The Great Forest Teaching

The oldest and the largest of the Upanisads, the great forest of Vedanta. Here the great identity is first spoken, I am Brahman. Here Yajnavalkya tells his wife Maitreyi that nothing is loved for its own sake but for the sake of the Self. Here the sages are answered one by one in Janaka's court, and Brahman is pointed at only by not this, not this. Every later school of Vedanta returns to these pages. The verses below are doorways, not rulings; each school enters by its own, and where they read them differently, we keep the difference open.

Wherever you begin, you come to the question these pages ask first: who is the self that says I.

• 1.4.10I am BrahmanIt knew itself as I am Brahman, and so it became all this.
• 2.4.5For the sake of the SelfNot for the husband's sake is the husband dear, but for the sake of the Self.
• 2.3.6Neti, netiNot this, not this. Beyond every image, the Truth of truth.
• 3.7.23The inner controllerHe who dwells within all and rules from within, unseen yet the seer.
• 4.3.21The self-luminous SelfIn deep sleep, embraced by the knowing Self, beyond desire and grief.
• 6.2.15The two pathsThe path of the gods that does not return, and the path of the fathers that does.

The Brhadaranyaka falls into three kandas, the book's three great movements. Each opens to all of its sections.

• Madhu Kandaमधुकाण्डThe honey portion: the Self as the sweetness within all beings, and the great identity.12 brahmanas . 146 mantras →
• Yajnavalkya Kandaयाज्ञवल्क्यकाण्डThe debates in Janaka's court: the inner controller, the imperishable, the self-luminous Self.15 brahmanas . 191 mantras →
• Khila Kandaखिलकाण्डThe supplement: the fullness, the thunder's threefold word, the five fires, the meditations.20 brahmanas . 105 mantras →