Śruti / The twelve Upaniṣads / Bṛhadāraṇyaka · 10 of 12

10. Not this, not this

Bṛhadāraṇyaka (बृहदारण्यक)

The Bṛhadāraṇyaka (बृहदारण्यक) belongs to the white Yajurveda. It is the āraṇyaka portion of the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (शतपथ ब्राह्मण). The printed upaniṣad has six adhyāyas. The Kāṇva (काण्व) and Mādhyandina (माध्यन्दिन) recensions number the books differently. This page does not invent that map. Śaṅkara (शङ्कर) is the reader a student meets on this book. His commentary is not copied here.

The early chapters still speak the language of the horse sacrifice and of the worlds as parts of a cosmic person, which is how an āraṇyaka sounds before it becomes a set of dialogues. In that creation account the self, in the beginning, knew: I am Brahman. By that it became all. Whoever knows so becomes all. The same book says the self was alone and wanted a second. The sentence is named and not lingered on.

The dialogues are the heart a reader remembers. At King Janaka (जनक)'s court a prize of cows is set, and Yājñavalkya (याज्ञवल्क्य) tells his student to drive them home, and then he has to answer for the boast. Gārgī (गार्गी) asks him about the warp on which the worlds are woven, and asks again, past the sun and the moon and the worlds, until he warns her not to over-ask, lest her head fall. She asks once more, within the bound he sets, and the answer is the imperishable, which sees without being seen. Maitreyī (मैत्रेयी) is his wife. He is about to leave the householder's life and offers her a settlement. She asks whether wealth would make her immortal. He says no. She asks for what he knows instead. He tells her that a husband is not dear for the husband's sake, nor a wife for the wife's sake, but for the sake of the self. Everything is dear for the self. When the self is seen and known, all this is known.

The phrase that strips the self of every handle is neti neti (नेति नेति). Not this, not this. It is said more than once in the book. Its best-known place is Bṛhadāraṇyaka 2.3.6, after gross and subtle, defined and undefined, have been described. There the self is said by refusing both. That passage is not printed on this page. The honey doctrine, later, says that all beings are honey for this self, and this self is honey for all beings. A lineage of teachers closes the book, name by name, back to the self that taught without a human mouth. The breakthrough is the pair of sentences. I am Brahman is the self's recognition at the start of things. Not this, not this is how a mind stops handing the self a predicate. Maitreyī's question is why either sentence matters: what cannot make you immortal is not the thing to ask for.

अहं ब्रह्मास्मि ahaṃ brahmāsmi

I am Brahman. Bṛhadāraṇyaka (बृहदारण्यक) 1.4.10, in the account of the beginning. The self knew itself so, and by that knowing became all. The longer sentence around these words is not sat here.

स एष नेति नेत्यात्मा sa eṣa neti nety ātmā

This self is not this, not this. Bṛhadāraṇyaka (बृहदारण्यक) 3.9.26, and again in the fourth adhyāya. The phrase strips predicates. Whatever can be pointed at and called this is set down. The self is what remains when the pointing fails.

नेपालीमा

बृहदारण्यक शुक्ल यजुर्वेद हो, शतपथको आरण्यक अंश। छापिने पुस्तकमा छ अध्याय छन्। काण्व र माध्यन्दिनको अङ्क फरक छ। त्यो नक्सा यहाँ बनाइँदैन। सुरुमा आत्माले जान्यो, अहं ब्रह्मास्मि, र सब भयो। एक्लो आत्माले दोस्रो चाहेको वाक्य नाम मात्र लिइन्छ।

जनकको सभामा याज्ञवल्क्यले गाई लगे। गार्गीले संसारको ताना सोधिन्। मैत्रेयीले भनिन्, धनले अमरता हुँदैन भने म त्यो चाहन्नँ। पतिको लागि पति प्यारो होइन, आत्माको लागि प्यारो हो। नेति नेति। यो होइन, यो होइन। यसको सबैभन्दा चिनिएको स्थान बृहदारण्यक २.३.६ हो, स्थूल र सूक्ष्मको वर्णनपछि। त्यो खण्ड यहाँ प्रस्तुत गरिएको छैन।

Where it sits

The white Yajurveda and the Śatapatha are named in white and black. The theistic synthesis is the next sitting.