V
V.Balasubramani
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Though possessing real material wealth has few advantages, possessing the jana, the wisdom is considered supreme.To posses gnana one can forego the real material wealth. The instances of great ones in Hinduism have done this is in the puranas. For example Sage Yajnavalkya had two wives called Maitreyi and Katyayani while Maitreyi was interested to quench her thrist of knowledge and scholarly things, Katyayani is interested in taking care of house hold things. When Yājñavalkya wished to divide his property between the two wives before starting for the fourth Ashrama of his life, Maitreyi asked whether she could become immortal through wealth. Yājñavalkya replied that there was no hope of immortality through wealth and that she would only become one among the many who were well-to-do on earth. On hearing this, Maitreyi requested Yājñavalkya to teach her what he considered as the best. Then Yājñavalkya elaborately described to her the sole greatness of the Absolute Self, the nature of Its existence, the way of attaining infinite knowledge and immortality, etc. If renouncing the worldly life give superior happiness, Maitreyi thought she would better opt for it than her portion of wealth offered by the sage which will amount to owning lot of bags of gold coin tied on the horns of cows won by the sage as prize for having excelled in intellectual endeavours. This immortal conversation between Yājñavalkya and Maitreyi is recorded in the Brihadaranyaka upanishad. Possessing knowledge/wisdom is supreme. ( Does Gold excels wisdom? -proof the crowd assemble regularly at the jewellery shops in T. Nagar)
Vazha valamudan
Vazha valamudan
