Trishna (Vedic thought)
Trishna means – 'thirst', 'aspiration', 'longing', 'craving' or 'lusty desires', or as तृष्णज् meaning covetous, greedy or thirsting. Trishna is the Eighth Nidana, spiritual love.
Meaning
The Sanskrit root of the word Tṛishṇā is Tṛish meaning to be thirsty, to thirst, to thirst for, strong desire or long for. In the Vedas the accent is on the first syllable as in - Tṛishyā, Tṛishṇākshaya, Tṛishnāghna, Tṛishṇāmaya, Tṛishṇāmāra, Tṛishṇāri, Tṛishālu, Tṛishyat or Tṛishya.Trishna in Pali means thirst for life.
Vedic relevance
The word Trishna appears in the Rig Veda in a few mantras where it refers to greed, craving, hankering or longing, and the like. In mantra Rig Veda, Rishi Ghora Kanva states:He speaks about the wind which flows on greedily. And, in mantra Rig Veda, Rishi Rahugano Gotama stating -
speaks about the wise ones craving for opportunities to sate the thirst of those hankering for knowledge.
Buddhist relevance
Gautama Buddha said that the cause of sorrow – the second of the Four Noble Truths – is desire; and the cause of desire is tanha or trishna.The truth is - that deeds come from upādāna, upādāna comes from trishna, trishna comes from vedana, the perception of pain and pleasure, the desire for rest; sensation brings desire for life or the will to live.
Buddhism teaches the doctrine of inaction, i.e. cessation of activity, desiring or doing little. The extinction of craving of the desire for existence in all its forms and the consequent cessation of suffering is Nirvana . Vivekananda holds that the Buddhist doctrine of giving up trishna is an offshoot of Advaita Vedanta.
Puranic relevance
According to the Puranas, Trishna is the daughter of Kamadeva or Kama, the god of love and husband of Rati; Aniruddha is her brother. Vishnu Purana tells us that Anrita married his own sister, Nikritti and had two sons, Bhaya and Naraka, and two daughters, Maya and Vedana who again married each other. The son of Bhaya and Maya is Mrityu, and Dukha is the son of Naraka and Vedana. From Mrityu descended Vyadhi, Jara, Shoka, Trishna and Krodha. Trishna is the wife or mistress of Lobha.Vedantic relevance
Shankara explains that the intellect of those who perceive the Being as affected with difference of space etc., cannot be brought immediately to an intuition of the highest reality; Brahman is to be realized as attributeless. He states that even if the knowers of Brahman of themselves abstain from objects of sensual enjoyment yet the thirst caused by being addicted to sensuality in different births cannot at once be converted. Renunciation is brahmacāryam or stri-vishaya-tyāga. Trishna, that causes dukkha, the philosophical translation of which is unsatisfactoriness rather than pain, is immoderate desire as such; Trishna is the will-to-live.Upanishadic relevance
In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in the passage –the word Kāma refers to desires – the man who desires migrates, but the man who is without desires never migrates; of him who is without desires, who is free from desires, the objects of whose desire have been attained, and to whom all objects of desire are but the Self – the organs do not depart, being Brahman, he is merged in Brahman. It is held that the main fundamental Buddhist thought, Nirvana i.e. the removal of suffering by removal of trishna, is an echo of the afore-cited Upanishadic doctrine of union with Brahman by the removal of Kāma.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna:
Here, the word Rāga refers to attachment, and Trishna, refers to the craving for what is unattained.