Holy Mother By Swami Nikhilananda: 024 Wednesday 27-01-2016
27-01-2016 Wednesday
Holy Mother By Swami Nikhilananda: 024
Introduction: Women of India - 21
Let us now go to the Upanishads, the philosophical section of the Vedas, which are the foundation of the different systems of Hindu philosophy systematically developed in a later period. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad we encounter a woman of great spiritual insight. Maitreyi was the second wife of Yajnavalkya, the outstanding philosopher of his time. When her husband, after the completion of his householder’s duties, was about to embrace the monastic life, he wanted to divide his property between his two wives. Maitreyi asked him whether, if the whole earth, full of wealth, belonged to her, she would thereby attain to immortality. Yajnavalkya answered that she could not conquer death through wealth, but that wealth would enable her to lead a comfortable life. The wise woman lost her interest wealth and sought to know the secret of immortality. Yajnavalkya taught her about to know the secret of immortality. Yajnavalkya taught her about the real nature of the soul, which alone is immortal, non-dual, and divine. The individual soul is one with the Supreme Soul, called Brahman, Maitreyi was frightened at the idea of losing her individuality. Her husband then explained that the individual soul is a part of the relative world, created by ignorance, where one sees another, hears another, and deals with another. But when the oneness of existence is experienced, there is found no separate object which one can see, hear, or deal with. This realization makes one truly free and immortal.1 (1 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad II. Iv. 2-3)
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Holy Mother - Being the Life of Sri Sarada Devi Wife of Sri Ramakrishna And Helpmate in his Mission By Swami Nikhilananda p: 16 – 17
