Brahadaranyaka Upanishad - Part 3

Part 3 of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (बृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्) presents the famous philosophical debates of Yajnavalkya at the sacrificial assembly of Emperor Janaka of Videha. Through nine dialogues with the greatest brahmin scholars of Kuru and Panchala, Yajnavalkya unfolds the deepest teachings on liberation, karma, the Inner Controller, and the Imperishable.

Part Three

Chapter I — Yajnavalkya and Asvala

Emperor Janaka of Videha performed a great sacrifice with free distribution of gifts. To find the most erudite Vedic scholar, he confined a thousand cows in a pen and fastened ten padas of gold on each horn, declaring that the best scholar should drive them home. None dared — until Yajnavalkya told his pupil Samsrava to drive the cows away. The brahmins were furious, and Asvala, the hotri priest, questioned him:

• Since everything is overtaken by death, how does the sacrificer free himself from its reach? — Through the hotri priest and the organ of speech looked upon as fire; this fire is the means to liberation.
• Since everything is overtaken by day and night? — Through the adhvaryu priest and the eye looked upon as the sun.
• Since everything is overtaken by the bright and dark fortnights? — Through the udgatri priest and the vital breath looked upon as the air.
• How does the sacrificer go to heaven, since the sky is without a support? — Through the Brahma priest and the mind looked upon as the moon.

Asvala then asked about the three kinds of Rig verses (introductory, sacrificial and eulogistic), the three kinds of oblations (those that blaze upward, make a great noise, and sink down — winning the worlds of the gods, Manes and men), the single god with which the Brahma priest protects the sacrifice (the mind), and the three hymns (introductory, sacrificial and eulogistic, winning earth, sky and heaven). Thereupon the priest Asvala held his peace.

Chapter II — Yajnavalkya and Artabhaga

Artabhaga, of the line of Jaratkaru, asked how many grahas (organs) and atigrahas (objects) there are. Eight of each:

Artabhaga then asked: since all this is the food of death, who is that god to whom death is the food? — "Fire, indeed, is death; it is the food of water. One who knows this conquers further death."

When a liberated person dies, his organs do not depart from him but merge in him only; the body swells, is inflated and lies at rest. What does not leave him? The name — for the name is infinite. And when the vocal organ merges in fire, the nose in air, the eye in the sun, the mind in the moon, the ear in the quarters, the body in the earth, the akasa of the heart in the external akasa, the body-hair in the herbs and the head-hair in the trees, and blood and semen are deposited in water — where is that person then? Yajnavalkya took Artabhaga aside and they deliberated in private; and what they talked about was karma — one becomes good through good karma and evil through evil karma.

Chapter III — Yajnavalkya and Bhujyu

Bhujyu, the grandson of Lahya, recalled how, travelling in the country of Madra, they met a maiden possessed by a gandharva who called himself Sudhanvan of the line of Angiras, and asked where the descendants of Parikshit had gone. The gandharva had answered: they went where those who perform the Horse-sacrifice go. Through the space between the two halves of the cosmic shell — as narrow as the edge of a razor — they pass out; Fire, in the form of a falcon, delivers them to Vayu, who places them in Himself. "Therefore Vayu alone is the aggregate of all individuals. He who knows this conquers further death."

Chapter IV — Yajnavalkya and Ushasta

Ushasta, the son of Chakra, asked for the Brahman that is immediately and directly perceived — the self that is within all. Yajnavalkya answered: "That which breathes through the prana is your self within all; that which moves downward through the apana, that which pervades through the vyana, that which goes out with the udana — this is your self within all." When Ushasta pressed for greater precision, Yajnavalkya gave the famous reply: "You cannot see the seer of seeing; you cannot hear the hearer of hearing; you cannot think of the thinker of thinking; you cannot know the knower of knowing. This is your self that is within all; everything else but this is perishable."

Chapter V — Yajnavalkya and Kahola

To Kahola, the son of Kushitaka, Yajnavalkya declared: "It is that which transcends hunger and thirst, grief, delusion, old age and death. Having realized this Self, brahmins give up the desire for sons, the desire for wealth and the desire for the worlds and lead the life of religious mendicants." After scholarship, one should live on the strength that comes of scholarship; after that strength, one becomes meditative; after both meditativeness and non-meditativeness, one becomes a knower of Brahman. "How does the knower of Brahman behave? Howsoever he may behave, he is such indeed."

Chapter VI — Yajnavalkya and Gargi (I)

Gargi, the daughter of Vachaknu, challenged him with a chain of questions: by what is water pervaded? By air. By what is air pervaded? By the sky. Then the gandharva world, the sun, the moon, the stars, the gods, Indra, Virij and Hiranyagarbha. When she asked what pervades the world of Hiranyagarbha, Yajnavalkya warned: "Do not, O Gargi, question too much, lest your head should fall off." Thereupon Gargi held her peace.

Chapter VII — Yajnavalkya and Uddalaka

Uddalaka, the son of Aruna, related how the gandharva Kabandha, son of Atharvan, had taught that he who knows the Sutra (thread) and the Inner Controller knows Brahman, the worlds, the gods, the Vedas, the beings, the self — everything — and declared that Yajnavalkya's head would fall off if he claimed the cows without this knowledge.

Yajnavalkya answered: "Vayu, O Gautama, is that Sutra. By Vayu, as by a thread, this world, the other world and all beings are held together — therefore they say of one who dies that his limbs have been loosened."

Then he described the Inner Controller (Antaryamin): "He who inhabits the earth, yet is within the earth, whom the earth does not know, whose body the earth is and who controls the earth from within — He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal." So also through water, fire, the sky, the air, heaven, the sun, the quarters, the moon and stars, the akasa, darkness and light; through all beings; and within the body, through the nose, the organ of speech, the eye, the ear, the mind, the skin, the intellect and the organ of generation. "He is never seen, but is the Seer; never heard, but is the Hearer; never thought of, but is the Thinker; never known, but is the Knower."

Chapter VIII — Yajnavalkya and Gargi (II)

Gargi returned with two questions, armed, she said, like a Kasi warrior with two sharp arrows. What pervades the Sutra which is above heaven and below the earth, which is heaven and earth as well as what is between them, and which — they say — was, is and will be? — The unmanifested akasa. And what pervades the akasa?

Yajnavalkya answered: "That, O Gargi, the knowers of Brahman call the Imperishable. It is neither gross nor subtle, neither short nor long, neither red nor moist; neither shadow nor darkness, neither air nor akasa; It is unattached, without taste or smell, without eyes or ears, without tongue or mind; non-effulgent, without vital breath or mouth, without measure and without exterior or interior. It does not eat anything, nor is It eaten by anyone."

• Under the mighty rule of this Imperishable, the sun and moon, heaven and earth, and moments, muhurtas, days and nights, fortnights, months, seasons and years are held in their positions.
• Under Its rule, some rivers flow eastward from the white mountains, others westward, and still others keep to their courses.
• Whosoever, without knowing this Imperishable, offers oblations, performs sacrifices and practises austerities even for many thousands of years, finds such acts perishable. But he who departs after knowing the Imperishable is a knower of Brahman.
• "Verily, that Imperishable is never seen but is the Seer; never heard, but is the Hearer; never thought of, but is the Thinker; never known, but is the Knower. By this Imperishable is the unmanifested akasa pervaded."

Gargi then declared to the brahmins: "None of you, I believe, will defeat him in arguments about Brahman," and held her peace.

Chapter IX — Yajnavalkya and Vidaghdha

Vidaghdha Sakalya asked: "How many gods are there?" Ascertaining through the Nivid, Yajnavalkya answered, "Three hundred and three and three thousand and three." Pressed further, he counted down: thirty-three, six, three, two, one and a half, and one. The thirty-three are the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras and the twelve Adityas, with Indra and Prajapati.

• The Vasus are fire, the earth, the air, the sky, the sun, heaven, the moon and the stars — in them all this universe is placed (vasavah).
• The Rudras are the ten organs of the human body with the mind as the eleventh; when they depart from the mortal body they make one's relatives weep (rud).
• The Adityas are the twelve months, which carry (adadanah) all this along with them.
• Indra is the thunderclap, and Prajapati the sacrifice. The six are fire, the earth, the air, the sky, the sun and heaven; the three are the three worlds; the two are matter and the vital breath; the one and a half is this air that blows; and the one God is the vital breath (Hiranyagarbha) — Brahman which is called That (Tyat).

Sakalya then questioned Yajnavalkya about the being whose body is the earth, whose deity is nectar; whose body is lust, whose deity is women; whose body is colours, whose deity is truth; whose body is akasa, whose deity the quarters; whose body is darkness, whose deity death; whose body is particular colours, whose deity the vital breath; whose body is water, whose deity Varuna; and whose body is semen, whose deity Prajapati. Yajnavalkya answered each, and then questioned Sakalya in turn about the quarters — the east (sun, supported by the eye, colours, the heart), the south (Yama, the sacrifice, remuneration, faith, the heart), the west (Varuna, water, semen, the heart), the north (Soma, initiation, truth, the heart) and the fixed direction overhead (fire, speech, the heart). When Sakalya asked what supports the heart, Yajnavalkya rebuked him: "You ghost, that you think the heart should be elsewhere than in ourselves!" — and then traced the chain through the prana, apana, vyana, udana and samana, declaring that this Self is "Not this, not this" — imperceptible, undecaying, unattached, unfettered.

Yajnavalkya then asked Sakalya about the Person known only from the Upanishads, who projects all beings and withdraws them into Himself and is at the same time transcendental. Sakalya did not know Him; his head fell off, and robbers snatched away his bones, mistaking them for something else. No other brahmin dared question Yajnavalkya further.

Finally Yajnavalkya recited the verses of the mighty tree: as a mighty tree, so is a man — his hairs are the leaves, his skin the outer bark, his flesh the inner bark, his nerves the innermost bark, his bones the wood, his marrow the pith. When a tree is felled it springs again from its root; from what root does a man spring forth after he is cut off by death? Not from semen, for that is produced from the living man. If you think he is born again, who should bring him forth? The Upanishad answers: It is Brahman, which is absolute Knowledge and Bliss, the ultimate goal of him who offers wealth and of him who has realized Brahman and stands firm in It.

Practical / Modern Context

Yajnavalkya's court debates model the spirit of inquiry that Hinduism places at the heart of spiritual life. The dialogues show that doubt and questioning are welcome — Gargi's fearless questioning, Ushasta's demand for precision, and even Sakalya's overreach are all part of the search for truth. The teaching of the Inner Controller — the Self present within everything, unknown to the things It inhabits — offers a contemplative path for modern seekers: to look within rather than chase outward forms.

The doctrine of karma — one becomes good through good karma and evil through evil karma — grounds ethical responsibility in daily life. And the final image of the tree offers a profound meditation on mortality: from what root does a mortal spring after death? From Brahman, the root of all.

Common Misconceptions

1. "The Upanishads discourage questioning." The opposite is true — these chapters are structured entirely around rigorous question-and-answer debates, and Gargi's bold questioning is honoured in the text.
2. "Karma is fatalistic." The teaching that one becomes good through good karma and evil through evil karma affirms personal responsibility and the power of present action, not blind fate.
3. "Yajnavalkya was arrogant." He did not claim the cows for vanity but to demonstrate that true knowledge is not confined to birth or office; a kshatriya (Ajatasatru in Part 2) could teach a brahmin, and a brahmin could be defeated by superior wisdom.
4. "The 'head falling off' is literal." These warnings are symbolic expressions of the danger of incomplete understanding or of overreaching in matters of the transcendent — Sakalya's fate dramatizes the collapse of one who presumes to know the Unknowable.

Conclusion

Part 3 of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad brings the seeker face to face with the highest teaching: the Self as the Inner Controller of all, the Imperishable that pervades the unmanifested akasa, and Brahman as the root from which all life springs. Through the wit and wisdom of Yajnavalkya, it establishes that true liberation comes through knowledge — the realization of the Knower that cannot be known as an object, the Self that is "Not this, not this," yet is the reality of all.

Related Prabhukedwar Guides

• Complete Guide to Chanting Gayatri Mantra
• Kashi Vishwanath Temple & Sacred Banaras
• Meaning of Om Namah Shivaya Mantra

For more authentic Hindu temple guides, pilgrimage routes, mantras, and Vedic insights, visit Prabhukedwar.