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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣadबृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्

Yajnavalkya Kanda. Adhyaya 4, Brahmana 1. Janaka and the partial definitions of Brahman

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Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.

Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.

Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.

॥ 4.1.6 ॥

Mind, one foot of Brahman

यदेव ते कश्चिदब्रवीत्तच्छृणवामेति । अब्रवीन्मे सत्यकामो जाबालः मनो वै ब्रह्मेति । यथा मातृमान् पितृमानाचार्यवान् ब्रूयात्तथा तज्जाबालोऽब्रवीन्मनो वै ब्रह्मेति । अमनसो हि किं स्यादिति । अब्रवीत्तु ते तस्यायतनं प्रतिष्ठाम् । न मेऽब्रवीदिति । एकपाद्वा एतत्सम्राडिति । स वै नो ब्रूहि याज्ञवल्क्य । मन एवायतनमाकाशः प्रतिष्ठानन्द इत्येनदुपासीत । कानन्दता याज्ञवल्क्य । मन एव सम्राडिति होवाच मनसा वै सम्राट्स्त्रियमभि हार्यति तस्यां प्रतिरूपः पुत्रो जायते । स आनन्दः । मनो वै सम्राट्परमं ब्रह्म । नैनं मनो जहाति । सर्वाण्येनं भूतान्यभिक्षरन्ति । देवो भूत्वा देवानप्येति । य एवं विद्वानेतदुपास्ते । हस्त्यृषभं सहस्रं ददामीति होवाच जनको वैदेहः । स होवाच याज्ञवल्क्यः पिता मेऽमन्यत नाननुशिष्य हरेतेति
In transliteration
yadeva te kaścidabravīttacchṛṇavāmeti | abravīnme satyakāmo jābālaḥ mano vai brahmeti | yathā mātṛmān pitṛmānācāryavān brūyāttathā tajjābālo'bravīnmano vai brahmeti | amanaso hi kiṃ syāditi | abravīttu te tasyāyatanaṃ pratiṣṭhām | na me'bravīditi | ekapādvā etatsamrāḍiti | sa vai no brūhi yājñavalkya | mana evāyatanamākāśaḥ pratiṣṭhānanda ityenadupāsīta | kānandatā yājñavalkya | mana eva samrāḍiti hovāca manasā vai samrāṭstriyamabhi hāryati tasyāṃ pratirūpaḥ putro jāyate | sa ānandaḥ | mano vai samrāṭparamaṃ brahma | nainaṃ mano jahāti | sarvāṇyenaṃ bhūtānyabhikṣaranti | devo bhūtvā devānapyeti | ya evaṃ vidvānetadupāste | hastyṛṣabhaṃ sahasraṃ dadāmīti hovāca janako vaidehaḥ | sa hovāca yājñavalkyaḥ pitā me'manyata nānanuśiṣya hareteti
In English

Whatever anyone told you, let us hear it. Satyakama Jabala told me that the mind indeed is Brahman. As one who had a mother, a father, and a teacher would say, so did Jabala say that the mind is Brahman, for what could one have who had no mind? But did he tell you its abode and its support? He did not tell me, said Janaka. Then this is but one foot of it, O emperor. Then do tell us, Yajnavalkya. The mind itself is its abode, and the ether its support. One should meditate on it as bliss. What is the nature of this bliss, Yajnavalkya? It is just the mind, O emperor, said Yajnavalkya. For with the mind, O emperor, a man is drawn toward woman, and a son resembling him is born of her, and he is bliss. The mind, O emperor, is the Supreme Brahman. The mind never deserts the one who, knowing thus, meditates upon it; all beings flock to him; becoming a god, he attains the gods. I give you a thousand cows with a bull as large as an elephant, said Janaka of Videha. Yajnavalkya replied: My father held that one should not accept a gift without having instructed.

In plain words

Janaka reports that Satyakama Jabala taught that the mind is Brahman, because without a mind a person would have nothing. Yajnavalkya grants it as partial and completes it: the mind is its own abode, the ether is its support, and it is to be meditated on as bliss (ananda). He explains the secret name: it is by the mind that a man is drawn in love toward a woman, and from that union a son who resembles him is born, and that son is bliss. So meditated upon, the mind is the highest Brahman, never abandoning the meditator, who becomes a god and reaches the gods. Janaka offers the gift; Yajnavalkya declines for now.

In the commentaries

Sri SankaraAdvaita

Sankara takes this as the mind held to be Brahman only as 'one foot,' completed by its abode, support in ether, and secret name 'bliss,' the bliss being shown in the mind-born union that brings forth a son who is one's own delight, so the result follows as a qualified meditation, not as the unconditioned bliss of the Self.

Sri Sankara, Brhadaranyaka-bhasya 4.1.6 (via Madhavananda)
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