What Is the Light of a Person?
King Janaka questions Yajnavalkya, from sunlight down to the light that needs no other light
Before the dialogue
This exchange opens the Third Brahmana of the Fourth Adhyaya of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad — the "Yajnavalkya Kanda." It is a separate scene from the public court contest of Adhyaya 3 (where Yajnavalkya wins Janaka's cattle by out-arguing the assembled Kuru-Panchala brahmins, including Gargi and Vidagdha Shakalya); here Yajnavalkya visits Janaka privately, and the register shifts from contest to instruction. This opening "light" sequence is itself the doorway into the much longer teaching that follows in 4.3 (on the self's light in dream and its freedom from the states of waking and dream) and 4.4 (on death, and what remains for a person "when this self comes to weakness"). What is drafted here is only the opening ladder of exchanges, not the full brahmana.
The Brihadaranyaka is among the oldest Upanishads, embedded in the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Shukla (White) Yajurveda, and King Janaka of Videha (Mithila) recurs across it as a ruler who keeps philosophical company with the leading teachers of the age — a figure later tradition remembers as a rajarshi, a king who is also a seer, and who is invoked in the Bhagavad Gita's teaching on acting without attachment to the fruits of action.
The sage who instructs King Janaka; elsewhere in the same Upanishad he is famous for the teachings to his wife Maitreyi and for his court debates at Janaka's sacrifice.
The philosopher-king of Videha, a recurring seeker-figure in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad who draws out Yajnavalkya's teaching through direct questions.
The ladder of lights
Yajnavalkya comes to Janaka's court meaning to say nothing unless asked. Janaka asks. The question and its answer then repeat in the same shape five times, each time removing the light just given and asking what is left.
Janakaयाज्ञवल्क्य, किंज्योतिरयं पुरुष इति।
yājñavalkya, kiṃjyotir ayaṃ puruṣa iti
Yajnavalkya — by what light does this person here live?
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.2
Yajnavalkyaआदित्यज्योतिः, सम्राट्, इति होवाच।
āditya-jyotiḥ, samrāṭ, iti hovāca
By the light of the sun, Your Majesty — he said. By that light one sits, goes about, does his work, and returns.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.2
Janakaअस्तमित आदित्ये, याज्ञवल्क्य, किंज्योतिरेवायं पुरुष इति। चन्द्रमा एवास्य ज्योतिर्भवतीति।
astamita āditye, yājñavalkya, kiṃjyotir evāyaṃ puruṣa iti; candramā evāsya jyotir bhavati
And when the sun has set, Yajnavalkya, what is his light then? — The moon becomes his light, he said.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.3
Janakaचन्द्रमस्यस्तमिते किंज्योतिरेवायं पुरुष इति। अग्निरेवास्य ज्योतिर्भवतीति।
candramasy astamite kiṃjyotir evāyaṃ puruṣa iti; agnir evāsya jyotir bhavati
And when the moon too has set, what then? — Fire becomes his light, he said, for by firelight one sits, goes about, works, and returns even at night.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.4
Janakaशान्तेऽग्नौ किंज्योतिरेवायं पुरुष इति। वागेवास्य ज्योतिर्भवतीति।
śānte'gnau kiṃjyotir evāyaṃ puruṣa iti; vāg evāsya jyotir bhavati
And when the fire has gone out, what then? — Speech becomes his light, he said: by the sound of a voice, even in the dark, one can find one's way.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.5
Janakaशान्तायां वाचि किंज्योतिरेवायं पुरुष इति। आत्मैवास्य ज्योतिर्भवतीति। आत्मनैवायं ज्योतिषास्ते, पल्ययते, कर्म कुरुते, विपल्येति।
śāntāyāṃ vāci kiṃjyotir evāyaṃ puruṣa iti; ātmaiva asya jyotir bhavati; ātmanaiva ayaṃ jyotiṣā āste, palyayate, karma kurute, vipalyeti
And when speech itself has fallen silent, what then? — The self becomes his light, he said. It is by the light of the self alone that a person then sits, moves about, does his work, and returns.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.6
Key insights
- Each successive 'light' in the dialogue is real and sufficient in its own domain — the teaching is not that the sun's light is false, but that it is not the last light.
- The self is offered as the one light that does not itself need to be lit by something further; every other light in the sequence still depends on the self to be perceived at all.
- The form of the dialogue — a king asking 'and when that is gone, what then?' — is itself the method: each answer is accepted, then pressed, rather than argued with.
Important Sanskrit concepts
Related Samvādas
Gargi and Yajnavalkya: The Final Challenge
Two questions, warp and woof, and the Imperishable that nothing is woven upon
The Immortality Teaching
Maitreyi and Yajnavalkya on wealth, love, and the Self