A story · Upanishads · Chandogya · Seekers at the Teacher's Door

Upakosala and the Fires

Chandogya Upanishad 4.10

The story · English

Upakosala Kamalayana lived as a student with Satyakama Jabala. For twelve years he tended his teacher's fires. In that time other students finished and were sent home, but Upakosala was not. Satyakama's wife spoke up for him. "He has done his discipline. He has kept the fires well. Teach him yourself, before the fires teach him in your place." Satyakama said nothing to the young man. He simply set out on a journey and was gone. Upakosala, sick at heart, stopped eating. The teacher's wife came to him. "Eat, student. Why won't you eat?" He answered, "There are so many desires in a person like me, pulling every way at once. I am filled up with sickness. I will not eat." And he did not.

The fires had been listening. They spoke among themselves. "This student has done his discipline. He has looked after us well. Come, let us teach him." So they said to him, "Brahman is life. Brahman is joy. Brahman is the void." Upakosala answered honestly. "That Brahman is life, I understand. Joy and void, I do not." "Joy is the same as the void," they said. "The void is the same as joy." And they explained life and space to him. Then the householder's fire spoke on its own. "Earth, fire, food and the sun are my forms. But the Person seen in the sun, I am he. I am he indeed. Whoever knows me so keeps wrongdoing away, lives a full life, and his line does not die out. Here and beyond, we serve him."

Then the southern fire spoke. "Water, the four directions, the stars and the moon are my forms. But the Person seen in the moon, I am he. I am he indeed." And it made the same promise: whoever knows this fire so keeps wrongdoing away, has a world of his own, lives long, and his descendants are not destroyed. Then the eastern fire spoke. "Breath, space, sky and lightning are my forms. But the Person seen in the lightning, I am he. I am he indeed." And it promised the same. Then all the fires said together, "Upakosala, dear, you now have the knowledge of us, and the knowledge of the Self. But your teacher will tell you the way." Not long after, Satyakama came home. "Upakosala," he called.

"Sir," Upakosala answered. Satyakama looked at him. "Your face shines, my dear, like the face of someone who knows Brahman. Who has been teaching you?" "Who would teach me, sir?" said Upakosala, as good as denying it. Then he glanced toward the fires. "These. They look like this now, but they looked different then." "And what did they tell you, my dear?" "This," Upakosala admitted, and he told him all of it. Satyakama listened. "They did tell you about the worlds, my dear. But I will tell you something. Water does not cling to the leaf of a lotus. In the same way, wrong action does not cling to someone who knows what I am about to say." "Tell me, sir," said Upakosala. And at last his teacher taught him.

"The Person seen in the eye is the Self. That is the immortal, the fearless. That is Brahman. Pour butter or water on the eye and it runs off to the edges. They call it Loveliness-uniter, for all lovely things come to it. It is Goods-bringer, for it brings all good things. It is Light-bringer, for it shines in every world, and so does the one who knows it. Whether or not such people are given funeral rites, they pass into a flame, then the day, the waxing moon, the sun's northern months, the year, the sun, the moon, the lightning. There a Person who is not human leads them to Brahman. This is the way of the gods, the way to Brahman. Those who go by it do not return to this human life. They do not return."

कथा · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Satyakama, Son of Jabala · Chandogya Upanishad 4.4
• All of Upanishads · Ask Krishna about it

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