The Thousand Cows

King Janaka of Videha held a great sacrifice, and he gave gifts with an open hand. The brahmins of the Kurus and the Pañcālas gathered there, and the king wanted to know which of them was the most learned. He had a thousand cows shut in a pen, with ten pieces of gold tied to the horns of each, and said, Revered brahmins, let the one among you who knows Brahman best drive these cows home.

None of the brahmins dared. Then Yājñavalkya said to his pupil, Sāmaśravas, my dear, drive them home. And the pupil drove them away. The brahmins were angry. How can he call himself the best knower of Brahman among us? they said.

Aśvala, who recited the hymns at the king's sacrifice, asked him, Are you really the best knower of Brahman among us, Yājñavalkya? Yājñavalkya said, We bow to the best knower of Brahman. We only want the cows. Then Aśvala began to question him about the sacrifice: how the sacrificer is freed from death, from day and night, from the waxing and waning of the moon, and how he climbs to heaven, and how many verses and offerings and chants the priests will use that day. Yājñavalkya answered every question. The sacrificer is freed, he said, through the four priests of the sacrifice, for each of them is one with a power in man, and that power is one with something in the world: the priest who recites is speech, and speech is fire; the priest who performs the rite is the eye, and the eye is the sun; the priest who chants is the breath, and the breath is the wind; and the priest who guards the sacrifice is the mind, and the mind is the moon. That is the sacrificer's release. And Aśvala fell silent.