A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c4.s2.14

c4.s2.14

(x) Finally, we have the regressive method which takes the form of many successive questions, every new question carrying us behind the answer to the previous question. Thus it was that when Janaka asked Yājñavalkya what was the light of man, Yājñavalkya said it was the Sun. Janaka went behind answer after answer, carrying Yājñavalkya from the Sun to the Moon, from the Moon to the Fire, from the Fire......to the Ātman, which exists behind them all as the Light-in-itself (Bṛi. IV. 3). Thus it was also how Gārgī took Yājñavalkya from question to question, asking him what was the support of water and Yājñavalkya answering it was air, asking again what was behind air and Yājñavalkya answering it was the intermundia, and so on, until from behind the intermundia, the world of the Sun, the world of the Moon, the world of the Stars, the world of the Gods......Gārgī carried Yājñavalkya to the region of Brahman. But when Gārgī asked again what lay behind the world of Brahman itself, she exhibited the inordinate curiosity of the female kind, especially when given to philosophy, which leads necessarily to a regress *ad infinitum*, Yājñavalkya checking the progress of the questionnaire in the only appropriate way—" Thy head shall fall off if thou inquirest again " (S. II).