Searching for the completeness of love March 7, 2021, 7:51 PM IST
By Pranav Khullar
The intense ‘samvad’ between Sage Yajnavalkya and his wife Maitreyi, on the notion of love and desire, on this inexplicable feeling of connectedness with another, and how this is replaced with a desire to possess the other only, is at the heart of the concept of the Self expounded in the ‘Brihadaranyaka Upanishad’.
Yajnavalkya is preparing to embark on the Vanaprastha, mendicant-renunciate stage of life, and wants to settle all family affairs between his two wives, Maitreyi and Katyayani.
Even as Yajnavalkya begins to explain his intent of dividing all of his property equally between the two women, Maitreyi asks whether the wealth will give to her a permanent state of happiness and joy.