IV MORE OF YAJNAVALKYA Last time I told you the story of the great Rishi Yajnavalkya. But that was about the later Yajnavalkya when he had become a full-fledged rishi, a guru with an Ashram and disciples. Today I will tell you something of the earlier Yajnavalkya, the beginning of his rishihood, the start of his spiritual life. You know the structure of the old Indian society, it consisted of four castes, varnas, and four stages, asramas. I shall speak of the asramas now. Each individual person had to follow a definite course of life through developing stages. First of all, naturally, when you are a baby, in your early childhood, you belong to the family and re

II OCCULT EXPERIENCES It seems my predecessors were telling you stories— stories of their own lives, their experiences, so I thought I should follow in their footsteps. But I am not going to tell you about my own experiences, I am going to tell a story, rather a history, that happened in the life of another person. It will be interesting and also instructive. So I will begin the story, I am the narrator: I was a traveller, going about from place to place, seeing all things of interest — especially those of pilgrimage — and I happened to be in Madras. I was waiting there to take a bus to the railway-station which was a few miles off. I saw that there were als

I TO READ SRI AUROBINDO I learned that you want to know something about Sri Aurobindo and the Mother from me. But then there are three lines of approach: you may want to know about them, know of them or know them. Of course the last is the best. Indeed if you want to know truly something you have to become it. Becoming gives the real knowledge. But becoming Sri Aurobindo and the Mother means what? Becoming a portion of them, a part and parcel of their consciousness — that is what we are here for. And if you can do that, you know enough.... Once I told you, I think, how to study or approach Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in order to read them or unde

Yama - Nachiketa (Katha Upanishad) Vajasravas desired that he would give away all he had. He had a son named Nachiketas. As the boy saw the gifts being given, his heart was filled with respect and devotion, and he pondered: "The realm of undelight is his portion who makes a gift offering of kine that have drunk their last drop of water and eaten the last herb, have been sucked to the last drop of milk and have worn out their organs." So the boy said to his father, "To whom are you going to give me, father?" The father did not give an answer to the senseless question of his ignorant son. But the boy was insistent. He asked the same questio

Narada - Sanatkumara (Chhandogya Upanishad) Rishi Sanatkumara was once approached by Narada (evidently not yet become a Rishi), who said, "Lord, I desire to be taught by you. Please teach me." The Rishi replied, "Very well, but first tell me how much you know; then I shall tell you if you need more." Narada thereupon made out an inventory of his learning; it was a formidable list. "My Lord, this is what I have learnt: Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda, the Fifth Veda comprising History and Mythology; next, Grammar, Mathematics, Logic and Politics, the Science of Computing Time, Theology, Fine Arts and the Ritual Lore; Demonology, Astrology, and t

The Story of Rishi Yajnavalkya (I) Yajnavalkya was one of the great Brahmins and a supreme master of the Knowledge of Reality during the Upanishadic age. But it was not that he was only a man of Knowledge, deep and serious; he was also a fine humorist. That is, he combined his Knowledge with a keen sense of irony and fun. Here are some stories about him. King Janaka was his contemporary. That would seem to place his story in the Upanishads about the time of the Ramayana although Rama or Sita does not figure anywhere there. King Janaka too was a man of Knowledge, a sage-king, rājarṣi. But he had not taken any disciples. The seekers would

Indra - Virochana and Prajapati (Chhandogya Upanishad) Prajapati, the Lord and Creator, once declared himself thus: "The Self is the sinless, ageless and deathless One; it has no sorrow nor hunger and thirst. The goal of all its desire is the Truth, Truth is the one thing worthy of its resolve. It is this Self that has to be sought after, it alone one should seek to know. And one who seeks after the Self and knows it, gains possession of all the worlds, wins all that is desirable." The message of the Lord reached both the gods and the demons. They discussed it among themselves. "If the Self is such a thing as can win all the worl

The Story of Fabala-Satyakama (I) I think I told you once of the story in the Upanishada bout a seeker of spiritual knowledge who had been given by his teacher as a first assignment the task of looking after his kine. This was meant to serve both as an initiation and a training; it was to be his work and also his test. But the student had had to pass through another, perhaps somewhat minor, ordeal of a preliminary nature. Tagore has a well-known poem based on this episode. I begin my story with that narrative, giving it almost verbatim as it appears in the Upanishad (Chhandogya, IV.4). Jabala Satyakama, says the Upanishad, approached h

Ushasti Chakrayana (Chhandogya Upanishad) This is the story of Ushasti Chakrayana, Ushasti the son of Chakra. But could it be that the name means one who drives a wheel, like Shakatayana,the driver of śakaṭa, the bullock cart? Or is it something similar to Kamalayana, one who tends or enjoys a kamala, the lotus, lotus-eater? The Chakra or wheel here might be the potter's wheel, or it might as well be the spinner's wheel or Charkha. Does the name then mean something like one who owns or plies a Charkha, just as we term Kamliwalla an ascetic with a Kambal or blanket ? However that may be, here is the story. The Kuru country where Ushasti had h