Kleśas unavoidably accompany life based upon our existential misunderstanding. If managed with discernment, they lead to happy and fulfilled lives. Otherwise, they lead to unhappiness, suffering, misery and death as a result of mental and/or physical disorders.
Sense of finitude defines our sense of helplessness. The stronger the feeling of finitude, the stronger we cling to our habits, addictions, attachment and obsession born of our likes. The stronger the feeling of finitude, the stronger the sense of aversion, jealousy and hatred born of our dislikes. The stronger the feeling of finitude, the lesser the self confidence and the higher the mistrust of the others and the fear of losing our possessions and our lives.
The sense of finitude results from our identification with our physical body. The more we remove our misunderstanding of body identification and develop the understanding of being more than mere body, the weaker will be the sense of finitude and helplessness and stronger will be sense of control and power on our destiny.
It is well understood that a threat to survival elicits a fight or flight response. Similarly, any threat to the perceived quality of life represented by our likes and dislikes also elicits a fight or flight response although less severe, with the severity of the response depending upon the perceived severity of the threat. In real life today, there are not many life threatening situations, but threats to our likes and dislikes are unending. The combination of the severity of these threats and their periodicity or continuation determines their toxicity to our health and wellness.
Patanajali offered ways to avoid the toxicity resulting from the fight or flight response of the mind-body. All the ways suggested by him elicit what researcher, Dr. Herbert Benson M.D. of Harvard Medical School, calls the relaxation response.