Leshya Explained: How Jainism Maps Your Thoughts into Colour and What It Reveals About Your Mind

Every thought leaves a trace. A colour trail.

Imagine your mind as an emotional Instagram filter each feeling tinting your day’s tone.

Angry? It paints black. Grateful? It glows gold.

Jainism called this Leshya 2,500 years ago. It’s not just philosophy, but it’s your mental dashboard. And it might be the most relevant ancient idea for our burnout-heavy world.

We exfoliate our skin, track macros, and filter photos. But when was the last time you checked the colour of your inner world? Let’s decode it here.

Introduction – Emotional Hygiene is the New Intelligence

In Jain philosophy, every thought has a colour. Think of your brain as a coding engine, constantly compiling experiences into colours. Anger pushes a heavy black theme, kindness floods your system with gold, sadness dulls it to grey. Jain philosophers said these colours weren’t random; they mirror your state of mind. Your thoughts act like an internal UI designer, shaping how you feel, how you react, and how others experience your vibe. We already use this language “seeing red,” “feeling blue,” “radiant smile.” Leshya simply says: this is more than metaphor.

And here is where mental health meets spirituality: mood tracking apps, therapy journals, even AI-driven wellness bots are doing something similar. They analyse patterns, behaviours, and triggers. Jainism did it first, teaching that unchecked anger or pride isn’t just a mood it’s a dark paint you’re throwing across your life canvas. From deep black to luminous white, Leshya is a mirror to your emotional hygiene, a guide to how clean, cluttered, heavy, or light your inner space really is.

Today, the external world moves fast. Notifications, pressures, comparisons, and fatigue clutter our mind like emotional smog. Leshya, though ancient, offers something radical for our distracted era; a way to notice, name, and upgrade our mental energy daily. It’s not just a philosophy. It’s a precise karmic psychology system. And, as we will see, a surprisingly modern mental health toolkit.

What is Leshya? A Colour Code for Consciousness

In Jain thought, Leshya (लेश्या) is the ancient Jain concept that refers to the emotional “colour” that radiates from our thoughts, intentions, and reactions. Each mental state whether angry, peaceful, fearful, joyful generates a subtle energetic imprint. These vibrational states bind karmic particles to the soul. The stickier the state, the more karma attaches.

There are six main Leshyas, each associated with a colour from the destructive black to the liberated white. But Leshya isn’t a personality type. It’s more like your inner climate. It shifts throughout the day based on how you think, what you dwell on, and how you emotionally react. Just like we can sense a storm brewing outside, Leshya helps us sense the emotional weather within. Jain monks used these mental check-ins to monitor Leshya. You could say it was the OG Aura Score. While you can’t see your Leshya in a mirror, the effects show up: in how people feel around you, in your sleep, your decisions, even your physical energy.

The beauty of this model lies in its simplicity: Your mind is always colouring your reality. Your Leshya is the brush. And every thought you hold either clouds or clears your karmic sky.

Six Shades of Leshya – Jainism’s Mental Mood Board Explained

Jain wisdom doesn’t stop at abstract ideas; it paints a clear picture of how different mental states look. The Uttarādhyayana Sūtra, an ancient Jain text, describes six categories of Leshya with associated colours: black (krishna), blue (neel), grey (kapot), red (tejo), yellow (padma), and white (shukla). Each is essentially a snapshot of one’s character:

Jain texts describe six main Leshyas think of them as six default themes your mind runs on:

🖤 Black Leshya (Krishna Leshya) – The State of Inner Destruction

It is the darkest emotional state driven by rage, cruelty, greed, and a need to harm or control. This is road-rage mode. Jain texts call it impulsive, violent, and revengeful; even good acts done here attract heavy karma.

Modern Analogy: A toxic troll on social media, constantly tearing others down, thriving on rage clicks.

Mental Health Tie-in: This is emotional hijacking; when your nervous system is flooded with cortisol and anger narrows your world into “me vs them.” Neuroscience now confirms what Jainism knew centuries ago: sustained rage doesn’t just disturb your peace it rewires your brain. It destroys empathy, clouds judgment, and deepens your karmic imprint. Living in black Leshya is like holding onto hot coal it burns you while you are trying to throw it at someone else. The longer you stay in this state, the more destructive the karmic feedback loop becomes.

💙 Blue Leshya (Neel Leshya) – The Complacent Ego

Proud, arrogant, but too lazy to update your mind-set. There’s no outward violence here, but the inner world is ruled by arrogance, denial, and resistance to change. People in this Leshya often appear outwardly calm but inwardly carry judgment, superiority, or spiritual laziness. It’s the “I’m always right” mind set with no self-inquiry. Their mental screen? Dark mode, no brightness.

Modern Analogy: Like using a filter that hides flaws but blocks growth, you look fine, but nothing’s real.

Mental Health Tie-in: Blue Leshya is the territory of emotional suppression. It’s when you know something’s off, but distract yourself instead of healing it. A quiet recipe for burnout. This is where mental stagnation meets inflated self-image. In therapy, we call this cognitive rigidity. These are individuals who resist feedback, avoid accountability, and subtly believe they are above correction. They may even do good deeds but for recognition, not compassion.

Karmically, blue Leshya builds layers of ego like plaque that looks clean but slowly clogs.

🖤 Grey Leshya (Kapot Leshya) – The Emotional Fog

This is a state of doubt, apathy, or chronic pessimism. It reflects a mind weighed down by bitterness, fear, or suspicion. Here, the soul isn’t outwardly harmful, but it’s inwardly shrinking retreating into cynicism and emotional exhaustion. As if Someone stuck in doom scrolling, always expecting the worst. Their playlist is on loop with sad songs.

Modern Analogy: The mood that turns your life feed grayscale where every notification feels like noise, not joy.

Mental Health Tie-in: Grey Leshya is emotional fatigue. Modern psychology would call this learned helplessness. It’s the space where hopelessness lives where people believe nothing will change, so why try? Jainism classifies this Leshya as karmically regressive because it traps the soul in emotional heaviness. Even noble intentions in this state are dulled by lack of courage or belief. If black Leshya is rage and blue is pride, grey is resignation. It’s mental fog.

❤️ Red Leshya (Tejo Leshya) – Alert and Aligned

It marks the turning point. It is a state of conscious discipline where the individual is alert, ethical, and emotionally aware. Here, you act with intention. You observe your reactions. You care about right and wrong, you’re moving forward but not harming others. This is the productivity mode of Leshya.

Modern Analogy: Like setting Do Not Disturb mode for your soul. It’s clear boundaries + inner clarity.

Mental Health Tie-in: This is the executive function of the soul like switching from autopilot to active piloting. In red Leshya, one begins to reduce karmic load because reactions are no longer impulsive. Thought precedes action. Clarity precedes judgment. In the mental health space, this mirrors the concept of response flexibility; the ability to pause between stimulus and reaction. Red Leshya is the karmic manifestation of self-regulation. And it becomes the foundation for moving into lighter emotional states.

💛 Yellow Leshya (Padma Leshya) – Joy in Kindness

It is lightness in motion. This is the emotional state of joy, generosity, forgiveness, and connection. People in this Leshya emit warmth. Their thoughts carry goodwill. Their reactions are grounded in compassion, not control. It’s your mind when you run gratitude routines.

Modern Analogy: The mental vibe of sending a meme to a friend just to make them smile. It’s joyful, effortless connection.

Mental Health Tie-in: From a neuroscience standpoint, this state is linked to the release of oxytocin and serotonin chemicals associated with emotional resilience and social bonding. Gratitude journaling, random acts of kindness, mindful listening all move us closer to yellow Leshya. Karmically, this Leshya is light, because it doesn’t stick. The soul begins to flow. In Jain terms, yellow Leshya is where detachment begins not through rejection, but through love without clinging. It is spiritual wellness, emotional maturity, and relational empathy all rolled into one.

🤍 White Leshya (Shukla Leshya) – Stillness Without Ego

It is the rarest, purest state. It is marked by equanimity, non-attachment, and a sense of inner stillness untouched by external triggers. In this state, the soul no longer attracts karma because it neither clings nor resists it simply observes, acts, and let’s go. This is the final filter the soul in its purest, most radiant form. It’s not performance; it’s presence.

Modern Analogy: Like turning off all filters, and still glowing. The kind of energy that calms the room without a word.

Mental Health Tie-in: It is emotional mastery where thoughts arise, but do not bind. Where emotions are felt, but not over-identified with. It’s the meditative state where ego dissolves, and the soul remembers itself as light. People who operate here feel calm in chaos. They act without fear or pride. They do not dominate or withdraw. They simply are. And in doing so, they reach the threshold of spiritual liberation. Jainism calls this the gateway to Keval Gyan; pure knowledge, free from filters.

These are not boxes, but gradients. We shift colours daily. A harsh email can push us into blue, a quiet morning coffee might bring us back to yellow. The trick? Notice your shade, and update it.

The Leshya – Mental Health Link: Your Emotional Thermostat

Leshya offers a revolutionary tool for mental hygiene. Imagine checking your mental brightness each morning. Or logging your Leshya like a mood journal not to judge, but to gently shift. Naming your state, understanding its karmic weight, and choosing your next one that’s how soul-level growth begins.

Daily Practice: The Mental Light Audit

Here’s a practice rooted in Leshya, reimagined for modern life:

Over time, you’ll spot patterns the emotional colour triggers. And slowly, without effort, your default Leshya will start moving from reaction to reflection.

My Reflection – Living in Colour

My dad once told me, “The most dangerous colours are the ones you can’t see. But others always feel them.” Back then, I didn’t get it. Now, I do. Jainism’s idea of Leshya made it click that thoughts may be invisible, but their tone seeps into every word, glance, and silence. Like mood filters on Instagram or background tracks on a playlist, your mental state sets the emotional tone of your day and it broadcasts, whether you want it to or not.

That’s why I started doing something which is:

Leshya Checkpoint

Check your Leshya state daily: A 3-step Method

Every time I feel triggered, bitter, or off-balance, I stop and ask:

“What’s my Leshya right now? What colour am I leaking into this moment?”

Most days, I find I’m sitting somewhere between blue and grey – passive-aggressive, quietly resentful, rehearsing my internal courtroom arguments. But the moment I spot it, something shifts. I remember I’m the one holding the brush.

Maybe I send a kind message. Maybe I take a walk. Maybe I just sit with my feelings and breathe them into a lighter hue. But in that moment; I repaint.
And what’s wild is this: when I do, the algorithm of life actually changes. People mirror softness. Tense conversations ease. It’s like your “emotional feed” gets curated based on the vibe you put out.

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about presence. Leshya isn’t some ancient superstition, it’s design thinking for your emotional life. Every thought is a colour. Every reaction, a brushstroke. And every moment, a chance to repaint.

Leshya taught me something profound:

“Your mindset isn’t private. It leaks. It spreads. It shapes what you attract and what you reflect.“

And every thought is a stroke of colour on the canvas of your day.

Shweta

References

• Relevance of Jain Karma Theory in Context of Self Improvement — Medhavi Jain (2017), Slide 10: Lesya or Thought Colours
• We and Colours: Aura, Leshya, and Color Therapy — Vidya Jain, Jainworld
  Discusses how different Leshyas reflect thought vibrations and their emotional impact.
• Leshya – Wikipedia — Summarizes six Leshyas, karmic effects, and the fruit tree parable from Uttaradhyayana Sutra
• Uttaradhyayana Sutra – Chapter 34 (via Wikipedia) — Details the mental traits and ethical qualities associated with each Leshya (black to white)