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Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: The meaning of Upanishad is ‘spiritual knowledge’. The word ‘Upanishad’ is formed by adding the suffix ‘quip’ to the word ‘sad’ with the prefixes ‘up’ and ‘ni’. By whose efforts one gets destroyed due to ignorance of the world, one gets complete relief from the sorrows of pregnancy and one attains Parabrahm, his name is Upanishad.
The number of Upanishads is numerous and infinite. All the Upanishads have their own specialties, out of these, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is given a lot of importance by our saint community, hence today we will have a glimpse of it.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is under Vajasaneya Brahmin of Kanvi branch of Yajurveda. From the point of view of color, it is bigger than all the Upanishads and because it is studied in Aranya (forest), it is called ‘Aranyaka’. Thus, due to the combination of ‘Brihat’ and ‘Aaranyaka’, its name has become ‘Brihadaranyaka’. Commentator Srisureshvaracharya accepts its greatness even in its meaning –
‘Brihatvaadyathanto’arthacha brihadaranyaka matam.’ (No. 9)
This statement of his is literally true. We can call this his best work among Upanishad commentaries.
Thus, considering it from a general point of view, we now try to briefly point out some of its main topics. At the beginning of the book Ashwamedha is Brahmin. In this, a provision has been made to visualize the components of Virat in the components of the sacrificial horse.
A little further ahead, there is a description of the idols of Prajapati’s son Dev and the demons. The divine and demonic instincts of the senses can also be considered as gods and demons. The senses are naturally outward oriented.
‘Paranchi khani vyatrinat swayambhu.’ (A.U. 2.1.1)
Therefore, generally Vaishyaik or demonic tendencies prevail. Due to this, demons are called senior and gods are called junior. Due to virtuous and sinful rituals, both these types of instincts keep on rising and falling.
By doing deeds and worship prescribed by weapons, the divine instincts flourish and by abandoning them and doing arbitrary things, the strength of the demonic instincts increases. Once the gods decided to defeat the demons through Udgeetha. Udgeetha is a part of Yajnakarma, through it he thought of suppressing the demonic tendencies. He asked the proud gods of speech, smell, eyes, hearing and skin to sing for him.
Each of those gods, through their respective actions, appealed for the strength of the divine instincts; But he himself wanted to enjoy the beneficial fruits of that action. This was his selfishness. Ritwik’s duty is that whatever action he does, he wants its results only for the host. This selfishness itself is a demonic attitude, hence his action became futile.
At last a prayer was made to Mukhapran for this deed. Prana is extremely generous and completely detached. He does not enjoy any object himself and by His grace all the senses enjoy their objects. All other senses both sleep and wake up, but the soul always remains alert. Therefore, due to his proclamation, the efforts of the demons were completely defeated and the gods were victorious.
From this story, Shruti tells us that the root of sinful tendencies is actually selfishness; As long as there is any trace of selfishness in the heart, the living being cannot be free from the sinful bondage of sensual pleasures and the one who has completely given up selfishness cannot be affected by any temptation in the world.
After this, at the beginning of the second chapter, there is a dialogue between Druptabalaki Gargya and Ajatashatruka. Kashiraj Ajatashatru was a philosopher and Gargya was a knowledgeable person. When he told Ajatashatru that I preach Brahma to you, the king presented him a thousand gold coins at that very moment. From this, Shruti indicates that those who are true great people, do not look at the faults of others but respect them.
Along with this, it has also informed the importance of Brahmavidya, only on taking pledge of which the meritorious scholar expressed his unique generosity towards the speaker. After this, all the arrogant men of Aditya who were accused of Brahmatva by Gargya, King Ajatashatru banned all of them by calling them mere Paricchinna Daavs and describing them as special fruits of their worship.
In this way, due to his intellect getting frustrated, Gargya’s pride vanished and he took refuge in the king for the knowledge of Brahman. The king took her by the hand and took her inside the palace and went to a man sleeping there and called out the names of the arrogant moon of life like ‘Brihat, Pandarvas, Som, Rajan’ etc. But the man did not wake up when he was called by these names. Then the king pressed him with his hand and he immediately stood up. Through this context, the Shruti tells us that all the gods who are proud of their name and form are not actually knowledgeable souls; The scientific soul is beyond name and form.
Though generally prevalent everywhere, it has a special expression in the heart country. In fact, He is the inspirer and true enjoyer of all, other sensual gods are also His manifestations, without His power their independent power is nothing. Because it inspires the senses, it is life, but because it inspires life also, it is the life of life. In the fourth Brahmin of this chapter, there is a dialogue between Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi.
Yajnavalkya had two wives – Maitreyi and Katyayani. Among them, Maitreyi was Brahmavadini and Katyayani was as intelligent as women. This incident has come again in the same Upanishad due to sectarianism in the fifth Brahmin of the fourth chapter. This is clearly said about both of them there.
When Yajnavalkya wished to take sannyasa and he proposed to divide his wealth between the two women, nothing came out of Katyayani’s mouth, because she was a beloved woman, all her happiness lay in that wealth only; But Maitreyi was Shreya: Kamini.
She said, ‘If this entire earth full of wealth becomes mine, will I become immortal?’ ‘Yagyavalkya said- Immortality cannot be expected from wealth; Yes, can you have the same luxurious life as rich men have?’ Now Maitreyi got hold of the true key and said – ‘What will I do with that which cannot make me immortal? Tell me only that thing so that I can become immortal.
In fact, this is the true form of prudence and dispassion; one who has not awakened this instinct in his heart cannot in any way accept the supreme principle. Seeing Maitreyi’s keen curiosity, Lord Yajnavalkya preached Brahmagyan to him.
Propounding the indistinguishability of Brahma and the soul, he explained everyone’s love for the soul, knowledge of all through self-knowledge, defeat in seeing anything other than the soul, origin and annihilation of all existences from the soul and the existence of non-self things only in ignorance. In the end it was preached that for the one in whose eyes everything is the soul, there is complete absence of doer, action and cause.
There is no activity like smelling, listening, meditating and knowing etc. and that soul element is not knowable by anyone, because he himself is the knower of everything.
Next to this is Madhubrahman. Honey is the essence or function of many types of flowers and flowers are its cause. Honey is helpful and flowers are helpful. This upkarya-benefactor feeling is called ‘Madhu’ in this Brahmin.
Therefore, it has been shown here that all the substances like earth, water, fire, air, sky, sun, moon, electricity and direction etc. are the functions of the four ghosts and the ghosts are their cause. In this way, they have a mutual benefactor-benefactor relationship and due to this relationship, they are each other’s honey. This is a practical view, but in the ultimate sense their foundation is that luminous, nectar-filled man.
That is their spirituality – the fundamental i.e. the real form. Its name is soul and this soul itself is Amrit Brahma and all form. In this way, in this Brahmin, the Brahman form of the entire universe has been propounded from the perspective of Adhishthana and it has been clearly stated from the shruti ‘Indro Mayaabhi: Pururupa Iyate’ (2.5.19) that the Self itself has assumed many forms with its Maya Shakti. Is playing.
Madhu Kand ends here. Next to this are two chapters of Yajnavalkiya Kand. At the very beginning of it, there is the incident of King Janak’s yagya offering a lot of Dakshina. All the learned Brahmins of Panchaldesh had gathered at his place. He announced that the one who is the most knowledgeable among them should take the ten thousand cows tied in his cow shed with ten gold coins tied to each of their horns.
No one among the gathered Brahmins had the courage to declare himself the best philosopher in front of Brahmagyani Janak. At that time Yajnavalkya got up and ordered his celibate to untie these cows and take them away. This caused great anger among the Brahmins and one of them asked, “Are you the special Brahmagyani among us?”
The answer given by Yajnavalkya was befitting a true gentleman. They said, ‘We salute Brahmishtha, we are the ones who wish for the cows.’ After this, one by one many of those Brahmins asked questions to Yajnavalkya and he pacified them by giving satisfactory answers. At last Gargi stood up. Brahmavadini Gargi started from this world and asked the reason for each reason one by one.
In the end, when he asked the reason for Brahmaloka, Yajnavalkya stopped him because it was too much of a question. Where there is a question-answer session to decide a matter, it is considered a crime to doubt even about something that is beyond doubt.
Shakalya was beheaded for breaking a similar rule, which is further mentioned in the ninth Brahmana. After this, Yajnavalkya asked questions, but none of the Brahmins present could dare to answer them. Thus ends the third chapter.
In the first Brahmin of the fourth chapter, there is a dialogue between Janak and Yajnavalkya. Janak had heard about Vaku, Pran Chakshu etc. as Brahmarup from different Acharyas. Yajnavalkya asked the volume (golak) and prestige (adhishthan) of each of them. But Janak had not heard anything about him from those Acharyas. Then Yajnavalkya ji told about their size and prestige and made a plan to worship them in different ways and by worshiping each of them he told about attaining the heavenly abode.
On hearing the results of each worship, Janak considered it as the ultimate effort and wanted to give a thousand cows to Yajnavalkya. But Yajnavalkya said that taking money without doing any favor to the disciple is against the principles of my father, hence I cannot accept this Dakshina.
In the second Brahmin, considering Janak as the authority, Yajnavalkya, while describing Virat, has concluded that Supreme Soul in Pratyagatma and has preached about Parabrahma. Due to this, Janak feels grateful and surrenders his entire kingdom at the feet of Gurudev. This is how this episode ends.
In the third and fourth brahmins of this chapter also there is a dialogue between Janak and Yajnavalkya. Thus, although Yajnavalkya had gone with the resolve that he himself would not say anything to Janak. But earlier he had given him the boon to ask questions as per his wish. That’s why he himself asked the question, ‘Which light is this man?’ From here, through question and answer, the soul principle of these two Brahmins has been discussed in great detail.
Here it has been decided in various ways that the soul is the ultimate light. He is self-luminous. In his own state he creates the entire scene. Despite being the enjoyer of all the subjects, he is completely inconsistent. In the state of deep sleep, he destroys the entire universe and remains in his blissful form.
He is the vision of the seer, the smell of the soul, the taste of the chemist, the words of the speaker, the sound of the listener, the opinion of the manta and the wisdom of the expert. In this way, being the nature of everything, there is never any lack of it, because when the true nature of whatever remains is revealed, ignorance is revealed.
Then both father and son went to Pravachan and asked him the answers to those questions. Pravan taught him Panchagrividya. This incident is also described in Chhandogyopanishad. Due to branching, the same knowledge gets mentioned at many places.
After this, in the third and fourth Brahmins, there is description of Shrimantha and Putramantha deeds respectively. These two actions are interrelated. Their main purpose is to attain good progeny. The fifth Brahmin is the Acharya tradition of Khilkand. This is how this Upanishad ends.
So far, the main topics of this great book have been briefly looked at. The presentation style of this Upanishad is very organized and logical. According to the above discussion, it has three kandas of two chapters each – Madhu, Yajnavalkiya and Khilsangyak. Out of these, mainly worship has been discussed in Madhu and Khilkand and knowledge has been discussed in Yajnavalkiya Kand.
Note- The views given above are the personal views of the author. It is not necessary that ABP News Group agrees with this. The author alone is responsible for all claims or objections related to this article.
