In Arthashastra by Chanakya, “He’s the most powerful person who has conquered himself.” And “He who has conquered his six Arishadvargas is not just peaceful but also powerful.” In simple words, Kautilya suggests that he who has conquered Arishadvargas or six detrimental qualities is the most powerful person.
So what are those Arishadvargas:
- Kama (lust/craving)
- Krodha (anger)
- Lobha (greed)
- Moha (delusion)
- Mada (arrogance, vanity)
- Matsarya (jealousy)
As a human being, we all feel that we should not have pain at all, our lives should be filled with just happy moments. But Pain & Suffering is a part of life. When the baby is born, the first sound you hear from the baby is that of a cry. During our lifetime, we go through all kinds of pain and suffering caused by disease, injury, fatigue, stress, insults, disagreements, old age, and finally death, etc.
Our scriptures and the great teachers from ancient times talk about suffering and how the goal of life is to end this suffering. You have to understand carefully that there is a big difference between pain and suffering.
Patanjali, in the yoga sutras, explains beautifully that the reason for our suffering is avidya (ignorance). When we are ignorant of our true nature, ego takes over and begins to dominate our decision making. As we know, the ego likes to identify every life experience with labels such as “like it/dislike it”, “love it/hate it”, etc. This kind of labeling leads to strong attachments which give birth to the six enemies of the mind discussed below.
Now let’s go through these 6 Enemies one by one
Kama — काम
In a literal translation, Kama means Desire. In today’s world, Kama is often referred to as Sexual Desire and everyone thinks it’s bad. But when we get the right understanding then we realize that Kama is not only sexual desire, all kinds of desires are referred to as Kama.
Let’s not go to the ideal case where we must drop all our desires. Assuming we are in a society where we have to fulfill our duties for it it’s very important to maintain a healthy balance between our desires and our practices.
So my teacher always tells us to just apply the principles we learned while understanding 4 Important Pillars of Life — (Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha). This is what he told us, check is all our desires per Dharma. If a desire does anything, no matter how small, to harm the social or economic fabric of a family, society, or nation, it becomes defined as Adharma or against Dharma.
As a yoga practitioner, the first step is to let go of all desires which are against Dharma. In case, we fail to let go of them then the other 5 enemies will start attacking us Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Madha, and Matasrya.
Krodha — क्रोध
When that one desire that you had a lot of expectations and that doesn’t go your way that gives rise to Krodha — Anger. We get angry when we are not able to accept what life throws at us. And anger gets aggravated when we suppress it without expressing it in the right way.
As per a Buddhist saying, “anger is like holding a piece of burning charcoal in the hand with the intent of hurting someone you hate. Guess who is getting hurt/burnt?”
Bhagavad Gita (2.62, 2.63) explains the step-by-step destruction that happens and how anger can destroy a human completely.
When a man constantly thinks of any object through the five senses, attachment to that object arises. From attachment is born Kama (desire), and when that desire is not fulfilled it gives rise to anger. From anger comes delusion, from delusion comes the loss of memory, and from loss of memory comes the destruction of intellect, which leads to total destruction of that individual.
Lobha — लोभ
Now let’s go back to the first step — Kama, when our desires are not fulfilled then it gives rise to anger, but assume your desire which is not in accordance with Dharma gets fulfilled at that moment we become Greedy(Lobha).
Now our mind starts craving more and more such experiences or feelings and we tend to repeat the same thing and it becomes worse with every repetition.
This is where we should understand the difference between “Need” & “Want”. Needs can easily be satisfied — greed can never be satiated. If you always feel like purchasing what you see in an ad, you feel you have nothing when your friends are buying assets and you are not able to, you want to go for a foreign trip just because you saw an Instagram post. This is the moment we have to start working on ourselves under the guidance of a master.
Moha — मोहा
This is the next step when our desire to possess everything and our mind is under the delusion that everything is mine, I can do anything and everything. It is a beautiful thing to see a flower blossom but is not loving or caring, if one decides to pluck it give it to the spouse.
Whenever I ask someone why are working so hard, the first thing people say is “I’m doing for my family”, “I’m doing for my kids”. But if you see them closely then we get to know that it’s by nature they are like this, they want to win every challenge, they want to purchase everything they like. In this state, we think everything is my control, if we work, we can get anything.
Note: I’m not telling you not to do anything for the family, but check whenever you do anything to the family what is your attitude? If you are performing your duty with an attitude of non-expectation (nishkama-bhava), then it is not called Moha, its pure joy.
Mada — मदा
Whenever we desire something, your work towards it and you get the desired result then
we start thinking that “I am worthy of it”, “Nobody can get when I’m there”, “I deserve that more than anyone” these are the signs where our ego has taken over us. Our ego makes us feel better than others, more deserving of achievement.
A person with these qualities always thinks too highly of himself and tries to put others
down. People get arrogant about their beauty, position, fame, wealth, scholarship, lineage,
physical strength etc. Even yogis who after intense meditation, develop special powers, called
siddhis, are known to develop arrogance and egoism.
Mada (arrogance) is like a balloon that keeps growing until it eventually bursts, outcome of this is just anger and complete destruction of one self.
Matasrya — मात्सर्य
Matasrya arises from a deep-seated sense of lacking or missing something in life. When we see others possessing things we desire, a burning envy takes hold.
The root cause of Matsarya lies in the ego. When our self-worth is based on external factors — possessions, achievements, or recognition — witnessing someone else’s success can feel like a personal defeat. This fuels jealousy, a burning resentment that consumes our inner peace.
The concept of Arishadvargas is not meant to create fear or negativity. It provides valuable awareness about the internal forces that can hold us back. By acknowledging these tendencies, we can start to manage them with the help of a Guru and a Satsang.
The Arishadvargas can act as stumbling blocks on our journey towards success and well-being. However, by understanding them and actively cultivating practices that promote self-awareness and emotional regulation, we can overcome these inner demons.