Yaksha Prashna (YP) 1 - Brahmana and Vritti

In an earlier post, I had mentioned that Yudhishtira, the eldest of Pandava brothers is one of my most admired characters in Mahabharata. And (while I have to yet study Mahabharata fully), two episodes where his character really shines forth are Yaksha Prashna (Questions by Yaksha) and Svargarohana (going to Svarga). Svargarohana happens right at the end of Mahabharata and that shows that the ultimate hero of this epic, the greatest of them all (and others may debate this) is Yudhishtira. Let me tell you, that I don’t say the above sentence with all surety, for a part of me acknowledges that its Sri Krishna who is the greatest. But let’s leave this debate for a later time. Let’s see what truly immortalizes (literally) the great Yudhishtira.

I will write a separate article summarizing the entire Yaksha Prashna episode, but for now, I will just discuss one set of questions asked by the Yaksha on the subject of who is a brAhmaNa. This is start of a series, I will hopefully write on the Yaksha Prashna as it is one of the most fascinating chapters for me in this great epic.

To just give a background, Yaksha Prashna occurs in the Vana Parva of Mahabharata, when the Pandavas are suffering the 12+1 years of exile, and just before the 1 year of incognito period was about to start. And during this question-answer session, please visualize the mental condition of Yudhishtira. Not only is he hungry and thirsty, but also grieving because beside him lie dead all his four mighty brothers, and in front of him is an extraordinary Yaksha, in the form of a crane, who claims to have killed them and is asking all sorts of grueling questions on the deepest philosophical truths. And in the larger context – he has gone through 12 years of exile after losing his kingdom and all his possessions, his wife Draupadi had recently been abducted and with great difficulty rescued, and his mind is occupied thinking how will they get through the 1 year incognito period, which is the toughest period of their exile.

यक्ष उवाच। 3-314-109x(2944)

राजन्कुलेन वृत्तेन स्वाध्यायेन श्रुतेन वा। ब्राह्मण्यं केन भवति प्रब्रूह्येतत्सुनिश्चितम् ॥ 3-314-109

yakṣa uvāca।

rājankulena vṛttena svādhyāyena śrutena vā। brāhmaṇyaṃ kena bhavati prabrūhyetatsuniścitam ॥

By what is a Brahaman-hood determined, please decide upon this. Is it by kula (birth in a clan), vrtti (behavior) svAdhyAya (meditating, contemplation, self-study) or shruti (i.e. learning Vedas, eternal truths through a guru)

युधिष्ठिर उवाच। 3-314-110x(2945)

शृणु यक्ष कुलं तात न स्वाध्यायो न च श्रुतम्। कारणं हि द्विजत्वेच वृत्तमेव न संशयः ॥

yudhiṣṭhira uvāca।
śṛṇu yakṣa kulaṃ tāta na svādhyāyo na ca śrutam। kāraṇaṃ hi dvijatveca vṛttameva na saṃśayaḥ ॥

O Yaksha, listen – neither kula, nor svAdhyAya, nor even shruti, the reason for being a dvija (twice born) is only vritti, no doubt about this.

What is meant by “vritti”? Many of you may have heard about this word in the famous sutra “yogas chitta vritti nirodhah” which is the second sutra of Yoga Sutras by rSi Patanjali. It is one of the foremost definitions of Yoga – "Yoga is the restraint of vrittis (mental fluctuations) in chitta (the layer of consciousness)". Vritti, therein is defined as mental fluctuations, which are deep-seated in our sub-conscious and they determine how we behave.

Now latest researches in psychology and neuroscience, show that much of our behavior is pre-determined due to the neural pathways, and this is prominently manifested in our habits. Why do we have habits? The sub-conscious, in order to make our life efficient, tries to make repeated actions as a habit, so that you do them without thinking, thus not expending too much of neural energy. Brain consumes 25% of the body's energy and mostly these are for tasks require decision making, learning new things, navigating difficult situations etc, where we use our pre-frontal cortex i.e. the conscious part of the brain. So the brain does a smart thing and tries to delegate all routine, repetitive tasks to the sub-conscious, which is faster and uses lesser energy.

This is why after learning to drive a car or a vehicle, you can do it pretty mindlessly or unconsciously afterwards, and yet drive in a safe manner. Your mind may be elsewhere, yet your hands and legs and your hand-eye coordination all work pretty effectively almost like a robot ensuring that the task is done. This is why many days you are not conscious of routine things such as brushing your teeth or having a bath or eating etc.

How this happens is that the neural connections which define a specific action or behavior become stronger and thicker by repeated occurrences. It becomes akin to a well-trodden path or like a river canal. That way the flow of information requires minimal energy just as its easier to walk on a well-trodden path, rather than through a bush or a wild outgrowth.

Such neural pathways then cover a large part of the brain. Imagine you are gazing from the sky from an airplane and you see below a expanse of landscape and there are highways and roads criss-crossing, which seem to be covering a large part of the earth. Interesting the word “vritti” comes from the root “vr” which means “to cover” or “to envelop”. It is the same root for “varNa” and “varNa” literally means “colour”. We know that colour covers any object, basis the light which gets reflected. varNa colours our view of life, our decisions, while vritti defines our actions. So our ancients had a pretty good idea of how our mind works.

Habits govern so much of our lives without us realizing it and this was realized by our ancient seers, as evidenced by these lines in the Mahabharata as well as Yoga Sutras. And these habits govern our behavior. Our instinctual reactions are beyond our control (though we may think otherwise). We get angry, sad, dejected, relieved, happy or enthusiastic without us having much control over these emotions. If one’s behavior is not under control, then one may have read the most profound philosophies, pored over lot of knowledge, yet may not have wisdom.

In the words spoken by Yudhishtira, vritti is more in the sense of behavior, how one lives. There is another word for this – AcharaNa, i.e. how one goes by (in one’s life) i.e. one’s behavior, mannerisms as well as attitude. The word “AchArya” for teacher also comes from this. Sanskrit has several words for teacher. But “AchArya” is a universally recognized and acclaimed word and it shows how the philosophy of teaching was viewed in ancient India.

In ancient times, pupils lived with their teacher and learnt to lead their lives by observing how their preceptor lived. Thus the teacher would not just give theoretical knowledge, but also show how to apply it in practice. This is because Indians believed in a 360-degree view of life, and thus so for training, teaching as well. Just meeting a teacher in a schoolroom doesn’t give you a sense of how to live in a particular manner. But the teacher by kindly giving the student a glimpse of his personal and professional life both, gave a path for the student to explore.

This article has turned out to be longer than I intended. Yudhishtira’s answer doesn’t end here, in fact there are three more shlokas, as mentioned below. And he makes much more impactful statements, that should make some of the modern critics of varNa system, sit up and notice. I will cover them in the next post.

वृत्तं यत्नेन संरक्ष्यं ब्राह्मणेन विशेषतः। अक्षीणवृत्तो न क्षीणो वृत्ततस्तु हतो हतः ॥

पठकाः पाठकाश्चैव ये चान्ये शास्त्रचिन्तकाः। सर्वे व्यसनिनो मूर्खा यः क्रियावान्स पण्डितः ॥

चतुर्वेदोऽपि दुर्वृत्तः स शूद्रादतिरिच्यते। योऽग्निहोत्रपोर दान्तः स ब्राह्मण इति स्मृतः ॥

vṛttaṃ yatnena saṃrakṣyaṃ brāhmaṇena viśeṣataḥ। akṣīṇavṛtto na kṣīṇo vṛttatastu hato hataḥ ॥
paṭhakāḥ pāṭhakāścaiva ye cānye śāstracintakāḥ। sarve vyasanino mūrkhā yaḥ kriyāvānsa paṇḍitaḥ ॥
caturvedo'pi durvṛttaḥ sa śūdrādatiricyate। yo'gnihotrapora dāntaḥ sa brāhmaṇa iti smṛtaḥ ॥

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