Sage Yajnavalkya stands above all among the line of great Rishis because of his unsurpassed knowledge and wisdom. He also holds a distinctive grade even in Smritis and Srutis. He being a disciple of Bhagavan Surya enlightened his disciples with fresh knowledge of Yajurveda. He was the reveler of Brahma Gnana to King Janaka (well-known as a Raja Yogi), Maitreyi (first wife of Sage Yajnavalkya) etc., Yajnavalkya is blessed with unbeatable memory power. Sage Yajnavalkya was believed to be incarnation of Lord Brahma (being cursed by Lord Shiva). He was the son of Brahmabahu. His mother was the sister of a Great Sage Vaishampayana. Sage Yajnavalkya has became a disciple of Sage Vaishampayana and always made his Guru proud because of his intelligence and guru bhakti. Once all the sages made an oath to attend a religious ceremony near Meru mountain. As a part of the arrangement, to make every sage to present there, they made a condition that whoever dares not to attend this religious ceremony will be punished with sin of Brahmahatya for seven days. Sage Vaishampayana’s father death anniversary coincided with the day of the religious ceremony performed by these sages. Vaishampayana argued within himself logically about the performance of both ceremonies and at last decided that he would ask his disciples to undergo the sin of Brahmahatya on his behalf and performed his ancestral ceremony as usual. Accordingly, on the insistence of other sages he agreed to accept the sin of Brahmahatya and asked his disciples to accept it. At this Yajnavalkya came forward and was ready to undergo the consequences of Brahmahatya alone. At this, Sage Vaishampayana got enraged as abused him of possessing eccentric and egoistic attitude. As a punishment for this kind of attitude he ordered Yajnavalkya to leave all the knowledge of Yajurveda which Yajnavalkya gained from him. Being a obedient student, upon the Guru’s order Yajnavalkya vomited all the knowledge in the form of food. As it was in the black colour, the Yajurveda knowledge of Vaishampayana is known to be Shukla Yajurveda. Other disciples of Sage Vaishampayana were eager to gain that knowledge, took the form of Tittiriya birds and ate the food vomited by Yajnavalkya, henceforth it is also known as Taittiriya Yajurveda. Being disturbed by his Guru’s treatment, Yajnavalkya decided not to approach any human guru for learning. Hence he performed penance for Lord Surya (Sun God) and asked him to bless with the knowledge of Yajurveda. Lord Surya became happy with Yajnavalkya’s devotion and accepted him as his disciple. Lord Surya took the shape of a horse and recited many Yajus which were not known to the human sages. As he recited with a great rapidity in the form a horse, they are known as Vajasena Yajurveda and also Shukla Yajurveda as the Sun God is white in colour. Later on, Sage Yajnavalkya divided the Yaju knowledge which he attained from Lord Surya into 15 branches and each branch had hundreds of Yaju mantras. Sage Yajnavalkya trained his 15 disciples to be the masters of each branch. Sage Yajnavalkya performed many yajnas from the knowledge he has attained for the prosperity and well-being of humanity. As a Yogi also he belongs to very high order. He was great devotee and always meditated on Absolute Brahman. He was always surrounded by many learned Brahmins in his hermitage. There used to many conversations on Vedic knowledge in his hermitage. One of his wives Maitreyi was also a incessant preceptor of Brahma Jnana and she was famous as a Brahmavadini. Once when Yajnavalkya asked her what he can give her to fulfill his duties as husband, then she prostrated before him and requested to enlighten her with Brahma Jnana, accordingly, he fulfilled her wish. The Vedic conversations between Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi were preserved in Brihadarayanka Upanishad. His other wife, Devavarnini was the daughter of Sage Bharadwaja was of common intelligence and he blessed her with children. Sage Bharadwaja and Sage Yajnavalkya were of equal intelligence and wisdom; both were great devotees of Hari and were believed to sing Ramacharitamanas which was authored by Saint Tulsidas. In the preface of Ramacharitamanas, Saint Tulsidas mentions this point that Sage Yajnavalkya recited Ramacharitamanas to Sage Bharadwaja. Sage Yajnavalkya realized Brahman, the Supreme Truth, hence known to contain himself in every situation and he had absolute control on his senses. His unmatched wisdom was once also tested by many learned scholars and sages in the court of King Janaka. All the scholars were beaten down by Sage Yajnavalkya. The exchange of dialogues of wonderful wisdom and superior knowledge between Yajnavalkya and other learned sages and scholars were framed in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. In the assemblage, was present Sage Vaishampayana and overwhelmed by the fresh knowledge of Yajurveda possessed by Yajnavalkya. Sage Vaishampayana was very glad to realize that one of his past disciples attained great wisdom and requested him to enlighten his other disciples with that superior knowledge he had gained from Lord Surya. Sage Yajnavalkya accepted his request and enlightened his colleagues with the fresh and unknown knowledge to other human sages. Sage Yajnavalkya took Vidvat Sannyasa and became a wandering monk. It is a usual practice that anybody becomes a monk or sanyasi to attain and realize the Supreme Truth but Sage Yajnavalkya stands above all by practicing Vidvat Sannyasa i.e., became a monk after realizing the Supreme Knowledge (renunciation after realizing the Absolute Truth).This artilce is credited to Smt. Ramachinta Kunta
