In the story of the 24 Gurus, Dattatreya highlights several entities that act as "enemies" or cautionary tales regarding the five senses, teaching specific lessons on avoiding attachment to sense objects.
The "enemies" of the five senses among Dattatreya's gurus are:
- Moth (Patanga): The moth is a guru regarding the sense of sight (form). It is enticed by the brightness of a flame and flies into it, burning itself to death. This teaches that a foolish person is captivated by illusory visual pleasures and thus gets trapped in the cycle of birth and death.
- Elephant (Gaj): The elephant teaches a lesson about the sense of touch. A male elephant, overcome with lust, is captured by hunters using a female elephant as a lure. This warns against the dangers of being overly allured by physical contact and desire.
- Deer (Mrig): The deer is a guru related to the sense of sound. Hunters use a specific sound or music to attract and trap the deer. This illustrates the danger of becoming too attached to mundane or sensuous sounds, particularly singing and dancing.
- Fish (Min): The fish provides a lesson on the sense of taste. Lured by a tasty bait attached to a hook, the fish swallows it and gets caught, losing its life. This emphasizes the need to control the tongue and the desire for palatable food.
- Honeybee (Bhramar / Madhukshika): The honeybee (or a specific type of black bee) offers a lesson on avoiding the accumulation of wealth and the sense of smell (implied in seeking nectar/fragrance). The lesson is about not greedily amassing wealth or possessions, which can lead to sudden death or being stolen (by a "honey-thief"), much like how a honey collector takes the bee's hoard.
- The Body: Dattatreya also cited his own body as a guru, teaching that it is perishable and a temporary vehicle for the soul. One should not become attached to the body or its senses but strive for self-realization.
These examples from Dattatreya's teachings, primarily found in the 11th Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, serve as cautionary tales to help a spiritual seeker (sannyasi or yogi) understand the pitfalls of worldly attachments and control their senses to attain liberation (Moksha).
