Maitrāyaṇi starts with the question, "Given the nature of life, how is joy possible?" and, "How can one achieve moksha (liberation)?" In later sections it offers a debate on possible answers and its views on Sannyasa.
In this body infected with passions, anger, greed, delusion, fright, despondency, grudge, separation from what is dear and desirable, attachment to what is not desirable, hunger, thirst, old age, death, illness, sorrow and the rest - how can one experience only joy? – Hymn I.3
The drying up of great oceans, the crumbling down of the mountains, the instability of the pole-star, the tearing of the wind-chords, the sinking down, the submergence of the earth, the tumbling down of the gods from their place - in a world in which such things occur, how can one experience only joy?
– Hymn I.4
— Maitrayaniya Upanishad
Dragged away and polluted by the river of the Gunas (personality), one becomes rootless, tottering, broken down, greedy, uncomposed and falling in the delusion of I-consciousness, he imagines: "I am this, this is mine" and binds himself, like a bird in the net. – Hymn VI.30
Just as the fire without fuel comes to rest in its place,
so also the passive mind comes to rest in its source;
when it (mind) is infatuated by the objects of sense, he falls away from truth and acts;
Mind alone is the Samsara, one should purify it with diligence;
You are what your mind is, a mystery, a perpetual one;
The mind which is serene, cancels all actions good and bad;
He, who, himself, serene, remains steadfast in himself - he attains imperishable happiness. – Hymn VI.34
Maitrayani Upanishad - Sannyasa Quote
Just as the fire without fuel comes to rest in its place, so also the passive mind comes to rest in its source; when it (mind) is infatuated by the objects of sense, he falls…