तान् ह उवाच ब्राह्मणाः भगवन्तः यः वो ब्रह्मिष्ठः सः एताः गाः उदजताम् इति ते ह ब्राह्मणाः न दधृषुः अथ ह याज्ञवल्क्यः स्वम् एव ब्रह्मचारिणम् उवाच एताः सौम्य उदज सामश्रवः इति ताः ह उदाचकार ते ह ब्राह्मणाश् चुक्रुधुः कथं नु नः ब्रह्मिष्ठः ब्रुवीत इति अथ ह जनकस्य वैदेहस्य होताश्वलः बभूव सः ह एनम् पप्रच्छ त्वं नु खलु नः याज्ञवल्क्य ब्रह्मिष्ठः असी इति सः ह उवाच नमः वयं ब्रह्मिष्ठाय कुर्मः गोकामाः एव वयं स्म इति तं ह ततः एव प्रष्टुम् दध्रे होताश्वलः
tān ha uvāca brāhmaṇāḥ bhagavantaḥ yaḥ vo brahmiṣṭhaḥ saḥ etāḥ gāḥ udajatām iti te ha brāhmaṇāḥ na dadhṛṣuḥ atha ha yājñavalkyaḥ svam eva brahmacāriṇam uvāca etāḥ saumya udaja sāmaśravaḥ iti tāḥ ha udācakāra te ha brāhmaṇāś cukrudhuḥ kathaṃ nu naḥ brahmiṣṭhaḥ bruvīta iti atha ha janakasya vaidehasya hotāśvalaḥ babhūva saḥ ha enam papraccha tvaṃ nu khalu naḥ yājñavalkya brahmiṣṭhaḥ asī iti saḥ ha uvāca namaḥ vayaṃ brahmiṣṭhāya kurmaḥ gokāmāḥ eva vayaṃ sma iti taṃ ha tataḥ eva praṣṭum dadhre hotāśvalaḥ
He said to them: "Reverend brāhmaṇas! Let him among you who is the best knower of Brahman (brahmiṣṭha) drive away these cows." The brāhmaṇas did not dare. Then Yājñavalkya said to his pupil: "Sāmaśravas, my dear, drive them [home]." And he drove them off. The brāhmaṇas were indignant: "How dare he call himself the best knower?!" Aśvala, Janaka's hotṛ, was there; he asked: "So you, Yājñavalkya, are the best knower of Brahman among us?" He answered: "We bow to the best knower — but we simply want the cows." And Aśvala resolved to question him.
ff6187c3f633 · प्रकाशित 27 जुल॰ 2026, 12:58:45 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
A scene without equal for daring and humour in all sacred literature. The assembly is silent: na dadhṛṣuḥ — "they did not dare"; each has weighed the cost of the words "I am the brahmiṣṭha". And then Yājñavalkya calmly tells his pupil: "drive the cows home". Without a word about himself — he took the prize by an action!
His answer to the indignant is a marvel of spiritual wit: namo vayaṁ brahmiṣṭhāya kurmaḥ, go-kāmā eva vayaṁ smaḥ — "to the best knower we bow; but we simply want the cows". Everything is in that one phrase: humility (a bow to the true knower, whoever he may be), freedom from posturing, a mischievous honesty about the wish — and a challenge thrown down so that nothing can be pinned on him. He did not call himself the best; he only declined to pretend that he was not ready to answer for the cows.
The stake is laid, and now he must stand against all comers. Eight questioners will rise one after another — a priest, a ritualist, a wanderer, an ascetic, a woman theologian, a descendant of ṛṣis, the woman again, a swaggering polymath — and by the answers of this night Vedānta will measure itself for millennia. So the Veda teaches even the manner of greatness: real knowledge neither lunges at the prize nor runs from it — it takes what is its own with a bow and a joke, and then pays for everything in the full measure of truth.