Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi

Dadi: "Guddu, have you ever been offered something really wonderful - something everyone else would want - and realized it wasn't enough?"

Guddu: "Like getting a toy but wanting something more important?"

Dadi: "Exactly like that. Let me tell you about Maitreyi, who was offered half a kingdom's wealth and asked for something much bigger."

Guddu: "What could be bigger than a kingdom?"

Dadi: "Immortality. This story comes from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, one of our most ancient teachings."

Guddu: "Tell me!"

Dadi: "The great sage Yajnavalkya had two wives - Katyayani and Maitreyi. Katyayani was content with household matters. But Maitreyi was different - she was a philosopher who loved discussing the deepest questions about existence."

Guddu: "A woman philosopher in ancient times?"

Dadi: "One of our greatest! When Yajnavalkya decided to leave his home to become a wandering monk, he called both wives to divide his property between them."

Guddu: "That seems fair."

Dadi: "Katyayani accepted her share gratefully. But Maitreyi asked a question that would change philosophy forever: "Venerable Sir, if the entire earth with all its wealth belonged to me, would I become immortal?""

Guddu: "What a strange question to ask!"

Dadi: "Yajnavalkya answered honestly: "No. Your life would be comfortable, like anyone with great wealth. But wealth offers no hope of immortality.""

Guddu: "So money can't buy eternal life?"

Dadi: "That's exactly what Maitreyi understood. And her next words stunned everyone: "What use is something that won't make me immortal? Give me instead the knowledge by which you have become free. Teach me what you know.""

Guddu: "She rejected the wealth?"

Dadi: "She rejected everything except wisdom. Yajnavalkya was deeply pleased. He invited her to sit beside him and began one of the most profound teachings ever recorded."

Guddu: "What did he teach her?"

Dadi: "He said: "It is not for the husband's sake that the husband is loved, but for one's own sake. It is not for the wife's sake that the wife is loved, but for one's own sake. It is not for children's sake that children are loved...""

Guddu: "Wait, that sounds selfish!"

Dadi: "It sounds that way, but listen deeper. Yajnavalkya was pointing to something profound. When you love someone, you experience happiness. That happiness is yours - it arises in you. The person you love occasions that happiness, but the happiness itself comes from within."

Guddu: "So we love others because they make us feel good?"

Dadi: "Even deeper than that! Yajnavalkya taught that our capacity for happiness comes from the Self - the true inner being that we all share. We love things because they temporarily remove our restlessness and let our natural inner joy shine through."

Guddu: "Like the sun coming out from behind clouds?"

Dadi: "Beautiful image! The sun was always there - the clouds just hid it. Similarly, joy is always present in our deepest self - our desires and agitations just cover it. When we get what we want, the agitation stops briefly, and we experience our natural joy."

Guddu: "So the joy isn't really in the thing we wanted?"

Dadi: "Exactly! Yajnavalkya told Maitreyi that the Self is the source of all happiness. Everything we love is loved because it reflects back to us our own inner bliss. Know the Self, he taught, and you know the secret of all love, all joy, all existence."

Guddu: "What happened to Maitreyi after this?"

Dadi: "She followed Yajnavalkya into the forest, seeking not wealth but wisdom. She became one of the few women explicitly named in ancient texts as an enlightened sage. Her question - "What use is anything that won't make me immortal?" - became the foundation of jnana yoga, the path of knowledge."

Guddu: "So the wealth stayed behind, but the knowledge spread everywhere?"

Dadi: "Yajnavalkya's property is dust now, forgotten. But the conversation with Maitreyi is studied today, thousands of years later. She chose what truly lasts - and her choice keeps teaching us. What do we really want? Temporary comforts? Or the truth that sets us free forever?"

Guddu: "I think I understand why she refused the wealth, Dadi."

Dadi: "Then Maitreyi has taught you across three thousand years, beta. That's the true inheritance - not gold, but wisdom passed from heart to heart through time."