What is the use of enjoyments and pleasures of the body, lamented the king Brihadratha, when all this is perishable. Great warriors have come and gone, greater empires have been destroyed. Even the gods have fallen to the earth. What is the use of enjoyments and pleasures in a world such as this?
Quoting Maitri, the sage Shakayana replied that the five elements (sound, sight, touch, taste, smell) form the physical body. The inner soul that dwells within this body is overcome by the qualities of nature – it identifies itself with the body, and comes to believe that it is the body. The person does not perceive the eternal spirit that dwells within him. Instead, he is overcome by the fruits of action, both good and bad. The person who acts is the body (made up of the elements), what causes the person to act is the inner soul that dwells within him.
By what means can the inner soul shed this identification with the physical body, and be one with the eternal spirit? By knowledge of the Vedas, by penance, and by performing one’s duties, one may free oneself from attachment to the senses (of the body), and one may obtain the eternal spirit.
A person who is not attached to the sense objects is an ascetic or yogi. And having transcended both good and bad, the yogi is untouched by sin. But if a person is a slave to his passions, or attached to this world, he cannot be a yogi. Mind alone is the cause of bondage and liberty for men. If the mind is attached to the world, it is bound; if it is free from the ties that bind us to this world, that is freedom.
Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva – some take the name of one god, some of the other. Who is the highest of these gods? They are but manifestations / forms of the eternal spirit. A person worships these gods upon the spiritual path. When all forms perish, he becomes one with the eternal spirit. From time all beings flow, from time they grow, and in time they obtain rest. Time ripens and dissolves all beings in the eternal spirit.
The Maitri or Maitrayani Upanishad (as it is also known) forms part of the Yajur Veda.
More summaries about the Maitri Upanishad