Tṛshṇā
Tṛshṇā · tṛshṇā, “thirst, craving”
Grammar: feminine noun, from the root tṛsh (to thirst): “thirst”, and so craving.
Meaning: craving; the thirst for more that can never be filled, which drives the jīva to karma and binds it to the chain of births and deaths.
In the scriptures: Nārada Maharshi tells Yudhishṭhira how Prahlāda found Dattātreya Maharshi lying on the bare ground on a slope of the Sahya mountain, living by the ājagara vṛtti, and asked him the cause of his contentment. Dattātreya answered: “Craving cannot be filled by fitting desires. It brings the jīva the endless chain of births and deaths. Made to do karma by it, I was made to take many births.”
Of those who crave, he said: “People who are greedy for life and for wealth always have fear from the king, from thieves, from enemies, from their own people, from beasts and birds, from beggars and from time, and not only from these, but from themselves too.” So the man of discernment should give up craving for long life and wealth, for from it come grief, delusion, fear, anger, attachment, helplessness, weariness and the like. From the honey-bee he learned vairāgya, and from the python santosha, contentment with whatever comes by the will of Īśvara (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 13).
Related terms: Kāma · Lobha · Santosha · Vairāgya · Saṃsāra
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 13