Part 12 of 46
Prince Janaka: Sage Yajnavalkya, Have you come to my court to earn gold or to spread wisdom?
Yajnavalkya: I came for both, your majesty.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch 4.1-1
Most of Vedanta is expressed in a terse ultra compact sutra form with rivers of meaning running in between lines. One needs to unravel it and I have attempted my own creative interpretation using a dramatic tool of dialogue and punch lines. Yajnavalkya’s "unspoken words" have the power to shake the world with their truth, beauty and utter fearlessness.
The prince: Do not speak to me of wisdom yet. Speak to me of the world instead. Speak of so-called wise men, who claim access to gods.
Yajnavalkya: Anyone who claims access to a god is a clever hollow man.
The prince: Why is that?
Yajnavalkya: Because gods are figments of human imagination. The real power, the true source of the universe is beyond mind or words.
The prince: Well said. Tell me, is it not true that most of the so-called pious men are in truth pretenders?
Yajnavalkya: Yes it is true.
The prince: How can I know if I am really pious and not a pretender?
Yajnavalkya: Watch over your dreams prince. If by day you feel virtuous and by night you frolic in wild fantasies, you are surely a pretender, for a man may control his desires, not his dreams.
The prince: There are frauds among holy men who can sense a devotee’s fears and hopes. These people can hook a victim the way a fish is hooked with a bright insect of desire. What do you say of them?
Yajnavalkya: If you are willing to be a fish, then you deserve the hook, your majesty. It is not the fisherman’s fault, but your own. He was merely hungry. You were greedy.
The prince: Yajnavalkya, you say you came for gold…isn’t that contrary to wisdom?
Yajnavalkya: Even wise men need a bit of gold to get by in life. We don’t live on air, as some would like you to believe.
The prince: Tell me, how shall I address you? As divine master, great teacher...
Yajnavalkya: Call me directly by my first name. I want no titles.
The prince: Why?
Yajnavalkya: Spare me from my vanity, prince. Men like me get giant size egos easily.
The prince: What about women? Are you celibate?
Yajnavalkya: Why should anyone be celibate? I love the company of women.
The prince: If you are so worldly, how can you be wise?
Yajnavalkya: A man of wisdom delights in the world without drowning in it. All wisdom is essentially an attitude — a connection with the deepest part of your own self. The world will always remain the same, whatever happens. It is your attitude to it that will change.
Silence.
Yajnavalkya: Sir, if you have finished with the interrogation, ask me a real question.
The prince: What?
Yajnavalkya: Ask to be taught to live, to love, to rejoice, to become innocent again, to discover a deep happiness within, to connect with this endless universe, to arrive at a beautiful state of being where you accept each moment with grace and joy.
I came to teach you that and take away the gold of course.
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( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 29th March 2009 )
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