1. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi Samvada

Jan 12, 2026

Delve into the depths of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, exploring its significance in Vedanta. Discover the intriguing dialogue between Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi on love and spirituality. Unpack the Purnam mantra, revealing its philosophical richness through the concepts of absolute infinity and the identity of God and self. Learn about the emergence of the relative from the absolute and the implications of Vedantic practices for realizing one's true nature. Conclude with a discussion on the critiques of dualist readings and the essence of Brahman.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Brihadaranyaka's Central Importance

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is the largest and most profound Upanishad and central to Vedanta teachings.
Swami Sarvapriyananda emphasizes its depth and the richness of Shankaracharya's long commentary on it.

ANECDOTE

A Teacher's Early Struggle With the Text

Swami Sarvapriyananda recalls first studying the Upanishad as a young novice and feeling restless and impatient.
He later taught parts and found deeper appreciation, prompting his current series.

INSIGHT

The Shanti Mantra As Vedanta's Summary

The Shanti mantra 'Purnam ada...' summarises Vedanta: 'That is full, this is full.'
It frames 'that' (paroksha) and 'this' (directly present) as two ways of seeing the one Purnam.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (Sanskrit: बृहदारण्यकोपनिषद्, IAST: Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad) is one of the Principal Upanishads and one of the first Upanishadic scriptures of Hinduism. A key scripture to various schools of Hinduism, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is tenth in the Muktikā or "canon of 108 Upanishads".

Brihadaranyaka literally means "great wilderness or forest". The Upanishad forms the last part, that is the fourteenth kānda of Śatapatha Brāhmana of "Śhukla Yajurveda". The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad has six adhyayas (chapters) in total. It includes three sections: Madhu kānda (the 4th and 5th chapter of the fourteenth kānda of Satapatha Brahmana), Muni kānda (or Yajnavalkya Kanda, the 6th and 7th chapter of 14th kānda of Satapatha Brahmana) and Khila kānda (the 8th and 9th chapter of the fourteenth kānda of Satapatha Brahmana).

The first and second chapters of the Upanishad's Madhu kānda consists of six brahmanas each, with varying number of hymns per brahmana. The first chapter of the Upanishad's Yajnavalkya kānda consists of nine brahmanams, while the second has six brahmanas. The Khila kānda of the Upanishad has fifteen brahmanas in its first chapter, and five brahmanas in the second chapter.

In the fourth brahmana of the Second chapter of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Yajnavalkya and his wife Maitreyi engage in a dialogue about love and spirituality. Yajnavalkya states that one doesn't connect with and love forms, nor does one connect or love mind, rather one connects with the Self, the Self of one's own and one's beloved. All love is for the sake of one's Self, and the Oneness one realizes in the Self of the beloved. He then asserts that this knowledge of the Self, the Self, and Brahman is what makes one immortal, and the connection is also immortal. All longing is the longing for the Self, as the Self represents the true, the immortal, the real, and infinite bliss.

Reference material:

Book:

https://a.co/d/iQqKCWM

PDF of the entire Upanishad can be found https://dn790002.ca.archive.org/0/ite....