The svarasavahi vidusah api tatha arudhah abhinivesah sutra states about the most elusive form of affliction - self preservation. This is such an attachment that even the wisest are not free from its purview. The love for life can hold back any person from being wise and enlightened. If one rigorously practices the styles of yoga, he can transcend the line between life and death and can perceive the free flow of intelligence.
svarasavahi current of love of life
vidusah a wise man, a learned man, a scholar
api even, likely
tatha all the same
arudhah having ascended, advanced
abhinivesah intentness of affection, leaning towards, attachment to life
Self-preservation or attachment to life is the subtlest of all afflictions. It is found even in wise men.
Love of life is nourished by life`s own force. This impulse for self-prolongation is so strong that it does not even leave the wise, and is an adversity for them and the unaware alike. If even a highly educated, erudite individual cannot simply remain unattached to life, it is pretty smooth to judge the feelings of an average individual.
Patanjali indicates that every human being has had a taste of death, which lurks. This impress is the seed of fear.
Abhinivesa is an intuitive defect which can be transformed into intuitive knowledge and insight by practising yoga.
While practising asana, pranayama or dhyana, the sadhaka penetrates deep within himself. He experiences unity in the flow of intelligence, and the current of self-energy. In this state, he perceives that there is no difference between life and death, that they are simply two sides of the same coin. He understands that the current of self, the life-force, active while he is alive, unites with the universe when it leaves his body at death. Through this understanding, he loses his fixation for life and conquers the fear of death. This liberates him from afflictions and sorrows and leads him towards kaivalya. If avidya is the root cause of afflictions, so abhinivesa results in pain. In realising the oneness of life and death there is an end to ignorance in the aspirer, and he lives forever in the flow of tranquillity.
