Badarasamparaye sarve (12)
As long as we experience the more intense forms of anger, pride, deceit and greed, all obstacles may occur. (12)
The obstacles mentioned above are no special barriers that were erected for mystic purposes. They do not occur to test our sincerity or to purify us. Obstacles are nothing other than the manifestation of karmas, i.e. our own emotional - positive or negative - attachment to limiting themes of life. They are activated on our path to freedom from all karmic limitations in the same manner as in a life not directed towards this goal. It is therefore entirely beside the point to attribute them with a special esoteric meaning.
The next four sutras describe what causes these obstacles.