Rishi Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: 5.Swami Krishnananda.

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Thursday 19,  September 2024,  06:10.
Article
Scriptures
Rishi Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: 5.
Swami Krishnananda.

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There are very great things in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad which should not be read by impure minds. With these subtle longings, we should not go to the Upanishads to seek, "let me see if I can find something there." You should not experiment with these things. You should say, "I shall find it." The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is a supermarket – you can find anything there. It is a forest, a large, large forest of knowledge – Brihadaranyaka. It is aranyaka, a forest of knowledge. That also, brhat very large, impregnable forest for every kind of knowledge. Very vast: it will take one year to say anything about this book. Even one year is not sufficient. You are touching the Self, that is the most important thing. You can touch anything and go scot-free, but we cannot touch the Self and go like that. It will do some mischief afterwards.

"Do not talk much about it," Yajnavalkya tells some of the questioners in the assembly of Sage Janaka. "Do not talk much about it." And one Shakalya went on arguing, "Where is its location, where is it located? Where is the heart located? Yajnavalkya said "Hey, don't ask too much lest your head may fall off." "Tell me the great Purusha that is declared in the Upanishads. If you don't understand this, your head will fall just now." And he did not know the Purusha in the Upanishads that well, and robbers took the head away.

There was a very learned lady in that assembly of Janaka called Gargi. "I'll challenge Yajnavalkya with my questions. Answer them!" She discharged arrows like Rama's arrows. "Where is the sky located? Where is time located? Where is Brahma Loka located? Where is anything located?" "Don't ask more. Don't ask questions like that," said Yajnavalkya, "lest your head be down." Then she did not speak, she kept quiet.

Do not talk too much about the Self, you are interfering with your own Self. You can go scot-free by interfering with other people, but you cannot interfere with your Self and then be all right. You will destroy your very existence. So Upanishadic knowledge is like dynamite – it can burst on your own self if the purity is not enough. That is said because with the Self there is no seeing process. But does it mean that the Supreme Being does not see anything? It does not see, and yet it sees.

Because there is no distinction between seeing and not seeing there, in that condition. God has two kinds of knowledge – general knowledge and particular knowledge. The general knowledge is that the structure of the universe is clear to your mind. Every detail, every bit of the universe is known to you. The particularised knowledge means even the hair of a person can be counted. How many living beings are there? How much hair does each one have? They are all counted. And counting does not require timing; one, two, three, four. It is a non-mathematical calculation at once, an unthinkable mathematical feat is achieved there. God knows every little thing. If a cat is moving on the mountain there, He will know that the cat is moving. You will think that God has no other work.

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Continued

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