He turned to speak to her. She pleaded to him in silence, not to speak. Perhaps the prerogative belonged to her.
She said, "Let me feel your presence. Long years of loneliness have deprived me of the language of love. Let me absorb you in silence."
Yajnyawalkya moved forward; he wanted to engulf her in love and banish her age-long feeling of deprivation and loneliness. But she restrained him and said, "Let me understand you in your separateness. You are precious to me as you are; you always were."
Yajnyawalkya placed his hands on her shoulders and let her see him. The pre-dawn hours are said to be the time of the manifestation of Brahma : a time when the universe listens to the Creator in meditation; when the Creator and the Creation, though separate, understand each other's presence so perfectly that the barriers vanish, and there remains a single note, singing, : 'I am That, and That is in Me.'
Maitreyi was where she was, away from Yajnyawalkya, separate, and complete in herself. And yet there was no Maitreyi without Yajnyawalkya.
The moon was in the sky, ready to dissolve soon, and its star was still shining at a distance. Yajnyawakya's Gayatri was being born anew between the moon and the star. Soon there would be no trace of the moon and the star, but Gayatri would remain there to pervade the entire stretch of the day : today, tomorrow, and for endless morrows to come, to fill in the space and time for Yajnyawalkya.
Videha was left far behind. The scholars, who had hounded Yajnyawalkya to answer the mystery of Brahma had fallen into silence.
Brahma hides behind veils when you attack it with language. And what is language but a set of beliefs which are meant to keep you rooted in the world, the phenomenal world, which is the only thing you are equipped to understand?
Brahma answers to those who ask no questions and manifests itself when there is none to witness. Maitreyi could no longer stand the stress. Yajnyawalkya led her to the mat-seat. She asked, "Did you find what you sought?"
Yajnyawalkya said, "I did not go to Videha to seek anything. I was restless. Here, or in Videha, my roots were nowhere. I was cruel to all of you. None of you will ever forgive me."
Maitryi said, "We would have been cruel to you if we had held you back. I never realized, but I had no life apart from you. I have no regrets for myself or for you."
He said, "I have not found answers to many questions of my life, Maitreyi. I feel, my vocation of priesthood was the biggest lie. We, as priests, were wasting away the most vital springs of our life to help these hungry, insatiable multitudes in their pursuit of happiness."
Maitreyi said, "What did you pursue, if not happiness? "
Yajnyawalkya said, "True! What did I pursue, if not happiness?"
Maitreyi said, "Happiness had never been your goal, and you know it well! It was not restlessness which impelled you to travel to Videha; it was disgust!"
Yajnyawalkya listened to her in surprise. She was tearing away veil after veil from reality.She said, "Sitting here, away from your world of scholastic arguments, I could see into the heart of your unrest. I don't know if Janaka had seen it too, when he sent for you. He had recognized you. He is no ordinary mortal. His vision ranged far beyond what the scholars at his assembly aimed for! If that fateful conference was a question thrown at us by the destiny, Janaka played the silent hand behind it."
To be contd.
She said, "Let me feel your presence. Long years of loneliness have deprived me of the language of love. Let me absorb you in silence."
Yajnyawalkya moved forward; he wanted to engulf her in love and banish her age-long feeling of deprivation and loneliness. But she restrained him and said, "Let me understand you in your separateness. You are precious to me as you are; you always were."
Yajnyawalkya placed his hands on her shoulders and let her see him. The pre-dawn hours are said to be the time of the manifestation of Brahma : a time when the universe listens to the Creator in meditation; when the Creator and the Creation, though separate, understand each other's presence so perfectly that the barriers vanish, and there remains a single note, singing, : 'I am That, and That is in Me.'
Maitreyi was where she was, away from Yajnyawalkya, separate, and complete in herself. And yet there was no Maitreyi without Yajnyawalkya.
The moon was in the sky, ready to dissolve soon, and its star was still shining at a distance. Yajnyawakya's Gayatri was being born anew between the moon and the star. Soon there would be no trace of the moon and the star, but Gayatri would remain there to pervade the entire stretch of the day : today, tomorrow, and for endless morrows to come, to fill in the space and time for Yajnyawalkya.
Videha was left far behind. The scholars, who had hounded Yajnyawalkya to answer the mystery of Brahma had fallen into silence.
Brahma hides behind veils when you attack it with language. And what is language but a set of beliefs which are meant to keep you rooted in the world, the phenomenal world, which is the only thing you are equipped to understand?
Brahma answers to those who ask no questions and manifests itself when there is none to witness. Maitreyi could no longer stand the stress. Yajnyawalkya led her to the mat-seat. She asked, "Did you find what you sought?"
Yajnyawalkya said, "I did not go to Videha to seek anything. I was restless. Here, or in Videha, my roots were nowhere. I was cruel to all of you. None of you will ever forgive me."
Maitryi said, "We would have been cruel to you if we had held you back. I never realized, but I had no life apart from you. I have no regrets for myself or for you."
He said, "I have not found answers to many questions of my life, Maitreyi. I feel, my vocation of priesthood was the biggest lie. We, as priests, were wasting away the most vital springs of our life to help these hungry, insatiable multitudes in their pursuit of happiness."
Maitreyi said, "What did you pursue, if not happiness? "
Yajnyawalkya said, "True! What did I pursue, if not happiness?"
Maitreyi said, "Happiness had never been your goal, and you know it well! It was not restlessness which impelled you to travel to Videha; it was disgust!"
Yajnyawalkya listened to her in surprise. She was tearing away veil after veil from reality.She said, "Sitting here, away from your world of scholastic arguments, I could see into the heart of your unrest. I don't know if Janaka had seen it too, when he sent for you. He had recognized you. He is no ordinary mortal. His vision ranged far beyond what the scholars at his assembly aimed for! If that fateful conference was a question thrown at us by the destiny, Janaka played the silent hand behind it."
To be contd.
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