Traits of Character to Be Avoided
Q. Swami! What are the traits of character that we have to avoid, that is to say, which are the obstacles in the path of one who seeks liberation from the cycle of birth and death?
A. The six, the arishadvarga [six fold beast]: kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, and matsarya; these are to be avoided.
Q. What exactly is kama?
A. Desire for riches, property, honor, status, fame, children; why list the lot? [It is] attachment to all things of this sensory world, this false, temporary, impure world.
Q. Krodha?
A. Yearning to harm others and cause ruin to them.
Q. And lobha?
A. Determination that no one else should partake of even a small fraction of what one has earned or what one has. Also, that even in times of distress, one’s possessions should not be diminished by use.
Q. What is the meaning of moha?
A. The delusion that some people are nearer to one than others and the desire to please them more than others, leading to exertions for earning and accumulating for their sake.
Q. Mada?
A. Mada means the swagger that develops when one feels that he has either scholarship or strength or riches or fame, more than others. Even when one has not got these, mada makes men move about without reverence for elders and consideration for others’ feelings and craving only for one’s own comfort and security. Mada is extreme egoism.
Q. The last that you mentioned is matsarya. What does that mean, Swami?
A. When others are as happy as yourself, matsarya makes one miserable; one cannot tolerate it.
Q. There are certain other traits, too, called dambha and darpa. What do they indicate?
A. Dambha prompts people to do yaga and yajna, to give away vast sums in charity, in order to win the applause of the world. Darpa is the pride that haunts man when he is rich and happy.
Q. What is the meaning of ershya?
A. The desire that others should get the grief, the misery, and the worry that one is suffering from.
Q. So, it is different from asuya?
A. Yes, asuya means thinking always of doing evil to others; the preparedness to put up with any trouble in order to satisfy this desire to harm others. All these are called inner foes. So long as man is caught in this net of delusion spread by these foes, the yearning for liberation will not dawn in his mind.
Source: Prasnottara Vahini
