8. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - Mantra 2.4.12 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

We are almost at the conclusion of the dialogue, the wonderful grand dialogue between Yajnavalkya and Maitri, where she asks her husband and who now becomes her guru, can you teach me that by which one attains immortality? And Yajnavalkya tells her that The Self.

You have to realize the real nature of the Self.

How do you realize the real nature of the Self? The Self should be seen, my dear.

Seen means realized.

How? Hear about it.

It should be heard about.

It should be reasoned upon.

And it should be meditated upon.

So that's how you realize the Self.

How do you get immortality

by knowing the Self?

And then he says, sarvam yadayam atma, whatever is here, whatever is being experienced, this universe we inhabit, all of this is the self.

And if this, that's why the self is limitless or infinite.

If this limitless or infinite nature of the self is realized, then one attains immortality.

Because immortality is part of the package deal.

Limitless includes immortality.

And limited is mortality.

How is the self everything? That is the topic which we have been discussing till now.

In the succeeding mantras, from seventh mantra onwards, Yajnavalkya explains to Maitreyi that the self is everything in the sense that the self is the material cause of everything.

Just as when gold is the material cause, and out of that material cause, all the effects, effects means the products, golden ornaments.

In that sense, gold is all the golden ornaments, because they are nothing but gold.

Just literally, they are gold.

Yes, with various names, forms, designs, and functions, but the material in them is gold.

Just in the sense that the material cause of the golden ornaments, that is gold, is all golden ornaments in the same self, the self, you, are the entire universe.

In the same sense as clay and clay pottery, these are classic examples from the Upanishads.