01Yajnavalkya's Veda
The Shukla Yajurveda came to Maharshi Yajnavalkya from Surya, and the Upanishad's last line says so: these white yajus, received from Aditya, are taught by Yajnavalkya Vajasaneya. The Brihadaranyaka is the closing part of that Veda's Shatapatha Brahmana, studied in the forest, which is why it is both a Brahmana and an Aranyaka. It survives in two recensions, the Kanva and the Madhyandina, with small differences of order and wording; Adi Shankaracharya followed the Kanva. It is apaurusheya Shruti. Its name means the great forest teaching, great in length and great in subject.
02Asato ma and aham brahmasmi
The first adhyaya opens with the horse of the ashvamedha seen as the whole universe, dawn its head, the sun its eye. In the third brahmana the devas and asuras contend, and only prana, the breath in the mouth, cannot be pierced by evil. Then comes the pavamana japa: when the priest begins the chant, the yajamana says asato ma sad gamaya, tamaso ma jyotir gamaya, mrityor ma amritam gamaya. In the fourth brahmana, Brahman alone was in the beginning, and it knew itself as aham brahmasmi, I am Brahman, and so became all. Whoever among devas, rishis or humans woke to this became that, as Rishi Vamadeva did.
03Janaka's assembly
King Janaka of Videha held a great yajna and set aside a thousand cows, ten pieces of gold tied to each horn, for the most learned Brahmin present. Yajnavalkya told his pupil to drive them home. The others rose to question him one by one: Ashvala the hotar, Artabhaga, Bhujyu, Ushasta, Kahola, Uddalaka Aruni, and Gargi Vachaknavi, who twice stood up. Across what is space woven, warp and woof? she asked. Yajnavalkya answered: across the Imperishable, the akshara, by whose command sun and moon stand apart. Gargi told the assembly that none of them would defeat him.
04The inner controller
When Uddalaka Aruni questions Yajnavalkya, the answer is the antaryami brahmana (3.7), one of the most loved passages in all Vedanta. He who dwells in the earth, whom the earth does not know, whose body the earth is, who rules the earth from within, he is your Self, the inner controller, the immortal. The same is said of water, fire, sky, wind, sun, the quarters, moon and stars, of breath, speech, eye, ear, mind and understanding. He sees and is not seen, hears and is not heard. Other than him there is no seer. Ramanujacharya made this passage the foundation of his teaching that the world and the jivas are the body of the Lord.
05Maitreyi's choice
Before leaving for the forest, Yajnavalkya meant to divide his property between his two wives, Katyayani and Maitreyi. Maitreyi asked: if this whole earth full of wealth were mine, would it make me immortal? No, he said; your life would be like the life of the rich. Then what should I do with what will not make me immortal? Tell me what you know. He taught her that the husband is dear for the sake of the Self, the wife is dear for the sake of the Self, everything is dear for the sake of the Self. The Self is to be seen, heard, reflected on and meditated upon.
06Janaka learns the light of man
In the fourth adhyaya Yajnavalkya sits alone with Janaka. What is the light of man? The sun, says the king. And when the sun has set? The moon. And when the moon has set? Fire. And when the fire goes out? Speech. And when speech is silent? Then the Self is his light. Yajnavalkya walks the king through waking, dream and deep sleep, where a father is no father and the Vedas are no Vedas. He tells him that a man becomes what he does: one who does good becomes good. Like a caterpillar that reaches for the next blade of grass before it lets go of the last, the self takes hold of the next body. Janaka gives his kingdom and himself to the teacher.
07Neti neti, and the three Da's
Of the Self Yajnavalkya says neti neti, not this, not this. It is ungraspable, for it is not grasped; indestructible, for it is not destroyed. The fifth adhyaya opens with purnam adah purnam idam, the shanti mantra of the whole Shukla Yajurveda. Then devas, humans and asuras go to Prajapati for teaching. To each he says only da. The devas hear damyata, be self-controlled; humans hear datta, give; asuras hear dayadhvam, be compassionate. The thunder repeats it still, the Upanishad says: da, da, da. Learn these three, self-control, giving and compassion.
08Shankara, Sureshvara and the other schools
Adi Shankaracharya's bhashya on the Brihadaranyaka is the longest he wrote. His disciple Sureshvaracharya wrote a vast varttika on it in verse, and Vidyaranya later summarised that in his Varttikasara. For Advaita, neti neti and aham brahmasmi are the heart of the text: every limiting form is denied until only the Self remains. Ramanujacharya and his school read the antaryami brahmana as the plain sense: the Lord is the Self of all and the world is his body. Madhvacharya's bhashya reads the Upanishad as praise of Shri Hari, distinct from and ruling over every jiva, and finds in Yajnavalkya's answers the Lord's supremacy.
09Heard every day
Few Sanskrit lines are spoken as often as two from this Upanishad. Purnam adah opens and closes Shukla Yajurvedi study, pujas and gatherings, and asato ma sad gamaya is sung in schools and gatherings across Bharat. Shukla Yajurvedi Brahmins of both the Kanva and the Madhyandina shakhas still learn the six adhyayas by heart. At sannyasa in Adi Shankaracharya's order, aham brahmasmi is given as the mahavakya of the Yajurveda, held by the Sringeri Sharada Peetham of the south.
What it contains
- 1Adhyaya 1 (Madhu Kanda)
The ashvamedha horse as the universe, creation from death and hunger, and the contest of devas and asuras won by prana. It holds the pavamana prayer asato ma sad gamaya (1.3.28) and the creation of all from the Self, with aham brahmasmi (1.4.10). It ends with the seven foods and the triad of name, form and action.
- 2Adhyaya 2 (Madhu Kanda)
Gargya Balaki offers to teach Brahman to King Ajatashatru of Kashi and ends as his pupil. The two forms of Brahman are given with the teaching neti neti, and Yajnavalkya teaches Maitreyi for the first time. The madhu vidya, which Dadhyan Atharvana taught the Ashvins, shows all beings as honey to one another.
- 3Adhyaya 3 (Yajnavalkya Kanda)
The great debate at Janaka's yajna, where Yajnavalkya answers Ashvala, Artabhaga, Bhujyu, Ushasta, Kahola, Gargi, Uddalaka and Vidagdha Shakalya. Uddalaka's question draws out the antaryami brahmana, and Gargi's second question the teaching of the akshara, the Imperishable.
- 4Adhyaya 4 (Yajnavalkya Kanda)
Yajnavalkya teaches Janaka alone: the Self as the light of man, the states of waking, dream and deep sleep, and the measure of bliss. He explains death and rebirth and the freedom of one who has no desire but the Self. Maitreyi's dialogue is told again, and the adhyaya ends with the line of teachers.
- 5Adhyaya 5 (Khila Kanda)
It opens with purnam adah and Prajapati's teaching of da, da, da. Short meditations follow on the heart, on truth, on the mind and on the Gayatri. It holds the prayer at the hour of death, hiranmayena patrena, which the Isha Upanishad also gives.
- 6Adhyaya 6 (Khila Kanda)
The senses leave the body one by one and only prana proves indispensable. Pravahana Jaivali teaches Shvetaketu's father the five fires and the paths after death. Rites for the householder follow, and the Upanishad ends with the line of teachers back to Yajnavalkya and the Shukla Yajus received from Aditya.
Famous verses
असतो मा सद्गमय। तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय। मृत्योर्मामृतं गमयेति।
Lead me from the unreal to the real. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to immortality.Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28
तदात्मानमेवावेत्। अहं ब्रह्मास्मीति। तस्मात्तत्सर्वमभवत्।
It knew only itself: I am Brahman. Therefore it became all.Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10
अथात आदेशो नेति नेति।
Now therefore the teaching: not this, not this.Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.3.6
आत्मा वा अरे द्रष्टव्यः श्रोतव्यो मन्तव्यो निदिध्यासितव्यो मैत्रेयि।
It is the Self, dear Maitreyi, that is to be seen, heard, reflected on and meditated upon.Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.4.5
तदेतदेवैषा दैवी वागनुवदति स्तनयित्नुर्द द द इति दम्यत दत्त दयध्वमिति।
This the divine voice of the thunder repeats: da, da, da. Be self-controlled, give, be compassionate.Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 5.2.3
Shankara's bhashya on it is his longest, with Sureshvara's great varttika on that; Madhva also commented. Aham brahmasmi is the mahavakya of the Yajurveda, and the antaryami brahmana is the root of Ramanuja's teaching of the Lord as the Self of all.