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00:00Even to reach the sanctum sanctorum of the temple one has to pass through the
00:25peripheries, the stairs, the doors
00:35the peripheries, the initials are all important
00:58as mediums, as methods but they must be given only that much significance.
01:25One must be able to use them and go past them, that is their rightful purpose.
01:50What you call as the Upanishads are in the first glance just books and words, that is
02:08what is apparent, you can pick up the book and you can read the words.
02:20What you meet and come across in the Upanishads are words and characters that too again is
02:36visible and apparent but the books of the Upanishads, the words, the aphorisms, the
02:52characters, the tales, they all must be taken as the peripheries, the gateways, the stairs.
03:11One must go into them and go past them.
03:22One must not stay there.
03:30To have with you this beautiful text which I hope all of you have read, the Brihadaranyakupanishad
03:57and we have picked for discussion today an occurrence between Sage Yagyavalkya and his
04:09consort Maitreyi.
04:19You can take it as a tale.
04:23You can assume that what you are reading are words.
04:30You can conclude that you are coming across a man and his wives.
04:42All that is easy, as easy as missing the point.
04:59But if you are careful, then you would not see the sage as a man, the wives as persons.
05:25You go so deeply into the story that you will be able to go beyond the story, go beyond
05:35the narrative, the fiction and enter into something that no fiction can ever touch.
05:54Who is Yagyavalkya?
05:59The Rishi here represents the truth, the heart.
06:20The story says that he had two wives, Maitreyi and Katyayani.
06:35Just forget the facts, just ignore the question whether he actually had two wives, take the
06:44two wives as one, just as every person is two, similarly it is wise and useful as a
07:10pointer to represent the one fact of the mind as two different entities.
07:25The two wives represent the mind and because the mind lives in two parallel and possible
07:40dimensions, hence it is all right to say that the mind is two and hence the wives are two.
07:48The one wife is two wives, just as one mind is two minds.
07:55The mind can exist either as a lover of the heart, as a follower of knowing and realization
08:15and truth and that dimension of the mind is represented by the name Maitreyi or the
08:26mind can exist as the text says, as attached to the qualities, the Gunas of Prakriti.
08:44Hence Katyayani has been described as someone bonded to her feminine attributes.
09:00Maitreyi and Katyayani represent together the human mind.
09:07The mind, the self-same mind, when it is a lover of truth, it is Maitreyi and when
09:18it is attached to the world, to the physical nature, to the body, to appearances, to forms,
09:33to persons, then it is Katyayani.
09:41So Yajivalkya, the heart, the truth, the representative of Brahm, had a wife called Maitreyi-Katyayani.
09:59The husband is the heart, the mind is the wife and that is why saints and rishis and
10:10gurus have incessantly called God or Truth or Paramatma or Rab as the Lord, Swami.
10:30The husband, the pati, literally meaning the ruler, the master.
10:41The mind is the perpetual seeker.
10:47The mind is the lover always aspiring for its beloved, its master, its Lord.
11:03The mind has been in the traditions of bhakti and otherwise always represented as a female
11:29and the truth has been represented as the purush, the male.
11:41The mind has been a representative of feminine prakriti and the truth has been the saakshi purush.
11:59So goes even the expression of Sankhya Yoga.
12:12It is in that light that one must look at Yajivalkya and his wives.
12:25So when the opportunity presents itself in front of the mind, what are the options?
12:41The truth, the Lord, the husband is asking, what do you want, O mind?
12:49What do you want, my beloved?
12:54The mind has two options.
12:56The mind can ask for all the riches of the world.
13:08The sage is offering riches.
13:10The sage is saying, O Maitreya, I want to settle all my property between you and Katyayani
13:17and the mind can ask for worldly riches, for material, for things that are sensual
13:25and attractive or the mind can ask for the very essence itself, for the truth itself.
13:39If the mind is in the Maitreya dimension, it will do what Maitreya did.
13:44The mind will say, O husband, O Lord, O truth, will all the riches of the world give me immortality
13:57and if the mind is in the Katyayani dimension, the mind will say, yes, yes, I want to extract
14:05as much of wealth and sensual enjoyment from you as can be possible.
14:17Visualize Arjuna and Duryodhana sitting by a sleeping Krishna.
14:28You can either have Krishna as Krishna mandates or you can have his entire army, the Narayani
14:39Sena.
14:40There is always the choice available to the person, the mind and there is also the choice
14:46available to Maitreya-Katyayani.
14:51If the mind is in the Maitreya mode or the Arjuna mode, it will choose Krishna.
14:58If the mind is in the Duryodhana mode, the Prakriti mode, it will choose all that Krishna
15:07has, not Krishna.
15:16Kabir puts it very, very secondly.
15:18He says, Prabhuta ko sab koi bhaje, Prabhu ko bhaje na koi, Jo Kabir Prabhu ko bhaje,
15:32Prabhuta cheri hoye.
15:34You want all that the Lord gives, Prabhuta.
15:40But you do not want the Lord himself.
15:44Kabir says, Prabhuta ko har koi bhaje, he wants everything that he has, all his world,
15:51the universe belongs to him, all the wealth belongs to him.
15:58You want all that which springs forth from him, but you do not directly and straightforwardly
16:09and staunchly, ascetically want him.
16:14You want to beat around the bush.
16:17You want to enjoy all that proceeds from him.
16:25Desiring all that which proceeds from him, you are scared of the source from which everything
16:32proceeds.
16:37And then he brings out the absurdity of the general approach of the mind by saying, Jo
16:43Kabir Prabhu ko bhaje, Prabhuta cheri hoye.
16:48Had you really bothered to submit yourself to the truth itself, then anyway you would
16:57have obtained all that which proceeds from the truth.
17:07Had you really been particular about going right to the source, would you have really
17:16missed all that which is a product of the source?
17:22But we want the products, we do not want the source itself.
17:25Maitreyi is a wise one, Maitreyi would not be fooled, Maitreyi would not go for the property
17:36of Yajnavalkya, Maitreyi would not go for even the intellectual knowledge of Yajnavalkya.
17:44Maitreyi is really a wise wife, a wise mind.
17:50Maitreyi could so easily have been Katyayani, remember that Maitreyi and Katyayani are in
17:55some sense one, do not think as if Yajnavalkya has many wives, he has just one wife.
18:02That one wife can either be Maitreyi or Katyayani, just as we can either be Maitreyi or Katyayani
18:11and that single choice decides the course of our life.
18:14Who are you?
18:16The lover of truth or the lover of riches?
18:25Jesus says no man can parallelly love God and mammon.
18:30Who are you?
18:32A lover of God, a lover of Yajnavalkya or a lover of mammon, a lover of Yajnavalkya's
18:37wealth?
18:38Who are you?
18:40What do you want from the husband?
18:43The husband can offer you both.
18:45What would you rather have?
18:49God can give you whatever you want, Krishna puts it very beautifully.
18:54He says either you can come directly to me or you can come to my Maya, what do you want?
19:02You can either have me or you can have my Maya, what do you want?
19:08In either case you are getting something related to me, but in one case your quench
19:15is immediate, your thirst is immediately quenched and in the other case you take the most round
19:22about route possible.
19:24Where does wisdom lie?
19:28How do you want to proceed?
19:36Shri asks a very pertinent question.
19:38She says, sir, you have offered me a choice, very kind of you.
19:49Now tell me, if I take everything that you offer me as physical positions, would that
20:01eliminate my fears?
20:05When she is asking for immortality, she is fundamentally asking for freedom from fear.
20:11Immortality means freedom from death, freedom from time.
20:18That is the one and only curse of living, fear.
20:25In fact, all religious scriptures aim at only one thing and that is psychological healing.
20:36They want to rid the mind of fear and to rid the mind of fear, faith and wisdom and devotion
20:46are the only solution.
20:49If you don't have God, you will surely have fear.
20:52Fear or temptation, sorry.
21:03Maitreyi knows the only thing that is valuable, that is worth asking for.
21:17She knows that even if she obtains the entire ocean of the world's riches, still that would
21:29not take away fear from her mind.
21:39She knows very well that even the biggest will come and go.
21:45There is nothing in mind that beats time.
21:53Everything that originates in time is also destroyed by time and the mind knows that.
22:01So even if it possesses and owns a lot, it is still worried and shivering.
22:08It knows that the next tide will sweep away everything.
22:15Nothing goes past death, nothing goes past time, nothing goes past change.
22:25So she wisely asks, Sir, can any of your offerings give me peace?
22:38Can you give me anything that will prevent me from obliteration?
22:49And unless that is assured, life is not worth living.
22:59If you don't have anything, you are afraid that you may not have anything ever and if
23:08you have something, then you are again afraid that what you have might be lost any moment.
23:21What is the point in living such a life?
23:26So she says, give me your essence, O Lord, O truth, O physical manifestation of God.
23:43Give me the only thing that is worth giving.
23:47I'll ask the only thing that is worth being asked for.
23:58Give me your very essence.
24:02Give me the heart of Yajnavalkya.
24:06Give me God Almighty himself.
24:10Nothing less than that will satisfy me.
24:19Look at the beauty of the mind when it is in the Maitreyi mode.
24:27Is she an ordinary wife?
24:31Had she really been a person of flesh and blood, she would have started beating her
24:36chest like a person does.
24:38Should have looked at her husband as a mortal body.
24:44Should have said, O my man Yajnavalkya, why are you deserting me?
24:51None of that for Maitreyi.
24:54Maitreyi at no point calls Yajnavalkya as a man and Yajnavalkya can be very easily called
25:04a man.
25:07Nobody can deny that he is indeed a person in flesh and blood as well, but it depends
25:13on how you look at him.
25:17If you don't have eyes, then a Jesus, a Buddha, a Krishna, a Yajnavalkya is just flesh and
25:25blood for you, especially so if he is your relative or son or husband, because then the
25:34very relationship between you the body and the other one is that of the body.
25:43It is very difficult for a usual wife to accept the husband as the teacher.
25:54It is very difficult for a usual father or mother to accept the son or the daughter as
26:01a teacher.
26:03But Maitreyi is extraordinary.
26:08She is not crying.
26:11She is not asking Yajnavalkya the reasons why he is forsaking the Grahasthashram.
26:22She knows very well that if the wise Lord has decided, the time must have come.
26:29He must have seen something that others are unable to see.
26:36So she does not plead.
26:38She does not intervene.
26:39She does not beg.
26:41She does not try to influence the husband's decision.
26:49Instead she aims directly at that which carries value.
26:56She is sharp.
26:59She knows what to aim at.
27:04She will not ask for trivia.
27:08She will not beg for valueless things.
27:11She immediately asks, give me the self, O Lord.
27:20Because to me you are valuable only because you represent the self.
27:27Because I see that gleam in your eyes.
27:30Because you are no ordinary teacher.
27:33You are the sage Yajnavalkya.
27:37And Yajnavalkya is Yajnavalkya not because of his face or his nose or his body or his skin.
27:44He is Yajnavalkya because he is a messenger of God.
27:51Because from him the Upanishads flow forth.
27:58So give me that which makes you what you are.
28:02Give me your essence.
28:03Give me Brahm Gyan.
28:06And that is the only thing that you too must ever ask any worthy person.
28:12Never ask for anything less than that.
28:14If you are asking for anything less than that, then you are selling yourself very cheap.
28:23The teacher is not to be looked at as a body.
28:28The teacher is not to be looked at as a person or as a personality.
28:33You must never ask for anything short of godliness from the teacher.
28:42And it really does not matter what your particular and personal relationship with the teacher is.
28:49That relationship fades into irrelevance, into oblivion compared to the immensity of
29:00what the teacher really stands for.
29:06Asking for trivia from the teacher is like going to a mine full of diamonds and collecting
29:15only filth.
29:16Do you want to be so unfortunate?
29:21You could have walked away with the most precious diamonds that the teacher can offer.
29:26Instead what you chose to collect from him was rubbish.
29:31And it is very possible to be near the teacher and still collect rubbish.
29:36It is very easy to be a Katyayani.
29:38What do you want to be?
29:39A Maitreyi or a Katyayani?
29:43What do you want from the person of the teacher?
29:50His body, his physical company, his looks, his touch, his smell, all his manly attributes
30:03or do you want that from him which goes beyond personality?
30:16What happens after this does not carry much value.
30:27The decision is already made.
30:32Yajnavalkya has already smiled.
30:42The ways of God are instantaneous.
30:46He does not wait for things to happen.
30:53There is no time lag or processing time there.
30:57The moment Maitreyi makes this choice, she is already in Brahman.
31:07Now Yajnavalkya can proceed with his words, but his words do not matter much now.
31:18Even looks would do, even pointers would do, even silence would do, because the right beginning
31:30has been made, because the beginning has been from the right center, because Maitreyi is
31:37asking from the right point for the right thing and when you begin rightly, you have
31:43already ended rightly.
31:45You cannot be led astray.
31:46When you begin in God, God will ensure that you end in God.
31:52Just begin rightly and leave the rest to God.
31:55Maitreyi has begun rightly.
31:58Now Yajnavalkya's role is anyway secondary.
32:05Do not be misled into thinking that she is illuminated by the words of the sage.
32:15No, even before Yajnavalkya speaks the first word, Maitreyi is already illuminated.
32:22Had she not been illuminated, how could she have made such a choice?
32:27God has already blessed her and that is why such a choice has been made.
32:34Whatever the choice, whatever happens, this incident, it is just a play, it is Leela.
32:42Yajnavalkya too knows that fully well, but once the game begins, it has to be carried out.
32:53These are formalities.
32:57These are rules, basic etiquette.
33:02Now that you have started talking, for the sake of it, we will talk a little.
33:12But as soon as you uttered the first syllable, I knew who was talking through you.
33:22As soon as you made the beginning, I knew that the end was travelling through you.
33:34But still let's talk.
33:36So Yajnavalkya then says a few things.
33:39Those things are not of much use to Maitreyi, but are of good use to the reader.
33:44Had those things not been said, then what would the Upanishad have contained?
33:53So gratitude to Yajnavalkya that he says all these things.
33:57Remember that Maitreyi needs none of them.
33:59Kindly do not think that enlightenment proceeds via aphorisms or words or teachings.
34:05No, it does not.
34:14Those words are for us.
34:17Let's read them, sip them and be benefited.
34:25Yajnavalkya says, Dear Maitreyi, whatsoever one ever seeks, he is seeking only that.
34:38If you seek a wife, do you know what you are seeking?
34:43If you seek wealth, do you know what you are seeking?
34:47If you seek a Brahmin or a Kshatriya or anybody, the distinction does not matter.
35:00Do you know what you are seeking?
35:03Yajnavalkya beautifully, very succinctly puts it.
35:07He says, Maitreyi, if you want immortality as you have expressed, then you must know
35:17what we all are always seeking because immortality is freedom from change, freedom from seeking,
35:27freedom from traveling, freedom from desires.
35:32It is coming to a point that is so complete that you do not want to budge from it.
35:38That is immortality.
35:39Only when you have come to a place which is so fulfilling and so total and so final that
35:50nothing remains outside of it to be sought, to be desired, then you are free of change,
35:58then you need nothing more.
36:03And what is that?
36:05To come to that, he says, please see what you are really seeking.
36:09If you know what you are really seeking, you have already obtained it.
36:13Wonderful aphorism.
36:15If you know, really know what you want, then you already have what you want.
36:22We run after shadows.
36:25We do not know what we want.
36:28We run after proxies.
36:31We do not know what we want.
36:34When we want X, we are actually running after Y and that is why even after obtaining all
36:43the Ys in the world, contentment eludes us because we do not know what is it that we
36:50really want.
36:54Yagyavalkya is taking his beloved wife to the want behind all wants, want but want intelligently,
37:08know what is it that you really seek.
37:13He says, Maitri, we all desire the end of desire and that is why desire continues till
37:25it does not come to an end.
37:27What else does desire want?
37:30Desire wants to come to a point where it does not want anything more, it is so fulfilled.
37:35Brahm is that point.
37:40And how does one come there?
37:43One comes there through the root of negation.
37:48The root of negation is the root of observation.
37:52It is the root of looking at life.
37:57Look at life and see that whatever, whatsoever is small, little, worth targeting is something
38:10that is never going to give you contentment and your goals are always going to be small.
38:19What is the definition of small?
38:21That which can be thought of, that which is limited.
38:26So you will seek property or prestige or company or a house or riches or sons and daughters
38:37or wives or knowledge.
38:43But whatsoever you seek cannot really be bigger than you.
38:47The proof of that is that once you get it, it will be contained within your tiny mind.
38:52So how is it bigger than you?
38:55You may have great knowledge but where is all that knowledge contained?
39:02In your limited mind.
39:03So how can that knowledge really be great?
39:08You are looking for greatness and if you are looking for greatness, you cannot get it through
39:16a narrow route.
39:20If you want an elephant in your house, would you want it to enter through the keyhole?
39:39How intelligent are you if you try that?
39:45Please, if you want to have an elephant in your house, would you beg the elephant to
39:53enter through a keyhole?
39:56No?
39:57Absurd?
39:58Alright, through a window, through a window, through even a door?
40:11And what if you want immensity?
40:18Would any route suffice?
40:20Can any route be wide enough?
40:25A route by definition is a road, a passage.
40:29How wide is a road?
40:31How wide can be a passage?
40:33What all can it accommodate?
40:34Can it really accommodate immensity?
40:37Which means those who really want the limitless and immense truth must never try methods.
40:49Because all methods are gateways and all gates are narrow.
40:55If you want the entire sky in your house, you better demolish your house.
41:02First of all, no gate is large enough to allow the sky to enter your house.
41:08Secondly, no house can be large enough to contain the sky.
41:13The only way to have the sky is to demolish the house itself.
41:20The house is ego.
41:22The house is our person.
41:25Are you getting it?
41:30We look for routes.
41:33When you take a woman as your wife, you are using the woman as your route.
41:38You are saying she will give me that kind of satisfaction and pleasure which can be
41:44equated to godliness.
41:48The bliss that I will get in her company is probably the bliss of Samadhi.
41:56You do not really want the woman.
41:58You want God through the woman.
42:00The woman is a very narrow route.
42:03The woman is the keyhole, the elephant.
42:10God cannot enter your house through the woman.
42:15The woman is a very very narrow passage and so is the man.
42:19If the woman looks at the man as the medium through which ultimate contentment can come
42:29to her, the woman is bound to be disappointed and that is why we all spend our lives in
42:36disappointment and frustration because we want the unlimited through the limited and
42:42the limited can never never carry the unlimited.
42:52So Yadgival says, Maitreyi, you know whenever you have desired, you have desired only that.
43:02But you have desired it through some worldly means and that is why you have failed.
43:07You have thought that that is so distant that you require some intermediary to bring that to you.
43:17The problem is that that which you think of as the helper, the medium, the intermediary
43:23is itself the blockage, the obstruction, the barrier.
43:31That which you think of as your friend is actually your biggest enemy.
43:39If you could drop your mediums, if you could drop your cleverness, if you could drop all
43:47your efforts, probably that which you want is already there.
43:55Ultimately, you want to stop, but you want to stop through running.
44:05You are saying I am running very hard so that one day I may stop.
44:10But why did you start running in the first place?
44:16It is wise to take the direct route.
44:23That is the only difference between wisdom and foolishness.
44:27Foolishness is to take oblique routes, opposite routes, when that which you seek is in front
44:37of you and immediately available.
44:44All our life we refuse that which is simple and present and direct and here and within
45:07and free.
45:11Because the ego wants to take credit, the ego wants to say if it is free and available
45:16and here, then what have I achieved?
45:25Then how will I claim myself to be great?
45:29So I want to do something which proves that I ran against obstacles and reached some great
45:37destination.
45:38I did that.
45:42But if you just take what the Lord offers as blessings, then you cannot claim credit
45:47for it and that is why we so foolishly and continuously keep refusing the benediction
46:00that life offers to us.
46:05Because in accepting that, the ego shrivels, the ego says, will I just accept things without
46:18having worked for them?
46:23That would prove that I am nobody.
46:27Obviously that is the fact, the ego is a nobody.
46:32But that is also the only fact that the ego is scared of.
46:43Yagyavalkya says, Gargi, Maitreyi, if you can know that you really seek the end of seeking,
46:57then that which you seek does not need to be sought.
47:07You are done, you are home, we all are already arrived.
47:20Yesterday I said, we are like clouds, we are like clouds that think that they are missing the sky.
47:37The saints have called human beings as thirsty fish, fish running hither thither for water.
47:55The fact is wherever you go, you cannot miss that which you are looking for.
48:04Even when you think that you have totally missed the truth, even when you think that
48:09you are in complete darkness, still there is light behind your thought, otherwise you
48:19wouldn't have been able to think.
48:43Just a few verses, limited words, a few sutras and it's all over, done.
49:13When Yagyavalkya leaves home, what does that mean?
49:31Has the husband gone away?
49:33What has really happened?
49:39When the teacher, the guru is able to bring the student very very intimate to himself,
49:55then obviously no difference remains between the teacher and the student.
50:01The student is now the teacher.
50:09Maitreyi is now Yagyavalkya.
50:12Why bother yourself with forms?
50:16Why think that one is a man and one is a woman, both are now one, both are now the same essence,
50:23the same heart, nobody is a man and nobody is a woman.
50:30And when Maitreyi is now Yagyavalkya, Yagyavalkya can retire.
50:35That is the dutiful role of the guru.
50:43Do not exceed your stay.
50:57When you are needed, be there even if the student dislikes you, be there forcibly.
51:06And when you are not needed, do not be there even if the student begs you and holds you
51:15by your feet.
51:18In both the cases, you disappoint the student, but if needed, disappoint you must.
51:28When the student needs you, then be with him even if he does not consciously know that
51:35he needs you.
51:36Then the student would say, why have you gate crashed into my life?
51:44Why have you entered uninvited?
51:51Why are you offering your unsolicited advice?
51:55Who needs these teachings?
52:00But you continue to harangue him.
52:10You are the teacher, you do your duty and a point comes, when the Upanishad has been
52:17said and now only silence remains, what would you do now?
52:24The student is home, the student is the teacher, the teacher is the home.
52:31The teacher departs.
52:32Has he really departed?
52:34That's for you to decide.
52:37Either answer that you give would just be word play.
52:41If you care for appearances, you would say Yagyavalkya has departed.
52:46If you live in the essence, you would say, ha, who has departed?
52:53Yagyavalkya is Maitri and both are one and both are God.
53:00Who can ever depart?