Six Seekers, Six Questions

The Prashna Upanishad comes from the Atharvaveda. Six learned young men (Sukesha Bharadvaja, Shaibya Satyakama, Sauryayani Gargya, Kausalya Ashvalayana, Bhargava Vaidarbhi and Kabandhi Katyayana) went to the sage Pippalada, wanting to know Brahman. They came carrying samidha in their hands, which in those days was the sign of a humble student.

The sage did not answer straight away. He said, 'First live here for one year with discipline, self-control and faith. Then ask what you wish; if I know, I will tell you everything.' After a year, the six questions came one by one. Kabandhi asked: where are all these creatures born from? The sage said that Prajapati, wishing to create, performed tapas and made a pair: rayi (matter) and prana (life). From this pair the whole world arose.

Bhargava asked: which powers hold up the body, and which is greatest? The sage told a story. Once speech, mind, eye, ear and the rest quarrelled, each claiming, 'I hold up this body.' Then prana, the life-breath, began to leave the body, and all the others were dragged out with it, just as all the bees fly off when the queen bee flies. They gave up and sang prana's praise.

Kausalya asked where prana comes from and how it divides itself in the body. The sage said: prana is born from the Self as a shadow is cast by a person, and it works in the body in five forms, just as a king appoints different officers for different villages. Gargya asked: in sleep, what sleeps, what stays awake, and who sees dreams? The sage explained that in sleep the senses merge into the mind, the life-breaths stay awake, and in dreams it is the mind that sees its own wonders.

Satyakama asked: what does one gain by meditating on Om all one's life? The sage said Om is both the higher and the lower Brahman, and explained the fruit of meditating on its three sounds. Last, Sukesha said that Prince Hiranyanabha of Kosala had once asked him about 'the Person with sixteen parts'. Sukesha had honestly replied, 'I do not know. If I knew, why would I not tell you? One who speaks untruth withers to the root.'

Pippalada said: that Person is not far away; he is within this very body, and from him the sixteen parts arise. Just as rivers flowing into the ocean lose their names and forms, everything merges in him. The six students bowed to their teacher and said, 'You are our father, who has carried us across to the far shore of ignorance.'