The towering sage of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, whose public debates on the nature of Brahman, and private teaching to his wife Maitreyi, remain foundational to Vedantic thought.
उपनिषद काल · Upanishadic era
Associated with the Shukla Yajurveda and the Shatapatha Brahmana, Yajnavalkya appears in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad holding court before King Janaka of Videha, fielding questions from the assembled sages, including a sustained challenge from the philosopher Gargi Vachaknavi.
His teaching to his wife Maitreyi, that no worldly possession is dear for its own sake but only for the sake of the Self, is among the most quoted passages in Upanishadic literature. His formulation of Brahman as 'neti neti,' not this, not this, describing the ultimate reality by what it is not, remains a cornerstone of Advaita Vedanta's method.