5. yad eva te kaś cid abravīt, tat śṛṇavᾱmeti. abravīn me gardhabhīvipīto bhᾱradvᾱjaḥ: śrotraṁ vai brahmeti. yathᾱ mᾱtṛmᾱn pitṛmᾱn ᾱcᾱryavᾱn brῡyᾱt, tathᾱ tad bhᾱradvᾱjo’ bravīt. śrotraṁ vai brahmeti, aśṛṇvato hi kiṁ syᾱd iti. abravīt tu te tasyᾱyatanam pratiṣṭhᾱm. na me’bravīd iti. eka-pᾱd vᾱ etat, samrᾱḍ, iti. sa vai no brῡhi, yᾱjñavalkya. śrotram evᾱyatanam, ᾱkᾱśaḥ pratiṣṭhᾱ, ananta ity enad upᾱsīta. kᾱ anantatᾱ, yᾱjñavalkya. diśa eva, samraḍ, iti hovᾱca. tasmᾱd vai, samrᾱḍ, api yᾱṁ kᾱṁ ca diśaṁ gacchati, naivᾱsyᾱ antaṁ gacchati, anantᾱ hi diśaḥ diśo vai, samrᾱṭ, śrotram. srotraṁ vai, samrᾱt, paramam brahma nainam śrotraṁ jahati, sarvᾱṇy enam bhῡtᾱny abhikṣaranti, devo bhῡtvᾱ devᾱn apyeti, ya evaṁ vidvᾱn etad upᾱste. hasty-ṛṣabhaṁ sahasraṁ dadᾱmi iti. hovᾱca janako vaidehaḥ, sa hovᾱca yᾱjñavalkyaḥ, pita me’manyata, nᾱnanuśiṣya hareteti.

Then Yājñavalkya says: "Tell me what you already know." This is a very interesting part of the conversation between Guru and disciple. Yad eva te kaś cid abravīt, tat śṛṇavᾱmeti. abravīn me gardhabhīvipīto bhᾱradvᾱjaḥ: śrotraṁ vai brahmeti: "Another Master, another teacher of mine, Gardhabhīvipīto Bhᾱradvᾱjaḥ, told me that ear is Brahman. So I consider any function of the ear as identical with reality. It is almighty." "Well, that is good," says Yājñavalkya. "Do you know its essence and its support and its deity? Has your teacher told you about it?" "The teacher has not told me anything about it. So please tell me the three-fourths left off." Then Yājñavalkya says: "The quarters, or the Dig-devatas, or the deities of the different directions, are the deity of the ear." Ear itself, or the act of hearing, is the form taken by it. The cosmic ether, or the Akasa mentioned already, is the determining factor. Ananta ity enad upᾱsīta: "You must contemplate this ear as infinite." This is because the ear is connected with space, from which sounds come and impinge upon the eardrum. And inasmuch as space is the ultimate resort of the principle of hearing, the character of space should also be taken into consideration in meditation. What is the character of space? Unlimitedness. You do not know the end of space - it is Ananta. Ananta means endless. Kᾱ anantatᾱ: "What is the meaning of endlessness? Why do you say like that?" Enad diśa eva, samraḍ, iti hovᾱca. tasmᾱd vai, samrᾱḍ, api yᾱṁ kᾱṁ ca diśaṁ gacchati, naivᾱsyᾱ antaṁ gacchati: "If you go on moving in any direction, you will never come to an end of it. So space is endless, infinite in extent. Such infinitude is the ultimate refuge of the very act of hearing." Therefore, contemplate on the act of hearing as presided over by the deities of the quarters, and supported by the cosmic ether and the fact of its being endless. If this could be done, meditation becomes complete. Then your hearing becomes adequate. Whatever you hear will not become indistinct. You can hear even the subtlest sounds and know the meaning of whatever you hear. That means to say, the principle of hearing does not desert you. All beings, for the same reason mentioned, become friendly with you. You become resplendent after passing from this body and attain to the celestial regions.

Wonderful! This is a fourfold meditation on the principle of hearing. Then again Janaka says: "I will give you a gift of a bull and a thousand cows." Again Yājñavalkya refuses to accept the gift, saying the teaching is not complete. "The instruction is still pending. I have given you only some knowledge; whole knowledge, I have not given. So I will not accept the gift till everything is told." "Then please tell me more," says Janaka.

6. yad eva kaś cid abravīt tat śṛṇavᾱmeti. abravīn satyakᾱmo jᾱbᾱlaḥ, mano vai brahmeti: yathᾱ mᾱtṛmᾱn pitṛmᾱn ᾱcᾱryavᾱn brῡyᾱt, tathᾱ taj jᾱbᾱlo'bravīt, mano vai brahmeti, amanaso hi kiṁ syᾱd iti. abravīt tu te tasyᾱyatanam pratiṣṭhᾱm. na me'bravīd iti. eka-pᾱd vᾱ etat samrᾱḍ iti. sa vai no bruhi, yᾱjñavalkya. mana evᾱyatanam, ᾱkᾱśaḥ pratiṣṭhᾱ, ᾱnanda ity enad upᾱsīta, kᾱ ᾱnandatᾱ, yᾱjñavalkya. mana eva, samrᾱḍ, iti hovᾱca, manasᾱ vai, samrᾱt. striyam abhihᾱryate, tasyᾱm pratirῡpaḥ putro samrᾱṭ, paraman brahma. nainam mano jahᾱti, sarvᾱṇy enam bhῡtᾱny abhikṣaranti, devo bhῡtvᾱ devᾱn apyeti, ya evaṁ vidvᾱn etad upᾱste. hasty-ṛṣabhaṁ sahasraṁ dadᾱmi, iti hovᾱca janako vaidehaḥ. sa hovᾱca yᾱjñavalkyaḥ, pita me'manyata nᾱnanuśiṣya hareteti.

Then again Yājñavalkya asks: "What do you already know? Tell me." "What I already know is something more. I have been told by Satyakāma Jābāla that mind is Brahman." Now this is a more difficult thing to conceive than other things. Yad eva kaś cid abravīt tat śṛṇavᾱmeti. abravīn satyakᾱmo jᾱbᾱlaḥ, mano vai brahmeti: "As a mother speaks or a father speaks, or a guru or a teacher speaks, so affectionately did he teach me that mind is the principle of Brahman." "But that is only a fourth part of it. What is its essence, its support and its deity?" "I do not know," says Janaka. Then Yājñavalkya says: "I shall tell you the other three-fourths left out of this principle on which you are meditating - the deity, the determining factor, and the essence. The deity of the mind is Candra, or Moon. Mana evᾱyatanam, ᾱkᾱśaḥ pratiṣṭhᾱ, ᾱnanda ity enad upᾱsīta: It is a source of happiness." It is through the mind that you experience any kind of joy, any satisfaction. Even sensory happiness is a mental happiness ultimately. It is the mind that rejoices over any kind of satisfaction come through the senses or any other avenue. So, if happiness can be associated with mind, together with the deity of the mind, and its support which is the cosmic ether, that would be a complete meditation. It is through the mind that one asks for happiness. And it is the lack of the principle of happiness in meditation that detracts people from proceeding further in meditation. Meditation sometimes becomes unhappy. It becomes a burden and tiring because you do not connect the object of meditation with happiness. Happiness is somewhere else and the meditation that is done is somewhere else. Inasmuch as the mind is the experiencer of all happiness, and it is the reaction of the mind in respect of anything that is the cause of happiness, it is necessary to bring the principle of happiness into the picture of meditation on the mind, especially, together with the contemplation of the deity thereof, and the cosmic principle of which it is a part. If these could be brought together, then your meditation would be complete, and you will be able to control the mind. The mind cannot be controlled if it is regarded as belonging to an isolated individual. If it is 'your' mind or 'my' mind merely, then it cannot be controlled. It can be controlled only when it is visualised in its internal relationship with other minds also, which is the point made out by saying that it is determined by the cosmic ether and the principle of Ānanda or bliss which is Brahman itself.

Here, Janaka is again immensely pleased, offers a gift, and Yājñavalkya refuses the gift for the same reason as before. The conversation goes on in a greater and greater intensity of form, until the most astonishing truth of spirituality is taught by Yājñavalkya, to which point the Upaniṣhad proceeds step by step.

7. yad eva kaś cid abravīt, tat śṛṇavᾱmeti. abravīn me vidagdhaḥ śᾱkalyaḥ, hṛdayaṁ vai brahmeti, yathᾱ mᾱtṛmᾱn pitṛmᾱn ᾱcᾱryavᾱn brῡyᾱt, tathᾱ tat śᾱkalyo'bravīt, hṛdayaṁ vai brahmeti, ahṛdayasya hi kiṁ syᾱd iti. abravīt tu te tasyᾱyatanam pratiṣṭhᾱm. na me'bravīd iti. eka-pᾱd vᾱ, etat, samrᾱd, iti. sa vai no brῡhi, yᾱjñavalkya. hṛdayam evᾱyatanam, ᾱkᾱśaḥ pratiṣṭhᾱ, sthitir ity enad upᾱsīta. kᾱ sthititᾱ, yᾱjñavalkya. hṛdayam eva samrᾱḍ, iti hovᾱca, hṛdayaṁ vai, samrᾱṭ, sarveṣᾱṁ bhῡtᾱnᾱm ᾱyatanam, hṛdayaṁ vai, samrᾱṭ, sarveṣᾱṁ bhῡtᾱnᾱṁ pratiṣṭhᾱ, hṛdaye hy eva, samrᾱṭ, sarvᾱṇi bhῡtᾱni pratiṣṭhitᾱni bhavanti. hṛdayaṁ vai, samrᾱṭ, paramam brahma. nainaṁ hṛdayam jahᾱti, sarvᾱṇy enaṁ bhῡtᾱny abhikṣaranti, devo bhῡtvᾱ devᾱn apyeti, ya evaṁ vidvᾱn etad upᾱste. hasty ṛṣabhaṁ sahasraṁ dadᾱmi, iti hovᾱca janako vaidehaḥ. sa hovᾱca yᾱjñavalkyaḥ, pitᾱ me'manyata nᾱnanuśiṣya hareteti.

Yad eva kaś cid abravīt, tat śṛṇavᾱmeti. abravīn me vidagdhaḥ śᾱkalyaḥ, hṛdayaṁ vai brahmeti: Now Janaka says: "The heart is Brahman. This is what I learnt from my teacher Vidagdhaga Śākalya." "But you are making the very same mistake," says Yājñavalkya. "You are regarding this heart as the symbol of Brahman tentatively. Has your teacher described to you the various aspects of this meditation? What is the heart, what is its essence, what is its support, what is its deity?" Janaka as before says: "I do not know anything about these things. I am simply aware that there is such a thing called the heart, and the heart has been told to me as a symbol of Brahman on which I can contemplate."

There are many among us, too, who have been told by certain Gurus, for instance, that the heart can be regarded as the centre of contemplation. It is very difficult to understand what the heart is. It has many meanings. Some regard it as the lotus of psychological imagination. Some consider that it is a centre of radiance of the soul which is supposed to be in the centre of the heart. Some others regard the heart as identical with the fleshy organ of our physical body, and contemplate on the functions of the heart, the beats of the heart, etc. There are others who think that the heart does not mean anything physical but that it is psychological; that it is the centre of thinking, and that where the thought is, there the heart also is. So, to find out where the heart is, you must find out where the mind is. This is an interesting definition, of course, 'where my mind is, there my heart is'. It is true to a large extent. But it has another aspect which has also to be considered. The mind is not always at the same place. It is where its object of desire is. Whatever it asks for and whatever it thinks deeply, whatever it needs, that is the determining factor of the function of the mind. So, where your desire is, there your heart also is. But this is only so far as the waking condition is concerned. The object of desire grossly manifests itself in the waking state, and so the mind of the individual moves towards that gross object. Thus the heart may be said to be 'in' something, in some object e.g., the mother's heart is in the child, the rich man's heart is in the wealth, and so on, which means to say that the mind is there and therefore the feeling also is there. So we identify feeling with the heart and the heart with the feeling. But this is the activity of the heart in the waking state, and the waking state cannot be regarded as our natural state. This is the subject that we are going to study in detail. The waking condition which we regard as the total reality is not the total reality. It is a fractional reality. The so-called world of waking existence which we consider as the only reality possible is the least possible reality. In fact, the reverse is the truth.

Yājñavalkya takes the mind of Janaka gradually from his obsession with the objects of sense in the waking state, to the dream and the deep sleep levels until he takes him to the Absolute, which transcends all these three states. The heart, no doubt, may be in the objects in the waking state, and we may regard the presence of the heart as the presence of the mind. But, we will be told that the mind withdraws itself into its natural abode as and when the influence of objects is diminished, or decreased by various factors. The objects of sense grip us in the waking state. We are under the thumb of the objects of sense in the waking condition. But in dream, the objects of sense do not act upon our mind in such a manner. We do not perceive the objects in the dreaming state; we have only a memory of these objects. The remembrance of objects of sense in the waking state haunts our mind in the dreaming condition, and we begin to psychologically contemplate the very same objects which we either desired or saw in the waking condition. But in sleep, what happens? The belief of the Upaniṣhad and most of the teachers of Yoga is that it is in deep sleep only that the heart absorbs the mind and the mind goes back to its abode which is the heart. It is only in the sleeping condition that the mind finds its true abode. In the other two states of waking and dream, it is in a false atmosphere. It is in a foreign land, as it were, in the waking and the dreaming conditions. Its own native house is not the waking or dreaming state, but the state of sleep. So, in its nativity, which is the sleep state, the mind goes to a location in the personality which has a psychological counterpart connected with the physical heart's location. From the brain, which is the centre of activity in the waking state, the mind descends to the throat in dream, and goes to the heart in deep sleep. In the waking state, our brain is active. But in dream it is not active; only feelings are active, instincts are active, desires are active at that time. The logical will and the argumentative reason do not work in the dreaming condition. So, the personality is withdrawn in the dreaming state. It becomes translucent. But it is totally lost in sleep. In sleep your personality goes completely, and you become impersonal. There is however a seed of personality potentially present even in sleep, on account of which you wake up the next morning. For all practical purposes your personality is wiped off, and so it is that you are very happy in sleep, indicating thereby that impersonality is the source of happiness, that personality is the source of sorrow. The more you are personal, the more you are grief-stricken. The more you become impersonal, the more you become happy.

"In the state of deep sleep, the mind goes to the heart. And the heart, I contemplate as the symbol of Brahman," says Janaka. But he cannot answer the queries of Yājñavalkya as to whether he knows the deity, the abode and the support for the heart as Brahman. He does not know - pratiṣṭhāṁ evāyatanam pratiṣṭhām na me'bravīd iti. Eka-pād vā, etat samrād: "This heart that you are contemplating as Brahman is only one-fourth of Brahman," says Yājñavalkya. "It is not the entire Brahman because there are three other aspects which you have completely ignored." Now what are those? Sa vai no brῡhi, yᾱjñavalkya. hṛdayam evᾱyatanam, ᾱkᾱśaḥ pratiṣṭhᾱ, sthitir ity enad upᾱsīta. kᾱ sthititᾱ, yᾱjñavalkya. hṛdayam eva samrᾱḍ, iti hovᾱca, hṛdayaṁ vai, samrᾱṭ, sarveṣᾱṁ bhῡtᾱnᾱm ᾱyatanam, hṛdayaṁ vai, samrᾱṭ, sarveṣᾱṁ bhῡtᾱnᾱṁ pratiṣṭhᾱ, hṛdaye hy eva, samrᾱṭ, sarvᾱṇi bhῡtᾱni pratiṣṭhitᾱni bhavanti. hṛdayaṁ vai, samrᾱṭ, paramam brahma. nainaṁ hṛdayam jahᾱti, sarvᾱṇy enaṁ bhῡtᾱny abhikṣaranti, devo bhῡtvᾱ devᾱn apyeti, ya evaṁ vidvᾱn etad upᾱste. hasty ṛṣabhaṁ sahasraṁ dadᾱmi, iti hovᾱca janako vaidehaḥ. sa hovᾱca yᾱjñavalkyaḥ, pitᾱ me'manyata nᾱnanuśiṣya hareteti: Yājñavalkya says, "The heart that you are thinking of in your mind as a symbol of meditation is the outer form. The inner essence is different. The heart is controlled by the unmanifested ether. The unmanifested ether, identifiable with Īshvara or Hiraṇyagarbha or, you may even say, Mula-Pṛakriti, the cosmic substance in which everything is woven like warp and woof, in whose bosom you can find the seeds of all later manifestations, that is the abode (Āyatanam), and it is the support. This has to be contemplated as Sthiti, or stability. Its deity is Brahma, the Supreme Being Himself. The heart is to be contemplated upon as stability," says Yājñavalkya, "because where the heart is not, stability also is not." Where your feeling is, there your personality is fixed. This is a matter which does not require much explanation, because you know very well that where the heart is present, there your total being is present, because your heart and your being are identical, by which what we mean is that your personality is identical with your deepest feelings. Feeling is deeper than the other faculties of the psychological organ. Inasmuch as its presence is equivalent to the stability of the personality, Yājñavalkya points out that the heart may be contemplated upon as stability. So, Brahma is the deity; Hridaye, or the heart, as we think of it, is the form; Ākāśa, or the cosmic ether is the abode; and stability is its support.

Janaka says: "I am very much pleased that you have enlightened me in regard to my contemplation on the heart. I give you a reward in the form of a bull as big as an elephant and one thousands cows." Yājñavalkya refuses to accept the gift, again, saying, "I have not instructed you fully, and my father has told me that nobody should accept gifts from disciples unless they are instructed fully."

The first Brāhmaṇa comes to a conclusion here.