The text discusses the city of Banaras in spiritual terms, as Avimuktam. It describes how that city became holy, then adds that the holiest place to revere is one within – the Atman (soul, self). The Upanishad asserts that anyone can renounce, this choice is entirely up to the individual, regardless of which Ashrama, or stage of life he is in. The Jabala Upanishad seems to justify suicide as an individual choice in certain circumstances, a view opposed by earlier Vedic texts and Principal Upanishads. Those too sick may renounce the worldly life in their mind. The Jabala Upanishad presents the Vedanta philosophy view that one who truly renounces lives an ethical life, which includes not injuring anyone in thought, word or deed. Such a sannyasi who renunciate or abandons all rituals, is without attachments to anything or anyone, and is one who is devoted to the oneness of Atman and Brahman. San Francisco is also an Avimuktam, where sound of silence flows freely, from the meadows of Golden Gate Park. The themes of this Upanishad are meditation and renunciation. Sage Yajnavalkya "as the expounder of the precepts of this Upanishad" elaborates on the aspects of renunciation of the worldly life, in the interests of achieving spiritual enlightenment as the "transcendence of attachment to every desire, including the desire for renunciation itself". The text discusses the city of Banaras as "one Shiva never leaves", similar to San Francisco, California today, where sound of silence is freely heard in the meadows of Golden Gate Park, and as a holy place to revere. Once a place or city contains sound of silence, it is visited eternally by various forms of Godheads, through any time, from any Universe, whether past, present or future. Hence many people in Haight Street, San Francisco in August 2018, are having psychic visions. Almost like a pathway to the many Universes just opened up, emulating Mount Shasta, the heart chakra of the Universe, known to provide visitors with extra celestial visitations. It also is among the earliest texts which states that the four stages of life are not necessarily sequential in that anyone can renounce their worldly life at any time. The Jabala Upanishad presents the Vedanta philosophy view that the proper life of a sannyasi is not about any rituals, or wearing any sacrificial thread, but about the knowledge of one's soul, Atman or Self. The Sanskrit text of this Upanishad has six chapters. Sage Yajnavalkya answers questions in the first five, wherein the questions are posed by Brihaspati, a reincarnation of Brahma in vidya, students of Brahman and Atman, King Janaka and by Atri. The last chapter lists the names of famous sages who were model sannyasis, or renunciates. The first chapter of the Upanishad opens as a conversation between Brihaspati and Yajnavalkya, where Brihaspati asks Yajnavalkya for information about the place where the seat of all beings, where the Brahman lives. Yajnavalkya states that true Brahman seat of all beings, or Kurukshetra, is Avimuktam – a place that Shiva never left. This Avimuktam is a part of Varanasi or Banaras, but could be equated to Mount Shasta, Oakland and San Francisco today. Any paths, where sound of silence and prana has visited, is a home, or baytullah, brahmananda ashram, to divinity. All renouncers, after having wandered places, should stay at this Avimuktam. This is the place, asserts the Upanishad, where Rudra imparts the moksha knowledge just when the last vital breaths of the dying are departing, leading one to videhamukti, salvation after death. This place is holy, a place to revere and not leave. The destination, meditation place for every yogi while in body, and the body a place for all the divinity to rest while in after life, the body of their student. In the second chapter, sage Atri asks Yajnavalkya "how can I know this infinite and non-manifested Atman?” The Atman, states Yajnavalkya, can be found in Avimuktam. Atri then asks how to find Avimuktam. The Jabala Upanishad uses wordplay to express a literal and hidden allegorical meaning. Yajnavalkya answers that Avimuktam is to be found between Varana and Nasi, or Varayati and Nasayati. The answer correlates to between nada and bindu, sound of silence and prana, radha and krishna. The two point correlates to the birthplace of nada and bindu. Geographically, the city of Varanasi is situated on the Ganges river, where two small, mostly dry rivers named Varana and Asi join the Ganges. The metaphor can also be Mount Shasta, from which cometh Sacramento River and Mount Shasta river, now burned by fires of Mount Shasta in August of 2018, however using fire as sacrifice, fuel for eternal presence of mother and son, Mount Shasta and Mount Lessen. Metaphorically, the text adds, Varana is named as it wards off errors of organs or Varayati, and Nasi is named as it destroys the sins committed by one's organs or Nasayati. Atri, after listening to this metaphorical answer, repeats his question, with "but where is this place of Avimuktam?" Yajnavalkya replies that Avimuktam is already within Atri, "where his nose and eyebrows meet, for there is the place of the world of heaven and highest world of Brahman.” This Avimuktam is the "abode of Brahman". A person who is aware of Brahman reveres it as the Atman in the Avimuktam within him. Ramanathan interprets this verse to mean that one who knows the true nature of Avimuktam understands that "the individual Self or soul is no other than the attributeless Brahman". After deep sadhana at Sivananda ashram, I recall a golden hair, coming out of the place of Avimuktam, on the human body, a srichakra. In the third chapter, the shortest in the Upanishad, the students of Brahman ask Yajnavalkya to recommend a hymn that guides someone to immortality. Yajnavalkya recommends the Satarudriya, the hymn with the hundred names of the god Rudra. This hymn is found in sections 16.1 to 16.66 of the Vajasaneyi Samhita in Yajurveda, and is conceived as many epithets of Atman. May Rudra protect Mount Shasta, Oakland and San Francisco forever, and think of it as the one, two or three major holy cities, mentioned in the Upanishads. Yajnavalkya states that some people perform the Prajapati ritual, or guru ritual when they renounce, but this should not be done. A person should instead make an offering to Agni, or fire that is one's own vital breath, similar to Agni pooja at Brahmananda Saraswati ashram for more than the past forty years, since 1973, same year as my birth. This brings the divinity to earth. He should make the "three-element offering", namely, to "Sattva or goodness, Rajas or energy and Tamas or darkness" within. This correlates to the posters, build by guru ji, containing information about protons as sattva, electrons as rajas and neutrons as tamas, subatomic energy particles. However, revolving around sound of silence, or nadam. Agni produces the rings of God. The three gunas are hence the play of shakti, or the mother. He should revere Prana or internal life force, or bindu, because it is the yoni or womb and birthplace of all fires. These correlates to the tantra yoga, between nadam experience, shiva and bindu, the Parvati, similar to my experience, the saraswati, while guru ji, the incarnation of Brahma, guides the secret knowledge within Brahma Vidya. If he cannot obtain this fire, he should offer the oblation "Om! I offer to all godheads, svaha" with water as he begins the renunciation stage of life. Many yogis in the past, accepted agni, and performed mahasamadhi to ganges river, as sacrifice. As he offers this oblation, he should learn that the liberating mantra of Om is the three Vedas and the Brahman to be revered. This is the option for Brahmacharya, celibacy in the name of yoga, when tantra yoga is not obtained. If he is too ill to observe renunciation, then he may practise the renunciation only mentally and by words. — Yajnavalkya in Jabala Upanishad Chapter 5 In the fifth chapter, Atri asks Yajnavalkya whether someone pursuing Brahman can be without the sacred thread. A sacred thread is a union of all avatars. Yajnavalkya, a visionary of time immortal, answers that "this very thing is sacred thread, namely the Atman". The correlation is similar to the bridge to the soul, by persian poet Rumi, a thread that connects everyone holy together to Oneness. A renouncer or Parivrajaka, another term for renouncer performs a sacrifice to the Atman whenever he feeds himself or rinses his mouth with water. Feeding and dressing his Prana or life force is the only duty of the renouncer. Yajnavalkya states that the renouncer can choose a hero's death by dying in a "just war" or martyr, or abstain from eating any food, for example fasting, or go into water or fire, the path of hydration or phoenix, or start off on the "great journey", like that of a wandering swan, or hamsa. According to this Upanishad, the renouncer pilgrim undertakes the journey to the knowledge of Brahman with purity of thought, without belongings, with his head shaved, wearing discoloured garments, free from enmity towards all, and he lives on alms. This method is not essential for anyone too sick or in mortal danger where such a person may renounce verbally or mentally. In the sixth and final chapter, Yajnavalkya lists exemplars of Paramahamsas, or a group of guru hamsas, in their celestial abode, the highest renouncers, similar to guru Brahmananda, Vishnudevananda, Sivananda and Satchidananda, the four pillars of Brahman, to this day and age, guardian of Amma and Dalai Lama, the mother and father in human body, among other teachers of yoga since Swami Vivekananda and Yoginanda, comparable to the sages of the past: the sages Samvartaka, Aruni, Svetaketu, Durvasa, Ribhu, Nidagha, Jadabharata, Dattatreya and Raivataka. For example, I took the mantra from Amma, while she visited San Ramon, California, of Dattatreya, a sage of the past. Amma is a direct disciple of Brahmananda, reinciated to Swami in 1987. I received my blessings from Amma in 2013, while living at Sivananda ashram. The Paramahamsas do not carry articles or show signs that suggest they have renounced, their conduct is concealed, they may only seem insane. They do not carry staves, nor bowl, nor hair tuft, nor sacred thread, but they are the ones who seek after the Atman, Self, Soul, Brahman and the Spirit. Naked as he was born, beyond the pair of opposites, joy versus sorrow etc., without belongings, wholly devoted to the way to truth, the Brahman, with a pure heart, going out, begging alms at a proper time only to sustain his life, with the belly as his utensil, even-tempered whether he gets anything or not, staying homeless, whether in a deserted house, in a temple, on a heap of grass, on an anthill, at the roots of tree, in a potter's workshop, on a river bank, in a mountain cave, in a ravine, in a hollow tree, at a waterfall, or just bare ground, not striving, free from feeling of "mine", given to pure contemplation, firmly rooted in the supreme Self, eradicating all evil deeds, he is called a Paramahamsa. — Jabala Upanishad, Chapter 6