Why didn’t the teacher teach Satyakama?

In the previous post we saw how the teacher Gautama arrived at the parentage of Satyakama, a son of a single mother Jabala.

Gautama concluded that Satyakama must have been born to a Brahmin since he did not hesitate to speak the most dreadful truth of his life. Gautama even admitted him to his school. But did he actually teach him?

Unfortunately not. He gave Satyakama a herd of cattle and asked him to go after them wherever they went grazing. Satyakama was to move from place to place for months spending all the time with the cattle.

Satyakama resolved to return only when their number reached thousand. Whether the teacher wanted it that way – we do not know.

But the big question is – Why did the teacher ask him to follow the cattle?. The Upanishad does not explain the reason.

I guess it was a kind of purification process which the teacher wanted Satyakama to go through before he was eligible for receiving his teaching. The teacher accepted Satyakama as a person born to a Brahmin, but probably he considered his mother’s lowly status as a hindrance to receiving the knowledge. So he needed to be purified.

Ancient Indian scriptures like Manu Smrthi, for example, talk about such purification processes. When some major sins are committed by a person, a person was expected to spend time – days and months – with cattle, following them wherever they went, to purify himself. Such an act is supposed to absolve him of the sin and make him pure.

Did Gautama also wanted to purify Satyakama of the sins apparently committed by his mother? If that was the case, it was quite unfair of him. Whether Jabala committed any sin was a different issue, but certainly Satyakama was innocent.

So, it is quite a mystery.

Whatever be the reason, our obedient student Satyakama accepted the teacher’s order without questioning, and followed the cattle, wherever they went, only to return when they grew to 1000 in number.

But the providence had other things in store for Satyakama. Strange things started happening.

We will see that in the next post.

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A story of Satyakama Jabala from Chandogya Upanishad, which is part of Sama Veda. Upanishads are concluding parts of ancient Indian Vedic scriptures believed to be at least 5000 years old. The interpretation is by Dr.King (Copyright © 2019 Dr. King).