The enemies of man, yoga, life and spiritual realization
All traditions of wisdom reach the same conclusion: what keeps us from happiness comes not first from the outside, but from within. The Sanatana Dharma[1] (the knowledge of the eternal laws of nature) counts six of them, which it calls the "six thieves": they quietly steal our energy, our clarity and our joy, and hinder both material success and spiritual progress.
"There is a sight greater than the sea: the sky. There is a sight greater than the sky: the inside of the soul."
— Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
The six enemies, one by one
- Lust – काम – Kama: the unbridled desire for sexual and sensual pleasures.
- Anger – क्रोध – Krodha: hatred, fury and rage.
- Greed – लोभ – Lobha: avidity, the insatiable desire to possess more and more.
- Attachment – मोह – Moha: excessive attachment to material goods or to people, which blinds and chains.
- Pride – मद – Mada: ego, vanity, arrogance, obstinacy and stubbornness.
- Jealousy – मात्सर्य – Mātsarya: covetousness and envy; miserliness, that is, the inability to enjoy one's own possessions, to rejoice in them and to share them.
"Anger is a brief madness."
— Horace, Epistles ("Ira furor brevis est")
What the texts say
The Devi Gita
In the Devi Gita (part of the Devi Bhagavatam), Himavan, king of the Himalayas, asks the Goddess (Devi) about the realization of Yoga, union with the Absolute. She answers: "The realization of the identity between the Jivātma and the Paramātmā is Yoga." She then lists the obstacles that prevent us from reaching higher states of consciousness:
tatpratyūhāḥ ṣaḍākhyātā yogavighnakarānagha ।
kāmakrodhau lobhamohau madamātsaryasaṃjñakau ॥ 3 ॥
Which means: "The enemies of this Yoga are six in number: lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and jealousy."[2]
Yogis attain Yoga (the state of union with the absolute Truth: consciousness and bliss) when they succeed in overcoming these six enemies.
The Bhagavad Gita
In chapter 16, Krishna identifies lust, anger and greed as the three most dangerous emotions[3]:
त्रिविधं नरकस्येदं द्वारं नाशनमात्मनः ।
कामः क्रोधस्तथा लोभस्तस्मादेतत्त्रयं त्यजेत् ॥ २१ ॥
trividhaṁ narakasyedaṁ dvāraṁ nāśanam ātmanaḥ
kāmaḥ krodhas tathā lobhas tasmād etat trayaṁ tyajet
Translated as follows: "There are three gates leading to hell and to the destruction of the soul: lust, anger and greed. One must therefore give up these three." (Chapter 16, verse 21)
The same message elsewhere in the world
"Hatred never ceases by hatred; it ceases by love."
— Dhammapada (Buddhist tradition)
"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."
— Seneca, Letters to Lucilius
The keys to a successful life: what to cultivate, what to avoid
Here are simple guidelines, within everyone's reach, for cultivating a fulfilled life and avoiding the traps that lead to impoverishment and misery.
To cultivate
- Honesty: it lets us see ourselves as we are, correct ourselves and thus evolve spiritually.
- Movement: avoid a sedentary life by moving your body for an hour a day.
- Inner calm: quiet your thoughts through meditation, every day.
- Vigilance: observe your thoughts and choose the best ones.
- Kindness: do not speak ill of others; wish everyone the best.
- Integrity: pay your debts.
To avoid
- Anger and jealousy, great poisons for oneself.
- Tobacco and alcohol.
- Games of chance and gambling, which can ruin an entire family.
- Multiplying one's demands and desires.
- Compulsive shopping, excessive video games, the race for brand-name clothes and shoes or the latest technology, and forgetting to cancel free trials.
- The error of the intellect: believing that happiness is found outside ourselves. Believing in money and easy happiness is in itself a trap that leads to greater dangers.
Knowing how to reduce one's needs is to live like a king, happy and content with what one has.
"He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears."
— Montaigne, Essays
To develop more happiness
- Train yourself to see a little beauty wherever you are: beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.
- Be grateful toward nature, life and all the kind people in society, even for the simplest things: breathing, moving, looking, eating, drinking…
- Develop tolerance and acceptance of everything that happens to us and has happened to us.
Consciousness-based education is necessary for every generation
Overcoming these six enemies is not a matter of constraint, but of self-knowledge and education. Sages and writers have long been convinced of this:
"Science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul."
— Rabelais, Pantagruel
"Open schools, and you will close prisons."
— Victor Hugo (a quotation traditionally attributed to him)
This is the spirit of this reflection by Maharishi:
"What I feel is that Almighty God cannot bless humanity any more than He has already blessed it. Bliss-consciousness is present everywhere. Being is omnipresent, bliss and eternal life are everywhere, and the mind's capacity to live this in daily life is present too. These two things are there.
With such a great diffusion of God's grace, we only have to educate the people around us in the art of enjoying this Grace that is already here. We do not need to seek Grace, we do not need to ask for Grace, we do not need to wait for angels to come down from Heaven and bring us the light of Grace. Nothing like that!
We only need to use the natural situation within us: Being, infinite bliss, the mind in search of bliss, and the unity of the two spontaneously realized. Just this knowledge and the technique of Transcendental Meditation. And the world will be established for thousands of years in the living grace of God. That is our effort.
We are aware that we could go faster… I mean, it should be faster and it could be faster! But unfortunately there are only 24 hours in a day [laughter], and that does not seem enough to speed up our progress. But our project of training more meditation teachers all over the world is a very great hope. It is a very, very great hope!"
Maharishi, 1969, Rishikesh
[1] Sanatana Dharma rather than "Hinduism": see your existing reference block (anchor Sanatana Dharma - Hindouisme).
The word "Hinduism" is a relatively recent word, invented by the Muslims who entered India (from 711 until the 16th century) and initially designates all the inhabitants of the Indus basin and those located in the East of the river.
Brief reminder: It is a Persian term which entered with the expansion of Islam and designates all the indigenous inhabitants of the East of the Indus. It became common under British colonization to designate a native of the British Raj, all religions combined. Consequently, the term "Hindu" is an exonym, it does not come from the "Hinduist" peoples themselves. [David Lorenzen, Who Invented Hinduism?, New Delhi, 2006, p. 24-33; Rajatarangini of Yonaraja: "Hinduka".]
Since the end of the 18th century, the word has been used as a general term to designate religious traditions of Indian origin and to distinguish them from other religions. [Catherine Clémentin-Ojha, Dictionary of religious facts, p. 490-499]
In 1966, the Supreme Court of India defined the framework of the “Hindu faith”.
The term Sanatana Dharma means “The Eternal Laws of Nature”, this word means the knowledge of these laws of nature.