The obsession with learning (saastra vaasanaa) is of three kinds: addiction to study, addiction to many scriptural texts and obsession with the mechanical observance of injunctions with regard to the performance of rituals. The first only is exemplified by sage Bharadvaja, who was not satisfied with having devoted three successive lives to the study of the Vedas and continued the same in his fourth life also. This is also an impure vaasanaa because it is not possible of achievement. Indra cured him of this by explaining to him the impossibility of his undertaking and initiated him into the knowledge of the conditioned Brahman for the attainment of a higher end.
