Three eshanas- desires

This discussion on three eshanas appears in the Brihadaranyakopanishad-3.5.1.

Kahola, the son of Kushitaka approached the sage Yajnavalkya and requested, “Dear Master! Please teach me Brahman. Brahman that is immediate and directly perceptible, Brahman that is within all of us.

Yajnavalkya said, “The Brahman that is within you is within all”.

Kahola, “What is within all, Dear Sir?”

Yajnavalkya, “Brahman is that which transcends hunger and thirst, sorrow, delusion, decay and death.  By realizing Brahman, Brahmanas renounce the three Eshanas”.

Kahola, “Now what are these three Eshanas?”

Yajnavalkya, “Eshanas are desires. There are three (broad classes of desires) Eshanas, namely, Putraishana, Vittaishana and Lokaishana.  All human life revolves around these three desires.  These are natural tendencies.

Putraishana is the desire to raise up a family (putra means son or children) so that life can go on. This is how a common person would like to perpetuate his life through the progeny. In a sense, this is how one likes to remain alive through proxy for all future times.

Vittaishana is to earn and accumulate money (vitta is money) and wealth to sustain life by fulfilling material needs and also to secure future needs. One toils day and night to earn money. One goes for education or skill development for the same purpose. 

Lokaishana is image in the public. Human beings are social animals. Each human being needs another human being or beings to live life with.  This puts various demands public behavior. For that one needs to polish one’s mindset and learn social and behavioral culture.  Unless one is well-cultured, one won’t have acceptance in the society or even in one’s own family. This is quite vital. Sometimes, entire life is spent on polishing and upgrading the skill for better social acceptance.     

One who is free of these three Eshanas is a free bird. Such a person has realized Brahman.        

***

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