On arishadvarga

According to the scripture there is a hexfecta (a variation of trifecta or 6 factors) that ruins a man's life. That means if someone is living with any or all of the six evils (arishadvarga/అరిషడ్వర్గాలు), he is destined to end up in hell. The greed (kama/కామము) to acquire property, money, etc. is the first evil. It can be translated into possessiveness and acquisitiveness. Many of us possess a book, vehicle or house. Think about possessing a human. What can be more than that? In a relation possessiveness creates conflict if the possessee turns to a different person than the possessor. This is what happens in divorces. Normally a person wouldn't want to leave a relationship for as long as the mutual expression of love lasts regardless of the fact that love is unconditional. If the love is not unconditional it means one is waiting for a good opportunity to break the relationship. This happens in employment as well. If there is a job with better salary, benefits, perks, etc. employees are quitting their jobs and switching to it. Countries are not immune to possessiveness. One has to look around the globe for skirmishes at the borders.

The second in the hexfecta is anger (krodha/క్రోధము) beyond control. It is normal to feel anger when someone steps on our toes like cutting in a line or being rude. Extreme anger makes one commit evil acts. When two countries are in a war, the leaders will stir up so much anger that soldiers from both sides rush to fight with one another. In relationships when abusive behavior like husband injuring his wife or even psychological torture happen, anger overflows into words and action that is detrimental and unproductive leading to unfortunate consequences. Anger is just when we see a dog being abused or a cow being beaten on a street. Children often would like to tease one another in school which doesn't lead to serious repercussions. Whereas children fighting or bullying must be concerning to parents and teachers.

The third one in hexfecta is ego (mada/మదము). The normal ego enables us to identify ourselves as individuals and guides our actions. It helps us in harmonizing with society and moving along well with others. An egoless person is considered as meek. They say, an egoless person will not achieve anything but ridicule; he cannot be a catalyst for change. On the other hand, a superego demands respect, obeisance, and surrender from others. In the olden days subjects were expected to follow a protocol with the royals that is total self-effacement. These days addressing one with "sir" or "madam" has become common when one is looking for a favorable response from an egocentric person or just smoothen the ruffled feathers. The egotistical person likes to pick the winner in a competition and anything that goes against his will results in unleashment of tremendous anger. Such people are not necessarily aristocrats or authorities. Sometimes even a clerk in an office has an enormous ego causing much inconvenience to others. Often because of egocentrics quarrels break out in a group. One may opine that without superego there is no positive change in a society. Billionaires with inflated egos are capable of bringing about ideas to fruition in hopes of profiting from such ventures. Authorities in high position and power would like to take credit for the achievements of their subordinates due to their supercharged egos. Those who seek novel diversions constantly in social media do so to perpetuate their alter-ego.

The fourth one is jealousy (matsara/మాత్సర్యము). A person feels jealous of others when he compares himself with them and finds that he lacks something they have. At times when a person with a car sees his neighbor, who normally rides a bike, acquire a car, he feels jealous. A woman can turn green with envy when another is judged as more beautiful than her in a beauty contest. She gossips and conspires to insult or defame others she is envious about. Students feel jealous about the toppers in their class. There is no end to how much jealousy and envy one feels. It all ends up affecting one's psychological health. Nations have rankings by quality of life, income, life expectancy and so on that spur jealousy between them.

The fifth one in hexfecta is the sexual drive (moha/మోహము). A Romeo is not happy with just one woman to fulfill his sexual desires but longs for all the luscious women he comes across. He becomes lecherous and considers women as tawdry, sexual objects. It is the women's liberation movement that has apparently turned tables on the male chauvinism. These days even language is expected to be gender neutral. Despite that masculine examples are applied to feminine as language, that has come from centuries of tradition oppressing women, lacks the right grammatical structure to convey the ideas in a gender neutral manner. Even the author is like that and struggles with it. The sexual drive is normal when one looks at it from a marriage perspective and is much needed for the continuation of the human race. Outside the framework of marriage it is evil. Stealing others' boy or girl friends, having illicit relationships with others' spouses and so on.

The final category in the hexfecta is coveting objects (lobha/లోభము). There are those, despite possessing wealth to last for a hundred generations to come, don't perform kind acts. Even for a family member they think a hundred times before parting with the things they covet. They are like Mr.Scrooge in the literature who is miserly and hoards money. He won't even enjoy what he has by spending on reasonable things for himself if they are expensive. There is a subtle aspect here between a spendthrift and a miser. A miser doesn't want to make others jealous of him. Perhaps he is self-centered and afraid that others will harm him, steal his wealth, or despise him if he flashes it. He accumulates wealth because he is either lucky from a windfall such as winning a lottery or born with a golden spoon or has worked hard to earn it. Whereas a spendthrift wants to spend money on luxuries and flash his expensive objects in front of others drawing their envy. Sometimes a spendthrift borrows money beyond his means or earns it by immoral means to lead an affluent life. This also applies to wealthy nations that import enormously on credit to accumulate huge trade deficits when the same credit can be used to help poor countries. It is possible that a miser makes fewer enemies because of his frugal ways. Covetous people who go beyond miserly ways won't share their possessions with the society or less fortunate. They go about their lives denying others any opportunity to share with them.