A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c6.s2.17

c6.s2.17

attention even in those old days. For example, we are informed in a passage of the Bṛihadāraṇyaka Upanishad (S. 13) how the sage Bhujyu, the son of Lāhyāyana, in his student days, went to the Madra country and came to the house of Patañchala, the son of Kapi. This Patañchala had a daughter who was possessed by a Gandharva, an aerial spirit, and who thus served as a medium. Bhujyu asked the spirit who he (the spirit) was, and received the answer that he was Sudhanvan, the son of Aṅgiras. On knowing this, Bhujyu asked the spirit two more questions: one was as to the actual extent of the world, and the other as to where the sons of Parīkshit were, who, by the bye, at that time, must have been regarded as historical personages. What answer Bhujyu received to these questions we are not told; but we see definitely how Bhujyu must, on account of these questions, be regarded as an occultist who worked according to his own lights in his days on the lines of modern Psychical Research.