(A) Yaajnyavalkya Maitreyi Conversation (Maitreyi Braahmana)
The great sage Yaajnyavalkya left his householder stage and wanted to enter into the state of renunciation. He has two wives - Maitreyi and Kaatyaayanee. The sage said to Maitreyi - come, let me divide your gift of wealth. But Maitreyi did not desire wealth. She was filled with the thirst for the immortal element. She asked - if I get all this wealth, will I be free or liberated? Yaajnyavalkya said - no, your life be not any different than that of a wealthy person. There is no scope for immortality through wealth. Immortality is not the fruit of effort. Immortality is an already attained entity and it is attained only through knowledge. In action there is a need for materials, instruments, qualification, doership etc. All these are opposed to knowledge. Both action and knowledge cannot go together. Hearing this, Maitreyi said - through which I cannot be immortal, what will I do with such wealth? Tell me only that which you know, and by which I can attain immortality. This intense hunger for liberation and inquiry of Maitreyi became the inspiration for the teaching of Yaajnyavalkya.
The great sage said - Wife and other relatives love their husband and other relatives, but why? For culmination of what goal! Wife, son, money, land, other world, deity - all are not loved for their own sake, they are loved for the sake of the self. Therefore, one should become dispassion towards the not self, and that self for which all not self is taken as dear, that foremost loved self should be beheld and realized. For that, the hearing of the true nature of the self as mentioned in the Upanishads, contemplation upon their arguments and meditation should be performed. Besides the self, there is no other substance.
Why should we behold the self? Since, the vision of the self, or in other words, its knowledge, leads to the knowledge of everything. Just like the superimposed snale has the rope alone as its element, similarly, the absolute element of this name-form world is the self alone. Just like when the rope element is known, the reality of the snake is known that it is not at all real, similarly, after knowing the self element, the element of the entire world is revealed. Therefore, only the self alone is to be seen, besides that, there is nothing else to be seen in this world.
Why so? It is because one who knows himself as a braahman, as a deity apart from one's own self, falls from the immortality of the brahman self nature. Truly, braahman, kshatriya, worlds, Vedas, earth - all these are the self alone. Since all these share the same equivalency (saamaanyaadhikarana) as the self, in reality, the self alone is truth, it alone is the element of all. Just like the imagined snake, necklace, stick, stream, crack in the earth etc. have the rope alone as their element, similarly, the imagined space, time etc. substances have the self alone as their element.
This world is not different than the aware self - there are many illustrations to understand this point. This is what needs to be understood. Without imbibing that object without which another object cannot be imbibed, then the second object is not different than the first object. For example, a horn is being blown. If a basic sound cannot be imbibed, then specific sounds such as beats, notes etc. cannot be imbibed. That is why, specific sounds are non-difference from general sounds. Similarly, this name-form-endowed creation cannot be imbibed without imbibing the aware self, therefore, the name-form world is not distinct from the aware self. When we see any form, we first see light, then form, then the outline. Similarly, only when the aware self is pre-attained, the name-form world is seen. Therefore, the world is nothing but the aware self.
For instance, let's assume that we collect fuel for burning, some dry and some wet. When it comes into contact with fire, smoke arises, sparks emanate. Similarly, like the breath of the self, names such as the Rig Veda and the diversity of worlds arises. When tiny sparks arise, their material cause is first seen as fire, then the sparks themselves. Are they of the form of fire, or distinct from it? They cannot be spoken of as separate. Similar to them, these millions of galaxies cannot be spoken of as element or non element. During the time of dissolution, to show the merging with that very supreme absolute, the illustration of water and the ocean is provided. Just like water fallen as rain merges into the ocean after assuming the form of rivers and streams, similarly, no matter how many name and forms this universe takes, in the end it merges into the self element.
Leave aside the discussion of daily, occasional or natural dissolution. When ignorance goes after the science of the identity of the self and brahman, and the world is permanently dissolved, that which is called liberation, then there is no possibility of anything but the non-dual self remaining. From this alone comes the roar of the Upanishads "The self is without an interior, without an exterior". In other words, there is nothing inside or outside it. Everything is a mass of awareness (Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad 4.5.13). In the Brahma Sootra it has been called "tantraamaatram".
Yaajnyavalkya explained - with the help of water, earth and heat, salt is created, and when that salt is put into water, then by meeting its cause, its solidity goes away. The salt dissolves completely, only water remains. The reflection of the sun and moon is seen in a mass of water, similarly, foam, bubbles etc. due to cause and effect arise, and so too, does division or soul-nature seen in the awareness. Then specific names take up specific forms. Then, it is seen as if I am someone's son - I am disconnected. When, through the scripture and teachings of the teacher, the science of brahman dawns, then there is a firm conclusion that the agglomerate of cause and effect is appearing illusory in the substratum brahman of its absence. In other words, the creation of the world is only an appearance. It is like when the water is taken out, all reflections of the sun and the moon disappear, in the same way, the individual soul-ness of the awareness is removed. When the reflection goes away, just like the original sun and moon remain, similarly, when the individual soul notion goes away, only the absolute brahman remains. This alone is called the mass of awareness or prajnyaa ghana in the scriptures. It is ever pure and non-dual.
The summary of the teaching of Yaajnyavalkya is this non-dual mass of awareness. After this, when one says that there is no entity called a soul after death - this negation of the definition seems a little odd. When Maitreyi conveys this doubt, Yaajnyavalkya says that the self is imperishable, it can never be split. I have not negated the general definition, I have only negated the specific definition. The point is this. Only in the case of a disconnected notion does specific knowledge happen. Then there is duality, as though. The doer is another, he acts through other instruments, and he sees other forms. When this disconnected notion is removed through the science of brahman, disconnectedness is removed. The, like the superimposed snake etc. are removed upon the science of the rope element, similarly, only the substratum remains, that self alone is brahman. Through the science of brahman, all duality becomes only the self. Since there is no more duality, action, doer etc. all these differences have no further basis.
Another point is also impossible to say, which is - When the object which is of the nature of duality also become absent, it sees its self alone, since the self is self-illumined, there is no difference of illumined and illuminator. That by which everything is known, what can that be illumined by? Therefore, when the notion of disconnectedness is removed, only the pure immaculate notion of knowledge remains.
The Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad makes this point clearly. The process of knowing the self is "not this, not this", which means, the process of negation. This self is without a home, without a body, unattached. It is without any attachment and is free from anguish and expenditure. O Maitryi, by what will you know the knower?
After saying this to Maitreyi, that the teaching has been concluded, Yaajnyavalkya went into the stage of renunciation.
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