Today I will be telling you a story from Chaandogya Upanishad. It is featured in the 8th Khanda of the book, and it is about 3 young well versed scholars named Pravahana Jivala, Silaka Salavat and Chaikitayana Dalbhya. This is a story which involves a deep curiosity amongst these 3 young men. Our Vedic rishis, sages and scholars always regarded experience or anubhava to be the paramount, next they would regard the scriptures or Shrutis and lastly they would regard the reasoning and logic as most important. 

So when these 3 young scholars met, were very curious to learn who had what experience of Truth!

They were all well versed in Udgita and wanted to have a friendly discussion on it. 

Friends, if you remember I have explained about Udgitha in the episode “Story of Praana”. I would really request the new listeners to listen to that first before listening to this story. 

Back to the story, 

….3 scholars sat down under a shady Banyan tree, kept their bags beside them. All of them were earnest students of the Vedas, they meditated on Aum, the sound symbol of the Ultimate Reality or God. They followed meditation techniques as per Sama Veda. They decided to exchange their experiences on Udgita, which is the singing hymns of Sama Veda and forms of Vedic sacrifices. 

After drinking a sip of water, wiping off the sweat from his forehead, Pravahana said -

“Dear friends, I think you both must start telling your experiences first. Let me listen to it.” Both Silaka and Chaikitayana agreed happily. They knew that Pravahana was destined to become a king later on. 

Silaka first questioned Chaikitayana, “May I ask you a question?”

Chaikitayana nodded and said - “yes please go ahead!”

Silaka smiled and asked -“ What is the origin of the Saman or Udgita?”

Chaikitayana smiled and said - “Voice, or Swara. Naturally without swara or voice we cannot chant the Sama veda….and Udgita is a part of this veda!”

Then Silaka asked - “What is the origin of voice or swara?”

Chaikitayana said promptly - “It is the Praana or Vital Breath. Because when the vital breath or Praana stops functioning, one cannot speak and voice becomes mute.”

Silaka immediately asked another question - “Obviously, without Praana one cannot live! So may I ask you, on what Vital Breath or Praana depend on?”

Chaikitayana said -“We may say that all life for which the Praana or Vital breath is indispensable depends on the food!”

Pravahana was quietly listening to the conversation of his two friends and was making mental notes and silently judging their conversation.

Then Silaka asked - “Then what does Food depend on?”

Chaikitayana thought for a second as said -“ Ahhhh…..Upon Water, Life itself is depended to water.”

Silaka exclaimed - “hmmm…Okay!” He asked again -“Then tell me on what is the origin of Water?”

Chaikitayana said - “It is space or Yonder as water comes from the yonder and goes back to it. It falls to earth from space in form of rainfall, fills in rivers and ponds and then again evaporates back as clouds to the space.”

Silaka thought for a second and asked again -“ Okay then tell me what is the origin of yonder or Space?”

To this question, Chaikitayana said - “Let no man carry the Saman beyond the world of Swarga or Heaven or Yonder. We recognise the Saman in the world of Swarga or Yonder, as Saman is hailed as Swarga!”

These three friends were enlarging their kingdom of knowledge. They made a common attempt to share and spread knowledge as they followed a Vedic saying “Do things together!” They realised that they have gone as far as thought can reach. Being aware of the limitations of thought, Silaka told Chaikitayana -

“O Chaikitayana, your saman is not firmly established! We cannot tell the origin of Saman! If at this time anyone who knew the origin of Saman, the your head shall surely fall off! I am afraid we cannot confine or delimit the Absolute Truth to any corner, remote or distant, of the cosmos or space. To the extent it is confined, it will stop being a symbol of Universal Truth which is free from the limitations of time and space! Therefore I believe we have to examine again our fundamental views!”

Till now Pravahana was watching and listening to his friends. He decided to intervene and said - “Both your views are partial and fragmentary. Silaka is keeping his feet on the earth and Chaikitayana has his head in the skies.”

Silaka now quesitoned Pravahana - “Then tell me, what is the origin of this world?”

Pravahana said - “Space, as all these things are created from Akaasa or Space and return to the space, Therefore Akaasa is the supreme support!

Then after a pause, Pravahana continued - “For comprehensive and complete knowledge, we require both. We need not interpret Aakaasa to mean the sky. It means the space or ether. All objects are in space but space itself is indivisible. It is inside and outside all objects. And what appears to divide space is also space!”

Then Silaka asked - “Then, what is the Truth?”

Pravahana explained - “Let us then agree to say that the Truth, the Brahman is all in all! We live, move and have our being in Brahman, both here and hereafter. The wise men always sees this Truth!”

At the end of this conversation, the three friends got up, packed their belongings. They were enriched with the knowledge and experiences from each other as it was a rare spiritual retreat. After having clarified their ideas, the three friends knelt in common salutation to the Aatman as Pranava. 

After this the three friends greeted each other and they parted their ways to their individual destinations.

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Source content collected from various books on Upanishads such as “Messages of the Upanishads” by Swami Ranganathanada, “The Brhadaaranyaka Upanishad” by Swami Madhavananda, “Eight Upanishads” from Advaita Ashrama, Upanishads.org, “Vedas and Upanishads for Children” by Roopa Pai and several other write-ups and thoughts on Upanishads. 

Background Music is sourced from various royalty-free music sources, Apple Loops and Internet Archives with a Non-Commercial 4.0 International license. Aum Shantih chants are from Youtube - source - Gaiea Sanskrit.

The Concept, Script, Narration and Audio Design: Arghya Goswami