Yajnavalkya

The Story

A master of the Vedas, Yajnavalkya once received the entire Yajurveda from the Sun God himself, dividing it among his pupils into the schools that still bear his name. He was renowned both for his learning and for his fearless intellectual courage — a sage who debated without mercy and taught without doubt.

His dialogue with his wife Maitreyi is the most famous conversation in philosophy of Bhārat: when he prepared to leave the householder's life, she asked what she should do with the wealth he would leave her. He answered that wealth cannot buy immortality — and then unfolded his great teaching: the Self (Atman) is the only reality, the one thing to be known, the 'neti neti' — not this, not this — beyond every description.

At the court of King Janaka, he defeated every challenger in a great philosophical assembly — including Gargi, who pressed him with questions so sharp that he called her the greatest of women philosophers. His teachings form the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the largest and among the oldest of the Upanishads.