Satyakama Jabala: The Boy Who Told the Truth

The Chandogya Upanishad comes from the Samaveda and is one of the longest Upanishads. It tells the story of a boy named Satyakama. Satyakama wanted to study, and in those days a student entering a gurukul was asked his gotra, his family lineage. He asked his mother Jabala, 'Mother, what is my gotra?'

His mother answered truthfully: 'Son, in my youth I worked as a maidservant in many households, and you were born then. I do not know your gotra. My name is Jabala, your name is Satyakama. Tell the teacher you are Satyakama Jabala.' The mother hid nothing, and the son would hide nothing either.

Satyakama went to the sage Haridrumata Gautama and humbly asked to become his student. The teacher asked, 'What is your gotra?' Satyakama repeated everything his mother had said, word for word. The teacher was deeply moved. He said, 'Only a true seeker of Brahman could speak such a truth. Go, bring firewood. I will accept you as my student, because you have not strayed from the truth.'

The teacher gave him four hundred thin, weak cows. Satyakama said, 'I will not return until they become a thousand.' For years he tended the cows in the forest. There, nature itself became his teacher: one day the bull of the herd spoke to him, then the fire, then a hamsa (swan), then a water bird. Each one taught him one part of Brahman.

When the herd had grown to a thousand, Satyakama returned to the ashram. The moment the teacher saw him, he said, 'Son, your face shines like one who knows Brahman. Who taught you?' Satyakama said, 'Beings other than humans. But I want you to teach me, for knowledge learned from one's teacher is the best.' The teacher gave him that knowledge, and Satyakama himself later became a great sage.