The inscrutable design that weaves a web of desires

The intense conversation between Sage Yajnavalkya and his wife Maitreyi, on the notions of love, desire and possessiveness, and the inexplicable connect one feels sometimes with another, is at the heart of the concept of the Self expounded in the Brihadarayanka Upanishad.  Yajnavalkya is preparing to leave his householder responsibilities towards the close of his middle years and embark on Vanaprastha, the renunciate stage of life and wants to settle all family affairs between his two wives, Maitreyi and Katyayani.

Even as Yajnavalkya begins to explain his intent of dividing all of his property equally between the two women, Maitreyi startles him by asking whether this wealth that she will acquire will give to her a permanent state of happiness and joy. Yajnavalkya is taken aback, but Maitreyi persists with her question. Yajnavalkya tells her bluntly that though this wealth will give her material comforts, the satisfaction she will derive from material possessions will be only temporary; the state of happiness which Maitreyi is alluding to is not possible through such possessions. Maitreyi then expresses her disillusionment with this material settlement and requests Yajnavalkya to tell her of the way by which an unbroken state of happiness can be acquired.