TTHHEE PPHHIILLOOSSOOPPHHYY OOFF SSAAGGEE YYAAJJNNAAVVAALLKKYYAA A FREE RENDERING OF THE YAJNAVALKYA-KANDA OF THE BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD AS EXPOUNDED IN THE ATMA PURANA BY Swami Brahmananda A DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY PUBLICATION First Edition: 1972 eBook: 2010 Satgurudev Swami Sivananda The Philosophy of Sage Yajnavalkya by Swami Brahmananda 2 Dedicated TO SATGURU SWAMI SIVANANDA (Our Divine Master) SAGE YAJNAVALKYA (Upanishadic Sage of Hallowed Memory) AND SWAMI SANKARANANDA SARASWATI (Expounder of the Truths in the Upanishads) The Philosophy of Sage Yajnavalkya by Swami Brahmananda 3 PUBLISHERS’ NOTE ‘The Philosophy of Sage Yajnavalkya’ is a running commentary and exposition of an important section of the Atma-Purana written by the renowned saint and savant, Swami Sankarananda, the Guru of Swami Vidyaranya. In this new publication of a scarcely known treatise of this great author, rendered into English by Sri Swami Brahmanandaji Maharaj, students of the Vedanta Philosophy will find a rich treat of logical disquisition and philosophical wisdom, culminating in the final ascertainment of the Truth of the Universal Atman as the Supreme Reality. This is a book which would be regarded by students as a very fitting text for daily sacred study,—Svadhyaya—and a guide in the higher meditations of the Spirit. We pray to the Almighty that the ushering in of this small treatise will prove a blessing to spiritual seekers on the path of Jnana-Yoga. Shivanandanagar, 11th September, 1972 (Sri Ganesa Chaturthi) THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY The Philosophy of Sage Yajnavalkya by Swami Brahmananda 4 FOREWARDS I Homage unto the Supreme Being! Salutations unto Bhagavan Veda Vyasa, the great Father of our Spiritual Culture and the sacred Dharma. Adorations to sage Yajnavalkya, the grand seer of the Upanishadic era, who was the foremost and most illustrious expounder of Bharatavarsha’s lofty Dharma and Spiritual Idealism. Prostrations to worshipful Swami Sivananda, our beloved Satguru, who was to us our visible God, our living and visible Veda Vyasa and was to us a veritable Yajnavalkya in our own life. May the grace of the Supreme Lord and the blessings of Bhagavan Veda Vyasa, Sage Yajnavalkya and Satgurudev Swami Sivananda be upon the holy monk responsible for this present work in English, namely, our Gurubhai Sri Swami Brahmananda Sarasvati, a disciple of the holy Master Swami Sivananda and now a resident of Sivananda Ashram. I congratulate Sri Swami Brahmananda for this selfless labour of his by which he has made available to the English knowing public, a portion of the rich contents of a rare and not- very-well-known work of a great teacher that contains the very quintessence of the Upanishads. This careful and pains-taking work of his is indeed a Jnana-Yajna and Loka- Seva. May innumerable people be benefited and helped by this work. I wish and pray the widest possible circulation to this worthy work. May God bless the author, his work as well as its readers. May the author as well as each of you who reads this work attain the highest spiritual illumination, Supreme Peace and Divine Blessedness. Sivanandashram, 31st August, 1972 Sri Krishna Janmashtami —Swami Chidananda The Philosophy of Sage Yajnavalkya by Swami Brahmananda 5 II The world of today is torn with tension and has lost its moorings. This is evident from the countless methods which it is trying to employ in its search for happiness, however, with no success in the end. The whole game of human effort seems to be a struggle without substantial achievement. For, when the object of one’s quest is achieved, the striving reaches its end. But from ages past, since the dawn of human history, mankind has been endeavouring to attain some objective, and this endeavour has not ceased even today, towards the fag-end of the twentieth century. It all appears, in the end, to be a sweating to no purpose. There is a general feeling of insecurity and dissatisfaction everywhere. The reason is that the world has put the cart before the horse. There is a need for a right- about turn in the perspective of life and one’s attitude towards things. There seems to be something in man with which the world cannot cope and which surpasses in content the resources of the material world. This should account for the failure of the world in satisfying man’s needs. Man has been asking always for too much, which the world has not been able to supply. Yet, he has been depending for his sustenance on the world of objects and hoping to bring a satiety of is cravings by contacting objects and living in a world of stimuli to his sensations. Perishable though the world is, man has been expecting permanent happiness through sensory stimulation by means of the objects of the world. There is a deeper content holding together man and the world, which has been missed in the acts of human experience, and which answers the question, why man is unhappy. The search for eternal happiness was vigorously undertaken by the sages of the Upanishads, whose records we have today with us as a treasure-house and legacy of wisdom which defies the vicissitudes of time. This timeless wisdom is embodies in the Upanishads which are the quintessential conclusion of the import of the Vedas. If the Vedas are the repository of transcendent knowledge in its comprehensiveness, the Upanishads represent the final outcome and substance of this knowledge. Indian Culture is essential Upanishadic culture. The Epics, Puranas and Smritis, which are an elaboration of India’s vast cultural lore, are ultimately rooted in the suggestions of the Vedas and the proclamations of the Upanishads. The Brihadaranyaka is held to be the most important of the extant Upanishads. Even here, chapters III and IV, known as the Yajnavalkya-Kanda, figure prominently as the loftiest reach of sagacity which the human mind has ever reached in history. The sentences of the Upanishads are charged with pithiness of style, grandeur of language and magnificence of content. Every sentence,—sometimes even a phrase or a word,—holds within its bosom a world of meaning, and its significance cannot be understood without an adequate commentary or explanation. With this need of the student-world in view, the celebrated Swami Sankarananda, who is supposed to be a Guru of Swami Vidyaranya of the Panchadasi fame, wrote an extensive treatise of Sanskrit verses known as the Atma Purana, expounding the meaning of the major and some minor Upanishads. This work remained for a long time in the original Sanskrit alone, and later on it appeared in some vernacular translations. But it was never translated into English. Thus the great work remained beyond the reach of the modern educated man, especially outside India. The Philosophy of Sage Yajnavalkya by Swami Brahmananda 6 Revered Sri Swami Brahmanandaji and a few of his colleagues in the Ashram were carrying on a study group of the Atma Purana for the benefit of a small circle of Sannyasins interested in the higher knowledge of the Upanishads. One day, it so happened that I put a proposal to Sri Swami Brahmanandaji of the possibility of rendering into English at least the central portion of the most important of the Upanishads, from the Malayalam edition which they were following in this study circle. As an experimental attempt, I suggested the translation of the Yajnavalkya-Kanda of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, since it is the cream of Upanishadic teaching. Sri Swami Brahmanandaji readily agreed to do this noble service and he immediately launched upon this initial attempt of translating into English this particular portion of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad as expounded in the Atma Purana. This English translation appeared in a series through the columns of the journal, ‘The Divine Life’, and it comes out now in a book-form for the benefit of Sadhakas in general. Sri Swami Brahmanandaji is a very venerable elderly Sannyasin residing in the Headquarters-Ashram of the Divine Life Society and is one ably equipped to understand the true meaning hidden behind the Upanishadic sentences and the expositions of the great Swami Sankarananda. The English translation is not merely a free rendering of the original, but is suffused with the devotion, feeling and meditation of the revered translator himself There is not the least doubt that eager students of the Vedanta and followers of the path of Jnana-Yoga will find this book a suitable guide in their daily life and a fitting text for Svadhyaya or sacred study as a necessary item in the programme of their spiritual practice. Shivanandanagar, 10th August, 1972. —Swami Krishnananda The Philosophy of Sage Yajnavalkya by Swami Brahmananda 7 PREFACE “Prostrations and adorations at the lotus feet of Satguru Bhagavan who is the Brahmic Bliss, the bestower of transcendental happiness, one without a second, an embodiment of Consciousness-Absolute, who transcends all pairs of opposites like good and bad, pleasure and pain, etc., who is comparable to the expansive limitless ether, who is realised through the indicative meaning of the great sentence of the Upanishad, Tat Tvam Asi, who is non- dual, eternal, free of all blemishes, non-moving, the witness of all the modifications of the intellect, beyond the six Bhavavikaras of existence, birth, growth, change, decay and death and who transcends the three Gunas of Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas.” The text of this book first appeared as a serial in ‘The Divine Life’ Journal published by the Divine Life Society from its Headquarters at Rishikesh, under the heading “The Philosophy of Sage Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, translated from the Atma-Purana,— by a Seeker”, in its issues from January 1970 till May 1972.