The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: 9 - Swami Krishnananda.

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Thursday 07, November 2024, 06:10.
Article
Scriptures
Upanishads
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 
Post-9.

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This Rishi, Yajnavalkya, is very famous in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Very powerful person was he. I can tell you a little story as an example of how powerful he was. Yajnavalkya was one of the disciples of a sage called Vaisampayana, and Vaisampayana was the promulgator of the Yajurveda Samhita. There are four Vedas – Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda. Yajurveda was the prerogative of this particular sage called Vaishampayana. They say there was a conference of sages on a mountain, and they stipulated a condition – all the invitees should come. If any invitee did not come, he would incur the sin of killing a Brahmin. This Vaisampayana somehow or other could not attend that conference. He had some other occupation that day, and the sin came upon him. He called all his disciples. Yajnavalkya was one of them. “You see, my dear boys, this sin has come upon me in accordance with the ordinance, because I could not attend that meeting. Will you do some prayaschitta, something to expiate my sins? All of you!”

Yajnavalkya stood up. “Why these little boys; I can do it myself,” he said. “These are little boys. What can they do? I will do it myself.” His Guru got very upset. He said, “You are a very proud boy. You are insulting the others by saying that they know nothing and you yourself will do everything. Give back all the Yajurveda, whatever I have taught you!” Yajnavalkya vomited out the Yajurveda in the form of some exudation from his mouth. The other disciples took the form of some birds – tittiris as they were called, -and  sucked up that which he vomited. That black stuff which is the embodiment of the knowledge which Yajnavalkya gained from his Guru, which he vomited, was partaken of by the tittiris – the form assumed by the other students assumed, and so that particular Veda became Taittiriyaveda. Tittiri's Veda is the Taittiriyaveda, and it is also called the Black Veda because he vomited some black stuff.

Yajnavalkya decided: “I shall not have any teacher anymore. I shall go to the supreme teacher for getting new knowledge.” He went to the Sun directly and prayed to the Sun: “Give me fresh knowledge of the Vedas which nobody else knows. Whatever I learnt from my Guru, I have given back. I do not want to have any further Guru. Surya Bhagavan! You are my Guru. Give me a fresh Veda.” And it seems that Suryanarayana appeared before him in the form of a horse and spoke unto him a new Veda, a new Yajurveda – white Yajurveda, not black – and it is called Shukla Yajurveda. It is also called Vajasaneya – connected with ashva, or horse – because he came in the form of a horse. The last Skanda of the Bhagavata Purana narrates this story, and a beautiful prayer that Yajnavalkya offered to the Sun also is recorded there – worth committing to memory. Yajnavalkya then became the teacher of a new Veda, called White Yajurveda or Shukla Yajurveda. He also wrote a Smriti, called Yajnavalkya Smriti, and there is also a yoga text under the name of Yajnavalkya, which is not very much known to people. It is called Yoga-Yajnavalkya, and a special psychic method of meditation is described there.

Yajnavalkya is the highlighting feature in the central portion of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. He once went to the court of king Janaka. Janaka was a learned person, and he invited learned people to his court to have discussions – learned discussions or arguments on lofty themes in spirituality. Hundreds of these great learned Brahmins were seated there in the audience, and the king stood up and said, “Great ones! Lords of learning! Here is large number of cattle, with gold decked horns, looking as big as bulls or elephants. Whoever among you considers yourself as the best among the knowers may drive all these cattle to your house.” Nobody uttered a word; all kept quiet, because who can get up and say “I know everything” and “I am the best”? Yajnavalkya stood up and told his disciple. “Boy, drive all these cows to my house.” All were agitated. “What kind of person are you? You consider yourself as the most all-knowing here. We will put questions to you. Answer all the questions. Let us test you.” One of them stood up. Another stood up. Some eight people bombarded Yajnavalkya and threw arrows of complicated questions at him, which were difficult to understand ordinarily, and every one of them he answered on the spur of the moment. So Yajnavalkya actually justified the driving of the cattle to his home. We will not go into the details of all these arguments, as it is not necessary for you. I am just mentioning casually, for your information, the greatness of this wonderful master Yajnavalkya.

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Continued

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