Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad comes from the Shukla Yajurveda. Its name says it all: 'brihat' means great, and 'aranyaka' means a text studied in the forest. Its greatest sage is Yajnavalkya. Once King Janaka set aside a thousand cows, with gold tied to their horns, for the wisest scholar. Yajnavalkya told his student, 'Drive them home.' Then many scholars in the court, Gargi among them, put hard questions to him, and Yajnavalkya answered them all.

Yajnavalkya had two wives, Maitreyi and Katyayani. Maitreyi had a deep love of spiritual discussion. One day Yajnavalkya said, 'I am about to leave household life and take sannyasa. Come, let me divide my property between the two of you.'

Maitreyi asked a question that is as real today as it was then: 'Revered one, if this whole earth filled with wealth were mine, would I become immortal?' Yajnavalkya said, 'No. Your life would simply be like the life of the rich. There is no hope of immortality through wealth.' Maitreyi said, 'What would I do with something that cannot make me immortal? Tell me what you know.'

Yajnavalkya was pleased and said: 'A husband is not dear for the husband's sake, but for the sake of the Self. Wife, son, wealth: none is dear for its own sake; each is dear because of the Self.' Behind every love is the one Self. So it is that Self which should be seen, heard about, reflected upon and meditated on. When it is known, everything is known.

This same Upanishad contains the prayer that millions recite today, 'Asato ma sadgamaya': lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. It also contains the Mahavakya 'Aham brahmasmi' (I am Brahman), and the famous way of pointing to Brahman, 'neti neti': not this, not this.