Yayāti Gītā
The Yayāti Gītā is the teaching Yayāti gave to his wife Devayānī when he gave up worldly life. For a thousand years he had enjoyed the pleasures of the senses without a break. He used the parable of a goat caught by desire for a she-goat to show that desire is never ended by enjoying its objects. It only grows stronger, like a fire fed with ghṛta (ghee). The discourse ends with his declaration of vairāgya (detachment) and his departure to the forest. On hearing it, Devayānī herself reached moksha.
Context
Śukrācārya had cursed Yayāti with early old age. Yayāti had traded his old age for the youth of his youngest son Pūru, the son of Śarmishṭhā. For a thousand years he went on enjoying every pleasure of a ruling king. He ruled the nine dvīpas (continents) of Bhāratavarsha and performed great yāgas (fire rituals). He lived with Devayānī, who served him with complete devotion.
Yet, as the Bhāgavata records, in all those thousands of years satisfaction never once came. He saw that the pleasures of the senses were eating away his own true nature, the ātmasvarūpa, and vairāgya rose in him by itself. He called Devayānī to him and told her this Gītā.
The parable of the goat
Yayāti said to Devayānī: “Listen to this account, which fits a man like me, a man who is a slave to a woman and lost in pleasure. The dhīras (the steady ones), who live in the forest with their minds turned inward, pity such a man who lives in the village of the senses.”
A billy-goat was roaming the forest looking for what pleased him. He found a she-goat that had fallen into a well because of her past karma. Filled with desire for her, he found a way to reach her. He scraped the earth at the rim of the well with his horns until a path formed. She came out and fell in love with him. For a time they roamed together happily, and many other she-goats were also drawn to him.
Then one day she saw the billy-goat enjoying himself with another she-goat she had not seen before. She could not bear it. She turned away and went back to her owner, a brāhmaṇa. The brāhmaṇa was angry and cut off the billy-goat’s testes. But he knew the arts of making peace, and later, for the sake of his own daughter, he had the testes restored. Even after this the billy-goat played with the she-goat from the well for a long time, and still he found no satisfaction.
“O Devayānī,” said Yayāti, “I am in exactly that state. I am bound by your love and bewildered by your māyā, and I do not even know my own true nature, my svarūpa.”
The teaching
Yayāti then spoke plainly.
- All the grain, cattle, gold and dear women on this earth together cannot satisfy the mind that desires.
- The thirst for sense objects is never quenched by enjoying them. A fire fed with ghee does not cool. It blazes higher.
- When a person sees the same Paramātmā living equally in all beings and no longer sees difference, that evenness of mind brings joy in every direction.
- People of poor judgment cannot give up desire. Even as the body shrinks with age, desire does not shrink. The one who seeks the highest good must give up desire quickly.
- “I have enjoyed the pleasures of the senses without a break for a thousand years. Yet every moment the thirst rises fresh.”
He declared: “So I give up this thirst. I will fix my mind on Parabrahman, become free from the pairs of opposites, give up the ego, and wander in the forest with the animals.”
Devayānī’s liberation
When Devayānī heard this Gītā, at first she thought Yayāti was mocking her, or speaking gently in a parable to soften the pain of their parting. But as the truth of the teaching settled in her, she understood it fully.
She saw that the bond with a father, a husband and children is like travellers meeting at a wayside dharmaśālā (rest house). It is passing, made by māyā, and not real in the highest sense. She let go of all attachment to her husband, her sons and her kingdom. She fixed her mind wholly on Śrī Kṛshṇa, the caitanya-ghana (mass of pure consciousness) and support of all worlds. She dissolved her liṅgaśarīra (subtle body) and reached moksha.
Sources
- Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 9th Skandha, Chapter 19