The Sanskrit language of these parts of Brihadaranyaka dons a robe of other-worldly metaphors and an occult imagery personification for the abstract, intangible realities of the mind and the spirit in order to negotiate an experience another domain. decoding the meaning of certain mystifying occurrences that took place at Janaka's symposium as reported in the Upanishad was a challenge.At those crucial points, language was used to hide, rather than to reveal the meaning. It was a dense forest of obscurities which sheathed riddles of psychology and parapsychology. While working my way through those riddles, I realized the existence of a tempestuous clash of personalities: Yajnyawalkya and Shakalya. When these two personalities engage in a formal debate, the apparently pedagogic questions and answers suddenly take a turn for an indignant denunciation of Gargi: a female participant in the debate: and a terrible curse pronounced by Yajnyawalkya upon Shakalya: a fellow participant in the debate. To me, this event seemed to loom like a configuration out of the dark and cast its shadow over those portions of Brihadaranyaka wherever Yajnyawalkya made an appearance. The event had too much of reality in it to be dismissed as a mythical, enigmatic phenomenon.
Certain nodal points began to emerge in my search for the meaning of the enigmatic personality of Yajnyawalkya.
Yajnyawalkya's outrageous entry into the fierce polemics of Janaka's symposium formed one of those nodal points, giving a glimpse of the rivalry between Yajnyawalkya and Shakalya, which seemed to have its roots in the personal history of both.
The other points were relatively undramatic. One of those was Maitreyi's unexpectedly sharp rebuttal of Yajnyawalkya's proposal of distributing his wealth between his two wives: Katyayani and Maitreyi. Yajnyawalkya's answer to Maitreyi's demand that she be given her share in his knowledge of his Self and not in his wealth, is a terse and taciturn reply: "Look into thy Self; listen to thy Self; and stay attuned to it always. The vision, voice and the counseling of that Self will give you all that is worthy of knowledge
The experience of the meeting of the Atman: the individual soul and Paramatman: the divine soul: is described by the mystics as an experience of supreme joy, inexpressible in words and inaccessible to the intellect. It is proclaimed as the end of all fear. For most, it is a difficult state to realize, because it ends all awareness of the duality between me and the other at a highly mystical level of consciousness: in fact, it is the end of consciousness on the physical plane. One school of Indian mystics who call themselves ' dualists' 'dvaity', wish to retain the individual consciousness in that moment of the great union to be able to experience that bliss and live in it. Yajnyawalkya who is one with the spirit of the Vedas and the Upanishads endorses the vision of Advaita:the non-dualist vision. He believes that after we attain the great union with Brahma: the Ultimate: we do not retain consciousness on the physical plane. It is the end of our existence on the earthly plane and the end of our consciousness as we know it on the earthly plane. That is the destination tward which we all progress in life. The question wheth er we are mortal or immortal has no relevance and significance for him; and the prospect of our death on the earthly plane holds no fear for him. He discards all impediments one after another in his quest. But not everyone can do it with ease. He knows it. He shields those around him from a premature exposure to the knowledge of Brahma: the Ultimate: which can be terrifying for an unprepared soul.
It is indeed very difficult to translate the Upanishadic concept of knowledge into a language. That is the reality of oneness with 'Brahma'. So long as we do not reach that knowledge we torment ourselves by the feeling or delusion of being 'alone'. To M.aitreyi, that fear is yet real. She feels, she cannot conquer that fear without Yajnyawalkya, who is more of a spiritual mentor than a husband to her. However, as yet, she is tormented by the 'angst' of living in a world without the knowledge of god. Yajnyawalkya of the Upanishad knew that Maitreyi was not ready yet for the knowledge he had gained of life , humanity and God. Perhaps that is why, in the Upanishad, he puts an end to her quest for knowledge in an apparently brusque manner, saying, "Enough of this intellectualism now!"
With these words, Yajnyawalkya of the Upanishad closed the portals of knowledge for Maitreyi and walked ahead alone.
Maitreyi had asked Yajnyawalkya,"Can all this wealth make me immortal?" In the Upanishad, he simply said, "Immortality and wealth are far apart; wealth gives comforts, but it is the destroyer of immortality!"
The story of Yajnyawalkya and Maitreyi lies far beyond these nodal points. It cannot be retrieved fully from the texts of the long -lost past. Upanishads only leave behind for us the signposts on the way.
[The novel 'Yajnyawalkya' will follow this foreword shortly.] .
Certain nodal points began to emerge in my search for the meaning of the enigmatic personality of Yajnyawalkya.
Yajnyawalkya's outrageous entry into the fierce polemics of Janaka's symposium formed one of those nodal points, giving a glimpse of the rivalry between Yajnyawalkya and Shakalya, which seemed to have its roots in the personal history of both.
The other points were relatively undramatic. One of those was Maitreyi's unexpectedly sharp rebuttal of Yajnyawalkya's proposal of distributing his wealth between his two wives: Katyayani and Maitreyi. Yajnyawalkya's answer to Maitreyi's demand that she be given her share in his knowledge of his Self and not in his wealth, is a terse and taciturn reply: "Look into thy Self; listen to thy Self; and stay attuned to it always. The vision, voice and the counseling of that Self will give you all that is worthy of knowledge
The experience of the meeting of the Atman: the individual soul and Paramatman: the divine soul: is described by the mystics as an experience of supreme joy, inexpressible in words and inaccessible to the intellect. It is proclaimed as the end of all fear. For most, it is a difficult state to realize, because it ends all awareness of the duality between me and the other at a highly mystical level of consciousness: in fact, it is the end of consciousness on the physical plane. One school of Indian mystics who call themselves ' dualists' 'dvaity', wish to retain the individual consciousness in that moment of the great union to be able to experience that bliss and live in it. Yajnyawalkya who is one with the spirit of the Vedas and the Upanishads endorses the vision of Advaita:the non-dualist vision. He believes that after we attain the great union with Brahma: the Ultimate: we do not retain consciousness on the physical plane. It is the end of our existence on the earthly plane and the end of our consciousness as we know it on the earthly plane. That is the destination tward which we all progress in life. The question wheth er we are mortal or immortal has no relevance and significance for him; and the prospect of our death on the earthly plane holds no fear for him. He discards all impediments one after another in his quest. But not everyone can do it with ease. He knows it. He shields those around him from a premature exposure to the knowledge of Brahma: the Ultimate: which can be terrifying for an unprepared soul.
It is indeed very difficult to translate the Upanishadic concept of knowledge into a language. That is the reality of oneness with 'Brahma'. So long as we do not reach that knowledge we torment ourselves by the feeling or delusion of being 'alone'. To M.aitreyi, that fear is yet real. She feels, she cannot conquer that fear without Yajnyawalkya, who is more of a spiritual mentor than a husband to her. However, as yet, she is tormented by the 'angst' of living in a world without the knowledge of god. Yajnyawalkya of the Upanishad knew that Maitreyi was not ready yet for the knowledge he had gained of life , humanity and God. Perhaps that is why, in the Upanishad, he puts an end to her quest for knowledge in an apparently brusque manner, saying, "Enough of this intellectualism now!"
With these words, Yajnyawalkya of the Upanishad closed the portals of knowledge for Maitreyi and walked ahead alone.
Maitreyi had asked Yajnyawalkya,"Can all this wealth make me immortal?" In the Upanishad, he simply said, "Immortality and wealth are far apart; wealth gives comforts, but it is the destroyer of immortality!"
The story of Yajnyawalkya and Maitreyi lies far beyond these nodal points. It cannot be retrieved fully from the texts of the long -lost past. Upanishads only leave behind for us the signposts on the way.
[The novel 'Yajnyawalkya' will follow this foreword shortly.] .
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