King Janaka of Videha performed a great sacrifice attended by the neighboring Kuru and Panchala Brahmins. He wanted to know which of the Brahmins was an expert in scriptures. He wanted to present cows and gold to the most learned in scriptures. He kept ready a thousand cows and to the horns of each cow was fastened ten 'padas’ of gold. He addressed the Brahmins and said the wisest among them may take away those cows! But, strangely, no Brahmin came forward to take the cows! There upon Yajnavalkya directed his pupil Samasrava to drive them away. The Brahmins were enraged at the audacity of Yajnavalkya in considering himself as the wisest! To test Yajnavalkya, Chakrayana asked him to explain “the Brahman which is immediately present and directly perceived and which is the self within all beings.” Sage Yajnavalkya replied that it is the Self which is within all beings! Chakrayana was not satisfied. Yajnavalkya further stated that He who breathes in, breathes out and breathes around and breathes up when one breathes up is the Self which is within all beings! Still Chakrayana was not impressed! He required further explanation!
“ Which Self is within all beings?” questioned Chakrayana once again. Yajnavalkya replied that one cannot see the seer of seeing, or hearer of hearing or thinker of thinking, or understand the understander of understanding! He is one’s own Self within all beings! Everything else is considered as evil. Next Kahola questioned Yajnavalkya to explain further. The renowned Sage said that “ He who transcends hunger and thirst, grief and delusion, decay and death is the Self!
He who knows this Self and rises above desire for sons, for wealth, and for world shall meditate and become the knower of Brahman.” To a series of questions by Gargi, Yajnavalkya replies that water is woven like warp and woof in air, air in the worlds of the sky, sky in the worlds of Gandharvas, and they in the worlds of the sun! Further the worlds of the sun are woven like warp and woof in the worlds of the Moon. The worlds of the moon are in the world of stars and they in turn are in the worlds of Gods! These in turn are in the world of Indra. The worlds of Indra are woven like warp and woof in the world of Prajapati! Finally the worlds of Prajapati are woven like warp and woof in the worlds of Brahman! Yajnavalkya stopped Gargi from questioning as she had exceeded her limit!
It was now the turn of Uddalaka to question Yajnavalkya. He asked the sage if ‘ he knew ,the inner controller within who controls this world, the other world and all beings.’ He warned Yajnavalkya that his head would fall off if he took away the cows without knowing the thread and that inner controller. The Sage said that air is the thread by which all the worlds are held together. The dweller in the earth, water, fire, sky, air, heaven, the sun, quarters of space, the moon and the stars is the Self, the inner controller and the immortal! He lives in all beings, in the breath, organs of speech, eye, ear, mind and understanding! Yajnavalkya said, “ He is the the unseen seer, unheard hearer, the unthought thinker, and the unknown knower!” Replying to a question by Gargi, Yajnavalkya said that everything above the heavens, beneath the earth and between the two, the past, present and future across space is woven like warp and woof. People who know Brahman call that imperishable! “It is without eyes, ears, voice, mind, vigour, breath, mouth, measure, and without inside or an outside! It consumes nothing and no one consumes it!” Everything in the universe obeys the command of the Imperishable--heaven, earth, seasons, years and months, rivers. Yajnavalkya tells Gargi that men praise those who give, the Gods depend on the sacrificer and the Pitris on the 'darvi’ offering.
To Sakalya’s question Yajnavalkya replied that according to the hymn Nivid there are three hundred and three and three thousand and three Gods. But really there is only one God! The hundred and thousand represent their various powers! In reality the thirty three Gods are the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, and the twelve Adityas! Indra and Prajapati join to make thirty three! The whole world is the possession of these six--Fire, earth, air, sky, and heaven! Matter and Vital force are the two Gods! The wind who blows here is considered one and a half! The one God is the Vital force who is called Brahman! They call him ‘That’! So saying, The great Sage Yajnavalkya asked the Brahmins present there to ask him any question they like. He is prepared to field a question to any Brahmin if he desires! But no Brahmin dared to question the great Sage!
There is a beautiful comparison and symbolism of man and a tree! Yajnavalkya compares man to a mighty tree in the forest! His hair are the leaves and his skin the outer bark. From the skin blood flows forth and sap from the bark. Likewise the wounded man bleeds as sap flows from the tree that is struck! Man’s flesh is the tree’s inner bark and his nerves the tough fibers of the tree! Man’s bones are the wood within and his marrow is the pith of the tree! The tree, when felled, rises up from it's root. But what is the root for man to spring forth when cut off by death? It is not ‘from the seed’ for that is produced from the living. The tree springs up from the seed again after it is dead. When the root is pulled out the tree does not grow again! But man is born again and who is his creator? It is Brahman, says Yajnavalkya, “ that is knowledge and bliss “Satyam jnanam anantam Brahma”-the supreme goal of him who offers gifts and of him who stands still and knows it!” The Upanishad again and again stresses on the definition and the significance of Self which according to it is the Brahman itself! Brahman is everything! It is “anoraniyan mahato mahiyan”. Everything shines when it shines! “ Na tatra suryo bhati na chandra tarakam nemo vidyuto bhanti ku toyamagnihi tam eva bhanti manubhati sarvam tasyabhasa sarvamidam vibhasl” (Kathopanishad)
No comments:
Post a Comment