Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi - The Wife Who Wanted More (Jnana Yoga)

Dadi: "Guddu, you remember Maitreyi who rejected wealth for wisdom? Let me tell you more about what Yajnavalkya actually taught her that day."

Guddu: "Yes Dadi, I want to understand the deeper teaching!"

Dadi: "When Maitreyi asked for the knowledge of immortality, Yajnavalkya began with examples that sound strange at first: "It is not for the sake of the husband that the husband is dear. Not for the children's sake are children dear. Not for wealth's sake is wealth dear.""

Guddu: "You told me - everything is loved for the Self's sake. But I'm still confused about what that means."

Dadi: "Think about it this way, beta. When you eat your favorite dessert, where is the happiness?"

Guddu: "In me, I guess? My taste buds?"

Dadi: "Yes! The happiness happens inside you. The dessert is just the occasion - the trigger. If happiness was actually in the dessert, everyone would experience the same amount of joy from it. But some people love chocolate, others don't care about it at all."

Guddu: "So the joy isn't really in things?"

Dadi: "Exactly what Yajnavalkya taught! The joy is already inside us - it's our nature. But we're usually restless, our minds churning with desires. When we get what we want, the desire stops temporarily. In that moment of stillness, our natural inner joy shines through."

Guddu: "Like when I finally get what I wanted and feel peaceful for a moment?"

Dadi: "Exactly! But we mistakenly think the object gave us the happiness. So we chase more objects. Yajnavalkya taught Maitreyi that all this chasing is unnecessary - the happiness was inside all along."

Guddu: "How do we find that inner happiness without chasing things?"

Dadi: ""The Self should be realized," Yajnavalkya said. "It should be heard about, reflected upon, and meditated upon. By realizing the Self, all this is known.""

Guddu: "What did he mean by "all this is known"?"

Dadi: "He used beautiful examples. When you understand water, you understand all waves. When you understand gold, you understand all jewelry. When you understand clay, you understand all pots. Similarly, when you know the Self, you know the essence of everything."

Guddu: "Because everything comes from the same source?"

Dadi: "Precisely! Yajnavalkya told Maitreyi: "As from a fire kindled with wet fuel, various kinds of smoke issue forth - even so, all the Vedas, all knowledge, all sciences - all these are breathed forth from this infinite Reality.""

Guddu: "Even the sacred books come from the same source?"

Dadi: "Everything does! Then Maitreyi asked something that confused her: "If we become one with everything, who will know whom? What will be conscious of what?""

Guddu: "That is confusing! If everything becomes one, who's experiencing it?"

Dadi: "Yajnavalkya's answer was profound: "When everything has become the Self, then who should see whom? Who should hear whom? Who should think of whom?" In that state, there's no duality, no separation between knower and known."

Guddu: "That sounds scary - like losing yourself!"

Dadi: "But Yajnavalkya said it's not losing - it's finding your true nature! A wave doesn't lose itself when it realizes it's water. It recognizes what it always was. You don't become the Self - you realize you always were the Self, just confused by thinking you were something small and separate."

Guddu: "So it's not becoming something new but recognizing what we already are?"

Dadi: "That's the heart of jnana yoga, the path of knowledge! Maitreyi understood this. She chose to follow Yajnavalkya not for comfort or security, but to realize this truth herself."

Guddu: "Did she achieve it?"

Dadi: "She became one of the great realized sages of our tradition - named explicitly in the Upanishads as one who knew Brahman. Her question started everything: "What use is anything that won't make me immortal?""

Guddu: "She wanted the one thing that really matters."

Dadi: "And because she wanted it completely, she received it completely. The wealth Yajnavalkya offered is dust. The knowledge Maitreyi chose still liberates seekers thousands of years later. That's true wealth, beta - what remains when everything else is gone."