Wisdom as freedom

Can gender equality be bought with money? Can a rich woman buy the quality of life she desires?

When the sage Yagnavalkya decided to retire to the forest, he wanted to pass on his considerable wealth to his heirs. His wife Maitreyi, a woman of learning in her own right, asked him if the money would make her immortal. The sage said no, but it would make her a rich woman. This did not mean much to her. Of what use was money if it did not enable her to understand what her husband knew. She asked him to teach her. The enlightened sage was happy to do so.

He took her through the various common objects of attachment. Husband, wife, child, money, status, power and everything the senses perceived and desired. Acquiring and controlling these possessions left no time to understand that their existence was transitory. Though these desires varied across people, the basic functions of the sense organs in everyone were the same: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

Yagnavalkya went on to subtler things that were not visible but existed all the same. The music of a musical instrument did not manifest itself till action was performed. Yet its existence was accepted. When a lump of salt dissolved in water it ceased to exist in the physical sense, but its essence, the saltiness, remained. Similarly, consciousness consisted of pure wisdom. Even when the physical form of the body where it resided ceased, consciousness dissolved into the elements it came from and continued to exist. It did not grow with the body and did not cease with the body. The senses ceased with the body, consciousness left the body but did not cease.

Maitreyi was bewildered and said so. Yagnavalkya explained that the only reality is the wisdom consciousness is made of and merges into. The senses and desires are illusion and not enduring. Understanding this liberates one from desire, and the fear of the loss of what is desired. Such a life is defined by freedom and not by the shackles of desire. It cannot be known, seized or bound. This was what he understood as immortality and was going away to renounce all desire. Having said so he left for the forest. The good woman let him go.