Sage Maitreyi, who was she?
Sage Maitreyi lived in ancient India during the later Vedic period. She was considered as a great Indian philosopher. However there are two differing accounts of her identity. One account says she was an Advait philosopher and did not marry. The other story is that she was one of the two wives of sage Yajnavyalka. The truth seems to be an amalgamation of these two views. She is known as Brahmavadini, a scholar of the Vedas.
Maitreyi was the daughter of Rishi Maitri and named after him. She was also the niece of Rishi Gargi. Maitreyi was born in Mithila in Eastern India at the time of the rule of King Janaka. From a very young age she was taught all the Shastras by her father and she was unattached to material pleasures and had reached the stage of high spiritual purity.
Yajnavyalka and Maitreyi:
In her quest for spiritual knowledge Maitreyi became a religious disciple of Yajnavyalka the great Rishi. But Yajnavyalka was a householder rishi as was common in those times. He was married to Katyayani who was devoted to him and her three sons. But when Katyayani saw the spiritual devotion of Maitreyi and her fervour for gaining more knowledge, she agreed to let her marry her husband. This gracious assent on the part of Katyayani paved the way for Maitreyi to enhance her spiritual development.
Maitreyi was so highly spiritual in nature that in association with her Yajnavyalka’s spiritual stature and knowledge grew manifold.
Maitreyi has composed 10 of the hymns in Rigveda.
Dialogue on materialism with Yajnavyalka:
After years of living as a householder sannyasi, there came a time when Yajnavyalka decided that it was the right time to give up worldly possessions and renounce the material world.
He called Maitreyi and informed her about his decision. He then stated that he would divide his property equally between his two wives. To this Maitreyi posed him a question in return, ‘Will I become immortal if you place all the wealth of the world at my feet? ‘
Yajnavyalka was impressed with her question and replied that immortality cannot be attained through riches.
Maitreyi, ‘I do not want anything that does not confer on me immortality. But I want to know the means through which I can attain immortality. ‘
Yajnavalkya answered, ‘ it is not through a husband’s will that his wife becomes dear to him and vice versa. The same applies to love between parents and their children. If you want to gain the love of a person, the grace of Parmatma is a given. Meditate on the Parmatma alone and you will realize the truth. ‘
‘The Parmatma is in everybody and everybody dwells in the Parmatma. So if you gain knowledge about Parmatma, then you will gain knowledge about everything.’
‘But if you want to know and understand Parmatma, you have to take away the sense organs. And to control the sense organs you have to distance them from the sense objects.’
‘What you call immortality is eternal, and what we see with our eyes is temporal. Anything that gives us comfort, physical or social is called wealth.’
Yajnavyalka concludes his discourse with these words:
‘Unless the Infinite being behind the finite objects is understood thoroughly, no finite object can be known or understood fully.’
Yajnavyalka further enlightens Maitreyi about the eternal indestructible self and the existence, bliss and thoughts present in the three worlds. He reiterates the Chudamani or crown jewel of the Advaita philosophy, which is that the root of all bliss is the self and that nothing exists apart from the self.
Maitreyi attaining Moksha (Salvation):
Once she finished hearing Yajnavyalka’s discourse on the soul and the way to attaining immortality, Maitreyi set forth on the path to finding eternal bliss. She liberated herself from the endless cycles of birth and death by gaining a deep understanding of spiritual knowledge and attained Moksha or immortality.
Maitreyi is an icon for the present generation of women to follow as an ideal. She showed that it is important to be acquainted with self or Atma and love it, in order to be loved by others.
She also showed by example how women can achieve the heights of knowledge; simply by listening to and following and practicing the path shown in the Vedas.
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