Ardor
had to fulfill (Indian stories—above all the Mah ā bh ā rata —tend to be stories that interweave boons and curses, as in Wagner’s Ring ). Now was the moment to make that wish—which was to continue questioning Y ā jñavalkya.
    Then something surprising happened: the ṛṣ i who hadn’t wanted to say anything, the ṛṣ i who regularly spoke with sharp, cutting jibes, before immediately passing on, withdrawing into silence, this time spoke at length, with brilliant eloquence, as if yielding to an uncontrollable impulse. And finally he explained in detail the doctrine of the ā tman , in the most intense and beguiling terms. Never again in Indian literature, not even in K ṛṣṇ a’s teaching of Arjuna in the Bhagavad G ī t ā , would doctrine find such luminous words. There was also a moment when Y ā jñavalkya had the impression he had gone too far. He thought then: “The king is clever, he has taken all my highest doctrines from me.”
    *   *   *
     
    If Y ā jñavalkya wanted to grant a “boon” to Janaka of Videha after his disputation on the agnihotra , he had good reason. For on that occasion Janaka had shown himself to be finer than three brahmins, one of whom was Y ā jñavalkya himself. After having questioned them he had left on his chariot: proud, scornful, dissatisfied. The three brahmins knew they hadn’t been up to the task. “They said: ‘This king has beaten us: come, let us challenge him in a disputation.’” Then Y ā jñavalkya had come forward and stopped them, with well-picked words. If they had in fact won, he said, the incident would have left no impression. It is normal for brahmins to defeat a king in a theological argument. It is almost their raison d’être. But if Janaka happened to win? Better not to think about it … The world would have been turned upside down. So Y ā jñavalkya preferred to go to Janaka alone and humbly asked him what he knew about the agnihotra. He discovered that Janaka knew much. It was then that he granted him a “boon”—and Janaka asked to question him further. “Janaka, from then on, was a brahmin.”
    If ancient Indian history as a whole is one of rivalry, bullying, and deceit between brahmins and k ṣ atriyas , the story of Y ā jñavalkya and Janaka can be seen as the opposite, as an example of a harmonious relationship. Janaka remains drawn to Y ā jñavalkya, he knows that the brahmin possesses a superior knowledge—and is ready to yield everything to him. But at the same time Janaka is the warrior who can compete with the brahmins not just on equal terms, but sometimes surpassing them in learning, as happens in the case of the agnihotra. Only then will Y ā jñavalkya acknowledge that the balance has shifted, and grant him a boon. And only when he has to fulfill that boon will he agree to set out the doctrine with a magnanimity that he has never shown before, proceeding in a state of lucid rapture, passing from prose to verse and from verse to prose, adding more and more detail and lavish imagery. That teaching will turn Janaka into a brahmin. The only convincing picture of a happy, and therefore effective, relationship between a philosopher and a man of power is not that between Plato and Dionysius—which was tense and ill-fated from the very beginning—but the relationship between Y ā jñavalkya and Janaka.
    *   *   *
     
    The rituals gave constant cause for disputation—and thus it happened that Y ā jñavalkya’s guidance was sought. Some disputations could be at the same time metaphysical, psychological, and sexual. For example: where to place the ghee used for the offering to the wives of the gods? If the ghee was placed on the altar, the wives of the gods found themselves being separated from the gods themselves, who were squatting, absorbed in thought, around the altar. The prudent sacrificer, who did not wish to create ill-feeling between the divine couples, took pains therefore to place the ghee a little

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