Arishaḍvarga
Arishaḍvarga · ari-shaṭ-varga, “the group of six enemies”
Grammar: masculine noun; a compound of ari (enemy), shaṭ (six) and varga (group): “the group of six enemies”.
Meaning: the inner enemies of a person, the passions that rise within and overthrow self-control: desire, anger, greed, delusion and the rest. A king who would rule well must first conquer them.
In the scriptures: in the Agni Purāṇa, Agnideva tells Vasishṭha the rāja-nīti (the policy of kings), which gives victory, that Śrī Rāma taught Lakshmaṇa. Śrī Rāma says that the root of right policy is vinaya (discipline), and vinaya is the conquest of the senses. The senses are elephants running fearlessly in the great forest of sense-objects; they must be held in control with the goad of jñāna. The king becomes happy if he wholly gives up the arishaḍvarga, which the text names as kāma (desire), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (delusion), harsha (elation), mada (pride), mātsarya (jealousy) and māna (arrogance) (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 238).
In the same teaching, the best king is free of the faults krodha, lobha, fear, treachery, obstinacy and fickleness, and of the vices of harming others, tale-bearing, mātsarya, envy and untruth (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 239). Among the causes of vigraha (war) between kings, the text names mada and ahaṅkāra (arrogance) (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 240).
In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa: the six inner enemies (antaśśatrus) are kāma (desire), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (delusion), mada (pride) and mātsarya (envy). In several places the text gives a second reading as well: the six are the five jñānendriyas (organs of knowing) and the mind.
Brahmā tells Priyavrata, who wished to stay in the forest, that one maddened by enjoyments fears saṃsāra even in the forest, for the six inner enemies follow him there. “Take shelter, as in a fort, in the lotus of the feet of Padmanābha; conquer the six inner enemies; enjoy without attachment what Īśvara has given, and so become steady in the ātmā” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 1). Jaḍabharata tells Rahūgaṇa that an embodied person should give up attachment to saṃsāra and conquer the six inner enemies (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 11). The Yamadūtas, standing over Ajāmila, say that the ignorant person who cannot conquer these six enemies is driven by his vāsanās to do karmas even against his own wish, and like a silkworm he covers himself with karmas and is deluded (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 1).
Prahlāda teaches the daitya boys that if seekers conquer the six inner enemies and practise bhakti for Bhagavān Vāsudeva, Jagannātha, prema for him arises (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 7). He tells his father Hiraṇyakaśipu that some, without first conquering the six robbers within who steal their all, think they have conquered the ten directions; but the wise man who has conquered his mind and is even towards all beings has no enemies (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 8).
Nārada Maharshi tells Yudhishṭhira that the highest purpose of all the niyamas of the śāstra is to bring the group of six enemies under control, and he teaches how each fault is conquered: kāma by giving up the imagining of objects of enjoyment; krodha by giving up desires; lobha by seeing that heaped-up wealth leaves only calamity; fear by examining the true state of things; grief and delusion by discriminating ātmā from non-ātmā; hypocrisy by serving mahātmās. All these faults a man conquers easily and surely by bhakti to the guru. When the citta no longer falls into the agitation of kāma, krodha and the rest, it touches brahmānanda and never again turns outward (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 15).
Related terms: Kāma · Krodha · Lobha · Moha · Mada · Mātsarya · Vinaya · Indriya-jaya
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 238–240
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapters 1, 11; Skandha 6, Chapter 1; Skandha 7, Chapters 7–8, 15