C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Dialogue of Yājñavalkya and Māitreyī

By Indian Literature

YĀJÑAVALKYA had two wives, Māitreyī and Kātyāyanī. Now Māitreyī was versed in holy knowledge [brahma], but Kātyāyanī had only such knowledge as women have. But when Yājñavalkya was about to go away into the forest [to become a hermit], he said, “Māitreyī, I am going away from this place. Behold, I will make a settlement between thee and that Kātyāyanī.” Then said Māitreyī, “Lord, if this whole earth filled with wealth were mine, how then? should I be immortal by reason of this wealth?” “Nay,” said Yājñavalkya: “even as is the life of the rich would be thy life; by reason of wealth one has no hope of immortality.” Then said Māitreyī, “With what I cannot be immortal, what can I do with that? Whatever my Lord knows, even that tell me.” And Yājñavalkya said, “Dear to me thou art, indeed, and fondly speakest. Therefore I will explain to thee, and do thou regard me as I explain.” And he said:—“Not for the husband’s sake is a husband dear, but for the ego’s sake is the husband dear; not for the wife’s sake is a wife dear, but for the ego’s sake is a wife dear; not for the sons’ sake are sons dear, but for the ego’s sake are sons dear; not for wealth’s sake is wealth dear, but for the ego’s sake is wealth dear; not for the sake of the Brahman caste is the Brahman caste dear, but for the sake of the ego is the Brahman caste dear; not for the sake of the Warrior caste is the Warrior caste dear, but for love of the ego is the Warrior caste dear; not for the sake of the worlds are worlds dear, but for the sake of the ego are worlds dear; not for the sake of gods are gods dear, but for the ego’s sake are gods dear; not for the sake of bhūts [spirits] are bhūts dear, but for the ego’s sake are bhūts dear; not for the sake of anything is anything dear, but for love of one’s self [ego] is anything [everything] dear; the ego must be seen, heard, apprehended, regarded, Māitreyī, for with the seeing, hearing, apprehending, and regarding of the ego the All is known…. Even as smoke pours out of a fire lighted with damp kindling-wood, even so out of the Great Being is blown out all that which is,—Rig-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sāma-Veda, Atharva- [Angiras] Veda, Stories, Tales, Sciences, Upanishads, food, drink, sacrifices; all creatures that exist are blown [breathed] out of this one [Great Spirit] alone. As in the ocean all the waters have their meeting-place; as the skin is the meeting-place of all touches; the tongue, of all tastes; the nose, of all smells; the mind, of all precepts; the heart, of all knowledges;… as salt cast into water is dissolved so that one cannot seize it, but wherever one tastes it is salty,—so this Great Being, endless, limitless, is a mass of knowledge. It arises out of the elements and then disappears in them. After death there is no more consciousness. I have spoken.” Thus said Yājñavalkya. Then said Māitreyī, “Truly my Lord has bewildered me in saying that after death there is no more consciousness.” And Yājñavalkya said:—“I say nothing bewildering, but what suffices for understanding. For where there is as it were duality [dvāitam], there one sees, smells, hears, addresses, notices, knows another; but when all the universe has become mere ego, with what should one smell, see, hear, address, notice, know any one [else]? How can one know him through whom he knows this all, how can he know the knower [as something different]? The ego is to be described by negations alone, the incomprehensible, imperishable, unattached, unfettered; the ego neither suffers nor fails. Thus, Māitreyī, hast thou been instructed. So much for immortality.” And having spoken thus, Yājñavalkya went away [into the forest].

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