1. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi Samvada

Vedanta Talks - Swami Sarvapriyananda

Vedanta Society of New York

Hinduism, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 714 Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2026

⏱️ 71 minutes

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Summary

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....

Transcript

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0:00.0	O Ome Purnam, Purnam Adaf Purnamidam Purnat Purnat Phajata, Purnasya, Purnamadāya Purnamevah, Vashyhya.
0:23.6	Ome, shanty, shanty, shanty.
0:29.6	Om, that Brahman is infinite and this universe is infinite.
0:36.6	The infinite proceeds from the infinite. Then infinite the infinite proceeds from the infinite
0:39.1	then taking the infinitude of the infinite universe it remains as the infinite
0:43.7	brahman alone oh peace peace peace namaste and welcome everybody today we are happy and excited to start a part, a study of a part of the Brihadarneq Upanishad.
1:03.0	A little background here, the word Brihadarneaka, it means vast and forest teaching, the vast forest teaching.
1:15.6	Because of the sheer size of this Upanishad, it's the biggest of all the Upanishads, the longest in extent.
1:24.6	So in that sense it is great or bihraith,
1:29.9	in Sanskrit bihat.
1:31.7	Also, one of the most profound, very rich, very profound,
1:36.6	very deep, very difficult also.
1:39.4	So in that sense also great, brihat.
1:42.3	The word bryat in Sanskrit means great is in the same family as Brahman,
1:48.2	from which the word Brahman comes. So it is appropriate because the main theme of this Brehahdhanik Upanishad is Brahman.
1:57.7	Also, this was Shankaracharya says, as it was taught in the forest, hence it is called Arraniaka, a forest book.
2:04.6	There are many such forest books, Arraniakas, and this is the great forest book or great forest teaching.
2:11.6	Not only is this Upanishad, the longest of the Upanishads in bulk, just the opposite of the Mandukhya Upanishad, which is the shortest with only 12 mantras.
2:25.3	But also Shankaracharya who wrote commentaries on these Upanishads, among all his commentaries, the longest commentary is, not surprisingly, on the Brihadaranya Kupanishad.
2:37.0	Also one of the most deep and profound commentaries.
2:41.0	So, for example, the Kupu Swami Shastri, who wrote an introduction to this English translation of the Brehdhaarne Kupanishad by Swami Madhavanandhii, the one I am using.
2:51.6	It's the best translation available in English.
	...

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