Ushtragrīva Upākhyāna
The Ushtragrīva Upākhyāna is an ancient account in the Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapter 112. It is about a great camel (ushtra) that did tapas (austerity) in an earlier birth and won from Brahmā the vara (a boon) of a very long neck. Later the camel grew lazy and stopped looking for its own food. In a storm it put its neck and head into a cave. A jackal that had taken shelter in the cave ate the neck, and the camel died.
Manu’s teaching in the account is that buddhi-balam, the strength of intelligence, is the root of all victory. Raw physical endowment is not.
How Bhīshma begins
Yudhishṭhira asks Bhīshma what the duty of a king is and what a king must do to be truly happy. Bhīshma says he will tell him the essence of royal duty through this ancient account. He adds that the way he tells it shows not only what a king should do but also what a king must never become.
The camel’s tapas and the vara
In the Prājāpatya Yuga a great camel of huge size lived in the forest. It had jātismaraṇa, the memory of its earlier births. It did severe tapas for a long time.
Brahmā was pleased and offered a vara (a boon). The camel asked that its neck be made a hundred yojanas long. Then it could stretch its neck over great distances and graze without moving its body to the place where the grass grew.
Brahmā gave the vara. The camel took it and went back to its forest.
The camel’s ruin
With this wonderful neck the camel’s buddhi (understanding) became spoiled. It fell into alasatā (sloth). The very size of its vara made it unwilling to move. It trusted its long neck in place of effort and movement. It stopped using its intelligence.
One day the camel stretched its hundred-yojana neck a great distance to graze. While it did so, its heart and body grew tired. A huge wind rose. The camel put its neck and head into a cave for shelter and stood still while the rain poured down.
A jackal, hungry, wet and without shelter, crept into the same cave with its mate. The jackal was a māṃsajīvi (a flesh-eater). Driven by sharp hunger and thirst, it began to eat the camel’s neck, which lay within easy reach inside the cave.
The camel felt that its body was being eaten. It tried hard to pull its neck back. But before it could, the jackal had eaten right through the neck. The camel died.
The teaching
Bhīshma draws the lesson. This is what happens to a person whose buddhi has been spoiled. The camel had the greatest bodily vara one could imagine, yet its laziness led straight to its death. A great gift without watchful intelligence is not strength. It is a weakness.
Bhīshma then cites Manu.
“Buddhi-mūlam vijayaḥ”
Victory is rooted in intelligence.
The teaching is then set out as three levels of action:
- Actions done through buddhi (intelligence) are the highest.
- Actions done through bāhubala (strength of the arm, physical force) are in the middle.
- Actions done only through jaṅghā (the legs) are the lowest. They amount only to carrying a load toward one’s own ruin.
A king who rules his senses, keeps his intelligence sharp and acts with upāya (skilful means) will hold his kingdom firmly. He does not grow lazy just because he has great resources. His artha (wealth) will not leave him. A king who keeps his counsel secret, has strong allies and examines carefully before he acts can rule the whole earth.
Manu’s saying is then given again: buddhi-mūlam vijayaḥ. Victory is rooted in intelligence, not in the size of one’s gifts.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Rājadharmānuśāsana Parva, Chapter 112