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Janaka and Yajnavalkya I
KING JANAKA was a great king and a great sage. He wielded an empire without and equally an empire within: he had realised the Truth, known Brahman. He was svarÄt and samrÄt. A friend and intimate of his was Rishi Yajnavalkya, who also was a sage ― in fact, considered to be the greatest sage of the time, a supreme knower of Brahman. Once upon a time King Janaka invited sages from everywhere, whoever wanted to come to the assembly. The king from time to time used to call such assemblies for spiritual discussion and interchange of experiences. This time he summoned the assembly for a special reason. He had collected a herd of one thousand cows and nuggets of gold were tied to the horns of each. When all had gathered and taken their places he announced that whoever considered himself the best knower of Brahman (Brahmishtha) might come forward and take away the cows. None stirred. No one had the temerity to declare that he was the best knower and the most eligible for the prize. The king repeated his announcement. Then all of a sudden people saw Yajnavalkya advancing and telling his disciples to take hold of the herd and drive it home. A hue and cry arose: How is it? How dare he? One came forward and asked Yajnavalkya: How is it, Yajnavalkya? Do you consider yourself the most wise in the matter of Brahman? First prove your claim and then touch the cows. Yajnavalkya in great humility bowed down and said to the asembly: I bow down to the great sages. I have come here solely with the intention of getting the cows. As for the knowledge of Brahman, I leave it to the knowers of Brahman. All the others in one voice said: That will not do,
Page – 49 Yajnavalkya. You cannot get away so easily. Come, sit down and prove your worth. Yajnavalkya had no way of escape. So one by one the sages came up and put questions and enigmas to Yagnavalkya. All he answered quietly and perfectly to their full satisfaction. Towards the end a woman stood up, Gargi, a fair and famous name too. She said: Yajnavalkya, I shall put two questions to you like two arrows directed at you, even as a king shoots his arrows at his enemies; if you can meet and parry them, yours the victory. ― Yajnavalkaya: "Let me hear then". ― Gargi: "Yajnavalkya, you once said that the earth is the warp and woof woven upon water; upon what is woven the water?" ― Yajnavalkya: "Air". ― "Upon what then is air woven?" ― "Sky". ― "Upon what is woven the sky?" ― "The world of Gandharvas." ― "Upon what the Gandharvas?""Upon the Sun." She continued her questioning. And thus she was led successively through higher and higher worlds ― from the Sun to the Moon, then to the Stars, then to the Gods and the King of Gods, then to the Creator of the Gods and the peoples¹ and finally to the Brahmaloka (the world of the One Supreme Transcendent Reality). Gargi still continued and asked again: "Upon what is Brahman woven?" To this Yajnavalkya cried halt and warned her: "Now, Gargi, your questioning goes too far, beyond the limits. If you question farther, your head will fall off. You are questioning about a thing that does not bear questioning ― mÄ ati prÄksih― anati praÅ›nyÄ devatÄ â€• the Gods abide not our question." So Gargi had to desist and Yajnavalkya was accepted as the best of the sages (Brahmishtha) and he could drive his cattle away home. The ultimate reality does not lie within the ken of the questioning mind, the Upanishad emphatically declares. We all know the famous mantra: "naisÄ tarkena matirÄpaneyÄ â€• this consciousness cannot be reached by reasoning nor by intelligence nor by much learning. Indeed the Self, the Divine discloses his body to him alone whom he chooses as his own.
¹ It is difficult to locate or
identify the Upanishadic worlds or explain their gradations; evidently they are
symbolical. But for us it is sufficient if we know that they are mounting
steps, higher and higher tiers of being and consciousness leading to the
supreme Being and Consciousness, the Brahman. Page – 50 II It is to be noted that even when at the top of the consciousness, full of the Supreme Brahman, one with it, Yajnavalkya does not lose hold of the earthly foothold ― he does not forget his cows, and thereby hangs another amusing tale of his. Once King Janaka, as it was customary, was holding his court and there was a large assembly of people ― courtiers, ministers, officials, petitioners and a crowd of curious visitors. All of a sudden stepped in Yajnavalkya. The king saw him, and after welcoming him asked with an ironical smile what he was there for. Did he come for cows (referring to the previous episode) or for the knowledge of Brahman? Yajnavalkya too answered with a beatific smile: 0 King, I come for both ubhayameva samrÄt. In other words, even after passing through all the inferior worlds, the intermediary formulations of the Supreme, even after passing beyond, Yagnavalkya does not reject these stations as delusions but accepts them, subsumes them, within one integral consciousness ― something in the manner imaged in those famous lines of Wordsorth: Type of the wise who soar but never roam, True to the kindred points of heaven and home. ¹ III Yajnavalkya one day, as it was almost habitual with him, walked up straight to the royal court, into the very presence of King Janaka and quietly took his seat ― a seat always reserved for him. He came with the idea of not opening the conversation. He kept quiet. The King however immediately started and said: Yajnavalkya, I have a question to put to you. Please answer. YAJNAVALKYA: I am ready, 0 King! Let me hear. KING: What is the light that man has? Y: The sun is man's light.
¹ Poems of Imaginations, "To a Skylark".
Page – 51 K: And when the sun has set? Y: The moon is his light. K: When the sun has set, when the moon has set, what light has man? Y: The fire is his light. K: When the sun has set, when the moon has set, when the fire has gone out, what then is man's light? Y: The self is his light. K: And what is this self? Y: The self is the conscious Being, master of life-energies, dwelling within the heart.
Yajnavalkya's answer has been put succinctly and most beautifully in another Upanishad, the most beautiful verse in the whole Upanishadic literature. Here it is: There the sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars; nor do these ligtnings shine there. And how can this fire be there? That shines and in its wake all others shine. By the light of That all this becomes luminous.¹ All other lights, lights of the heaven, lights upon earth are evanescent. They pass away, the only light that endures and never fails is the light of the soul. ¹ This is a literal translation. Sri Aurobindo gives a
beautifully poetic translation, rather a transcreation of the mantra. Here
it is: "There the sun cannot shine and the moon has no lustre; all the
stars are blind; there our lightnings flash not, neither any earthly fire. For all that is bright is but the shadow of His brightness and by
His shining all this shines." ― Sri Aurobindo: The Upanishads, Sri Aurobindo Birth
Centenary Library, Vol. 12, p. 261. Page – 52
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