not a first cause in a chain: the others are not caused by Avidya so much as they cannot exist without it.
The four operational states (PYS 2.4)
| State | Condition |
|---|---|
| Prasupta | Dormant — present as seed, awaiting conditions (as in a young child) |
| Tanu | Attenuated — thinned by Kriya Yoga; present but weak |
| Vichchhinna | Interrupted — temporarily overridden by an opposing state (anger suspended while affection dominates) |
| Udara | Fully active — operating in thought, speech and action |
The clinical value of this scheme is that it explains relapse. A Klesha in the Tanu or Vichchhinna state has not gone; it is waiting. The practitioner who believes an attenuated Klesha is an eliminated one is precisely the practitioner it ambushes.
The pathway to disease
Kleshas → Chitta-vikshepa (PYS 1.30) → Vikshepa-sahabhuva (1.31) → Adhi → Adhija Vyadhi. Section 10.1 works the cascade through in detail.
Anatraya: mental and emotional ill-health
The syllabus's third heading covers the classification of mental and emotional ill-health specifically. Several classical frameworks answer to it, and a complete answer names more than one.
The Ayurvedic causes of mental disturbance
Ayurveda holds three general causes of all disease, and each has a mental form:
| Cause | Meaning | Mental form |
|---|---|---|
| Prajnaparadha | Failure of judgement — knowingly acting against what one knows to be right | The primary cause of mental illness in Ayurveda: acting against one's own understanding |
| Asatmyendriyartha Samyoga | Unwholesome contact of the senses with their objects — excessive, deficient or perverse use | Sensory overload, deprivation, or perverse sensory engagement |
| Parinama / Kala | The effect of time and season | Seasonal and life-stage mood disturbance |
Prajnaparadha is the concept worth learning properly, because it has no exact Western equivalent and is a strong viva answer. It names the specific failure in which knowledge is present but not acted on — the person who knows the practice helps and does not practise, who knows the food is harmful and eats it. Ayurveda treats this not as weakness but as the root disorder of the intellect, which is why the remedy is Satvavajaya — restraint of the mind — and Dhi-Dhriti-Smriti therapy: the restoration of intellect, retention and memory.
The mental doshas
Where the body has three doshas, the mind has two: Rajas and Tamas. Sattva is not a dosha — it is the healthy state. Mental disorder is therefore always excess Rajas (agitation, anxiety, mania) or excess Tamas (dullness, delusion, depression), or both.
The classical triggers
Ayurveda lists the emotional causes directly: Kama (desire), Krodha (anger), Lobha (greed), Moha (delusion), Mada (intoxication or pride), Matsarya (envy) — the Shadripu, six enemies — together with Shoka (grief), Bhaya (fear), Chinta (worry) and Irshya (jealousy).
The Gita's version of the same list is the three gates to hell at BG 16.21: Kama, Krodha, Lobha.
Bringing the frameworks together
| Framework | Question it answers |
|---|---|
| Tapatraya | Where does the suffering come from? — self, other beings, or nature |
| Kleshas | Why does suffering arise at all? — Avidya and its four growths |
| Prajnaparadha / Anatraya | Why do we act against our own good? — failure of judgement, unwholesome sensory contact, time |
| Adhi–Vyadhi | How does mental disturbance become physical disease? — the Kosha cascade |
A complete Level 3 answer on the causes of ill-health uses all four, and says which question each is answering.
Summary of Exam-Key Points
- Tapatraya: Adhyatmika (from oneself; Sharirika + Manasika), Adhibhautika (from other beings), Adhidaivika (from cosmic forces).
- Three Shantih = the three Tapas.
- PYS 2.3 five Kleshas; PYS 2.4: Avidya kshetram uttaresham — Avidya is the field.
- Four states: Prasupta, Tanu, Vichchhinna, Udara — which is why relapse happens.
- Prajnaparadha = acting against one's own knowledge; the primary Ayurvedic cause of mental illness.
- The mind has two doshas — Rajas and Tamas. Sattva is the healthy state, not a dosha.
- Shadripu: Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada, Matsarya.
Under the Tapatraya classification, into which category does an infectious illness fall?
How does PYS 2.4 characterise the relationship between Avidya and the other four Kleshas?
Why does the doctrine of the four states of the Kleshas explain relapse?
What does Prajnaparadha mean in the Ayurvedic account of mental ill-health?
How many doshas does Ayurveda recognise for the mind, and what is the status of Sattva?