Yajnavalkya (The ancient Astro sage of Tropical System of Astronomy/Astrology)

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Dear All, Again by VV Raman at: http://www.siddha.com.my/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000053-7.htmlLove and regards,Sreenadh

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Yajnavalkya

Rig Vedic rishis were not the only ones to receive esoteric revelation. TheShatapatha Brahmana, for example, was revealed to Rishi Yajnavalkya. Thiswork is appended to what is known as Shukla Yajus (White Yajur Veda). TheYajur Veda contains the rules and rites of rituals, and continues to play arole in Hindu sacraments. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which is consideredto be the most important Upanishad, is part of Shatapatha Brahmana, and thusowes its origins to Yajnavalkya also. Indeed, its middle section is knownas Yajnavalkya.

In this part there is a dialogue between Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi one ofhis two wives. This exchange is a classic passage in Hindu philosophicalliterature. When he offers half his estate to this wife before retiring tothe forest, the keen Maitreyi asks her husband if she would attainimmortality were she to possess all the wealth in the entire world. "No,"replies the wise man, "there is no hope of immortality through wealth,"reminding us of the Biblical line (Matthew: 19:24): "It is easier for acamel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter thekingdom of heaven." Now the wife asks the sage to talk to her aboutimmortality, and he is immensely pleased by this request. Then follows adiscourse on the psychology of desire and its relation to the spiritualquest. Essentially the rishi says that whatever is dear to us, be it husbandor wife or children, wealth or brahminhood or khatrid, the worlds orthe gods or other beings, it is dear only for the sake of the atman (Self).

For this reason it is important to understand what that atman is. That iswhy spiritual pursuit becomes primary in human life. Aside from themetaphysical/psychological question explored, this is a beautiful example ofa healthy conversation between husband and wife.

Yajnavalkya is said to have served as high-priest at a sacrifice conductedby King Janaka (father of Sita). Once he went to visit Janaka, and the kingasked if the learned man had come there to get cows as gifts or to exploresubtle matters. The rishi said, "For both, Oh King!" Then followed a seriesof questions and answers on the nature of Brahman, as taught by a previousteacher, and as modified by Yajnavalkya. They talked about speech and breathand sight and truth and more. The importance of speech in the oral traditionis beautifully expressed by Yajnavalkya thus: "It is through speech (utteredwords) that one recognizes a friend, that one comes to know about anything:Vedas, history, lore, arts, esoteric knowledge, poetry, aphorisms,explanations, sacrifices, oblations, food, drink, this world andeverything."

It is during this exchange that the Upanishadic neti-neti: not this, notthat about the Divine is uttered. For, explains Yajnavalkya here, Brahman isinscrutable, imperishable, unattached, unchained, and immune to pain andinjury. Some of the most fundamental doctrines of the Hindu world areuttered by Yajnavalkya in the Upanishads.

Uddalaka runi was another major thinker in the Upanishadic age. We learnfrom the Bhrihadaranyaka Upanishad that Yajnavalkya was his student.

In another passage of this Upanishad, Gargi, an illustrious womanphilosopher, poses two questions about Ultimate Reality to the sage, towhich he gives profound answers. In this context he says: "That which isabove the sky, beneath the earth, between these two, which people call thepast, the present, and the future, across space is that which is woven likewarp and woof. That is aksharam: the imperishable." This passage isremarkable in that here, as nowhere else in ancient thought, we find anintermingling of space and time into a single structure, such as we findonly in twentieth century (Einsteinian) physics. Furthermore, he describesthis space-time continuum as imperishable: Brahman.

We know about this great scholar-mystic-sage also from the Mahabharata(Shanti Parva) where he recounts his own experiences in which deities likeSiva and Sarasvati appeared before him and gave him supreme knowledge.Yajnavalkya is known to have been unsympathetic to Brahminical rituals andfee-mongering. Rather than pray for gold and cow, they should be asking forlight, he is said to have remarked. The great seer once quarreled with hismaster Vaisampayana who demanded that he return the knowledge which he hadgathered from him. Thereupon Yajnavalkya is said to have spit out thatknowledge. It was then that he did the austerities for which Siva andSarasvati blessed him with the knowledge of the White Yajus.

In one of his many speeches, Yajnavalkya declared: "Liberation comes fromknowledge.. Obtaining knowledge from a Brahmin or a Kshatriya or a Vaishyaor even a Shudra, a person with faith must always show reverence forknowledge.. All orders of men as Brahmins. All have sprung from Brahma.Everyone utters his name.. Everyone should seek to acquire knowledge..Everyone is entitled to strive for its acquisition."Yajnavalkya was clearly one of the enlightened thinkers in a caste-framedsociety!

V. V. RamanOctober 114, 2005

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Yajnavalkya: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Yoga

Yoga (Sanskrit) Union; one of the six Darsanas or schools of philosophy of India, founded by Patanjali, but said to have existed as a distinct teaching and system of life before that sage. Yajnavalkya, a famous and very ancient sage of pre-Mahabharatan times, to whom the White Yajur-Veda, the Satapatha-Brahmana, and the Brihadaranyaka are attributed, is credited with inculcating the positive duty of religious meditation and retirement into the forests, and therefore is believed to have originated the yoga doctrine. Patanjali's yoga, however, is more definite and precise as a philosophy, and imbodies more of the occult sciences than any of the extant works attributed to Yajnavalkya.

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