---
type: Concept
bundle: yoga-darshana
bundle_version: "0.2.0"
id: dvesha
title: "Dveṣa"
iast: "Dveṣa"
devanagari: "द्वेष"
description: "The structural aversion built from remembered pain, the fourth kleśa — not hatred, not anger."
darshana:
  - Pātañjala Yoga
  - Sāṃkhya
text_source: "YS 2.8"
tags:
  - Yoga
  - Patanjali
  - klesha
  - aversion
  - repulsion
  - citta
  - prakriti
not:
  - term: "hatred"
    why: "hatred is an intense, conscious emotion; dveṣa operates as a structural lean in citta, often below conscious awareness"
    instead: "Keep Dveṣa untranslated; do not substitute the English term."
  - term: "aversion"
    why: "close, but aversion in English implies an active feeling; dveṣa is a pre-felt directional bias in the cognitive apparatus"
  - term: "repulsion"
    why: "repulsion implies a conscious reaction; dveṣa is often invisible, filtering perception before reaction forms"
  - term: "anger"
    why: "anger is one possible downstream expression of dveṣa, not its definition; dveṣa can manifest as subtle avoidance without any anger"
  - term: "dislike"
    why: "too mild and too experiential; dveṣa is an ontological tilt in citta, not a momentary subjective feeling"
related:
  - /concepts/klesha.md
  - /concepts/avidya-yoga.md
  - /concepts/asmita.md
  - /concepts/raga.md
  - /concepts/abhinivesha.md
  - /concepts/samskara.md
  - /concepts/vasana.md
  - /concepts/nirodha.md
timestamp: "2026-06-20"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Dveṣa — द्वेष

**Not:** hatred, aversion, repulsion, anger, dislike

The fourth kleśa — the push of pain-memory. The habitual tendency of citta to lean away from whatever it has previously associated with pain, creating a resistance-field that masquerades as discernment, wisdom, or good judgment.

## Etymology

- Root: *dviṣ* — to hate, to be hostile to, to repel
- *dveṣa* — hostility; the state of being repelled
- Related: *dveṣin* (one who hates), *adveṣa* (absence of hostility — cited in the Gītā as a quality of the wise)

## Patañjali's Definition (YS 2.8)

*duḥkhānuśayī dveṣaḥ*

"Dveṣa is that which follows after pain (*duḥkha*)."

The parallel to YS 2.7 is deliberate. Just as rāga follows from pleasure's residue (sukānuśayī), dveṣa follows from pain's residue (duḥkhānuśayī). The structure is identical; only the valence differs. Both are functions of the same underlying mechanism: citta tagging experience as marked or unmarked, then leaning accordingly.

## The Mechanism

1. Avidyā has produced asmitā — an apparent self that can be hurt
2. The apparent self encounters a painful experience, which leaves a saṃskāra
3. The saṃskāra activates as a vāsanā (pain-memory tendency) when a related object or category appears
4. This generates dveṣa: a backward lean, a flinching-away, a pre-cognitive filtering

Because dveṣa operates in citta — not in conscious deliberation — it is especially difficult to detect. Much of what we call "not liking" a topic, a person, a practice, or a situation is dveṣa running before we have any chance to investigate.

## Dveṣa and Rāga as Mirror Kleśa-s

Patañjali presents rāga and dveṣa as a structural pair. The apparent self (asmitā) divides all experience into:

- What gave pleasure → pull toward (rāga)
- What gave pain → push away (dveṣa)

This binary tagging of experience is the core operation of conditioned existence. The wise do not lack preferences — they see through the mechanism and are therefore not enslaved to it.

Vyāsa's commentary notes that a person may feel both rāga and dveṣa toward the same object (attraction to it and fear of losing it simultaneously, for instance). This is not a contradiction but a reflection of how thoroughly the tagging pervades citta.

## Why Dveṣa Is Subtler Than It Appears

Rāga is more commonly identified as a problem (craving is obviously uncomfortable). Dveṣa is trickier: the mind disguises it as good reasons. "I don't meditate because I'm not a morning person." "I don't study that text because it's too abstract." "I don't trust that teacher." These may be true observations — or they may be dveṣa delivering post-hoc rationalizations for a pre-formed push-away.

The sādhaka must learn to distinguish viveka (discriminative wisdom) from dveṣa wearing viveka's clothes.

## Dveṣa in the Four States

- **Prasuptā (dormant):** the relevant pain-category has not appeared; the lean is inactive
- **Tanu (thin):** practice has weakened the lean, but the saṃskāra has not been eliminated
- **Vicchinnā (interrupted):** dveṣa is momentarily overridden (e.g., rāga toward the same object dominates briefly)
- **Udārā (active):** dveṣa is operating — the push-away is consciously felt or driving behavior

## Cross-References

- [Kleśa](klesha.md) — the five affliction-roots; dveṣa is the fourth
- [Rāga](raga.md) — the paired kleśa; they arise together from the same mechanism (asmitā tagging experience)
- [Asmitā](asmita.md) — the apparent self that can be hurt; asmitā's existence makes dveṣa possible
- [Saṃskāra](samskara.md) — the pain-impression from which dveṣa's push derives its force
- [Vāsanā](vasana.md) — the tendency through which saṃskāra expresses as dveṣa
- [Abhiniveśa](abhinivesha.md) — the fifth kleśa; clinging to life involves both rāga (pull toward existence) and dveṣa (push away from dissolution)
- [Nirodha](nirodha.md) — the cessation that neutralizes citta-vṛtti, including the movements driven by dveṣa

## Audience Metaphor

Dveṣa is the spam filter citta has built from every painful experience: certain inputs get routed away before they even reach conscious awareness. You don't decide to avoid them — the filter runs. The problem is the filter was built in ignorance (avidyā) and now misclassifies half the real-world inputs as threats.

## Citations

1. [Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali](/references/yoga-sutras.md) 2.8
2. [Yoga Bhāṣya of Vyāsa](/references/yoga-bhasya.md) on YS 2.8
3. [Sāṃkhya Kārikā](/references/samkhya-karika.md) of Īśvarakṛṣṇa
