A king named Brihadratha, having established his son as the
king and considering this body as impermanent became dispassionate and went
into the forest. There he performed severe austerities and stood with uplifted
arms gazing at the sun. At the end of a thousand days, the honourable knower of
Atman, Shakayanya, blazing like fre without smoke, came near the ascetic.
He said to Brihadratha, ‘Arise, arise, ask for a boon’.
Brihadratha saluted Shakayanya and said, ‘O Revered sage, I
don’t know the Self. We have heard that you know the Self. Please tell us about
the Self.’
Shakayanya replied, ‘Such things were discussed in the past.
This question is very difficult to answer, O Aikshvaka, ask some other desired
thing.’
Touching the feet of Shakayanya with his head, Brihadratha
uttered these words.
O Revered sage, in this foul-smelling, inconsequential body,
which is a mass of bones, skin, muscle, marrow, flesh, semen, blood, mucus,
tears, rheum, feces, urine, wind, bile, and phlegm, what is the point of
enjoying desires?
In this body afflicted with desire, anger, greed, delusion,
fear, despondency, envy, separation from the desired, union with the
un-desired, hunger, thirst, old age, death, disease, sorrow, and the like, what
is the point of enjoying desires?
Maitrayaniya Upanishad