I’ve heard Nachiketa’s story before, but this is the first time I read more of the Kathopanishad, and it is incredible! This has everything! There are so many examples and quotes from this that we use in our regular lives, without fully knowing the context.
Kathopanishad was composed around 800 BCE. So it predates many of our texts, and should be taken seriously.
Many have retold this story with subtle differences, but here is the basic story briefly –
Rishi Vajasravasa performs a yagna, and gives away old, useless cows hoping for merit for his sacrifice. His son Nachiketa sees this hypocrisy and questions his father about the genuinity behind giving away possessions which are of no use to us (or to others). He asks “to whom will you give me away as I am also your possession” and the father angrily says “I give you away to Yama”.
Nachiketa takes his father’s words seriously and travels to Yamaloka. Yama is away and Nachiketa waits without food and water for 3 days till Yama returns. Yama is upset that he made a guest wait for 3 days and offers him 3 boons as an apology.
Nachiketa asks that he be reunited with his father as the first boon and is granted that.
As second boon, he asks to be taught the principles of a Yagna (fire sacrifice) which will lead the doer to realisation, and Yama teaches him what came to be called as Nachiketa Agni. Here also, our people took it literally and made it physical with measurements and all, while the real meaning is meant to be symbolic and esoteric. But lets get back to the story.
For the third boon, Nachiketa asks Yama about the truth about death. About whether we really die or move somewhere else. Whether we are eternal or temporary.
Yama hesitates and offers Nachiketa another boon to dissuade him from that third question, saying that this is extremely difficult to understand and that he should ask for anything else. Nachiketa refuses. He rejects the world (all the boons Yama offers) for the Truth. Yama agrees, and teaches him some of the most profound things to be found in any spiritual literature.
Katha Upanishad 1.3.3-4 has the very popular Chariot Metaphor –
Atmanam rathinam viddhi śarīram ratham eva ca
Buddhi tu sārathim viddhi mana eva parigrahah
Indriyani hayān āhuh viśayās teshu gocaram
Āhātmendriya-manoyuktam bhoktety āhur manīsinah
Meaning the body is the chariot, the intellect is the charioteer, the mind is the reins, senses are the horses, and that the intellect should control the mind to rein in the senses, so that the self can reach its destination.
Angushta Matra Purushah (we spoke about this in our previous post here) makes an entry here too, in Katha Upanishad 2.1.12.
The most profound statement is Katha Upanishad 1.2.18 –
na jāyate mriyate vā vipaścinnāyaṃ kutaścinna babhūva kaścit |
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato’yaṃ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
Meaning that the self is not born, it does not die, it has not sprung from anything, nothing has sprung from it, it is birthless, everlasting, ancient, and it is not killed when the body dies. This same statement was retold by God in Bhagavad Geeta, and most readers will recollect that as the sloka played on loudspeakers when someone dies. Especially in Ghantasala’s voice if you are of Telugu origin.
There are many more very well known statements from Hinduism which were originally from the Katha Upanishad. Swami Vivekananda’s ‘Arise, Awake….’ quote is originally from Katha Upanishad 1.3.14.
Now, lets come to our interest in these set of quotes.
Like with most scriptures (across all religions), our ancestors took this literally, and focused on the physical aspects of what was written. Like for instance, the Nachiketa Agni. Books have been written about the exact measurements of the way the structure should be built, and an entire science (!) has sprung up around it. Similarly, the size of God in our heart led to the belief that God’s statues at home should only be of a certain size. We’ve been taught these as ‘fundamentals of Hinduism’, while they are not what Yama intended us to learn through his words!! The real lesson Yama taught Nachiketa here is that the self is greater than the body, and while the body dies, the self doesn’t die.
Another important learning is that we have been given an intellect to use! Not to follow blindly. The intellect is meant to control the mind (which is a set of thoughts) in order for us to reach realisation. And intellect is the thing we are often told not to use! We are just told to follow because our ancestors are considered to have thought through it all and that we are just to follow, and realisation will be ours. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The third, and most important learning from the Kathopanishad (Katha Upanishad – Sandhi) is that this truth – about the self being supreme and that life and death are just incidents – is the most critical learning in all of scripture. Yama clearly states than this knowledge is very difficult to achieve and that even the deities find this truth difficult to fully understand – which is why he dissuades Nachiketa from exploring this subject.
Katha Upanishad 2.1.1 –
Paramātmā mahān prabhuh
Sattvasyaika rasah sukhasyaikah
Brahma vidvān brahma samarpayati
Meaning that the supreme self is infinite and immense. The taste of all existence is one. Brahman is the one which the wise know and offer themselves to.
Here, Brahman isn’t Brahmin, and neither is it the deity Brahma. It means the Supreme. Once we know it, we dedicate ourselves to it. There are zero physical elements in any of these quotes. It is all spiritual in nature, and yet has become the foundation of a religion that is controlled by much activity, mantra, and yantra.
Nachiketa’s story illustrates something essential – that spirituality in its purest form is not about becoming someone else, or acquiring something new, or even going somewhere distant. It is about recognising what is already true – that the essential ‘I’ is never separate from the absolute reality.
Yama applauds Nachiketa for his ardent desire to learn the truth. He says here that realising this simple truth cannot be done through study or by hearing scripture told by other people. It ONLY follows one’s desire to know the truth – of what really matters. The answer is very simple too – that everything we want is within us, and that the self is eternal. Since this is spoken by Yama, this forms the foundation of Dharma which is probably the most misused Sanskrit term of all time!
Some of the greatest teachings we have been given have been in the form of stories. Here too, the most essential learning of all time is told through a simple story. We listen to this, clap, and then go back to pursuing God through other means. There is nothing more to achieve once this learning takes seat in our heart. The rest is only Sadhana – practice. Of reminding ourselves that this is it, and putting this truth in perspective in all our circumstances. Living a normal life fully knowing this, makes one a realised master. And while it is simple, it is the most difficult state to achieve!
I’ve been quite fascinated by the various schools of thought – across all religions – which, having started from the above realisation, still chose to depict God as an external object. Will explore those in the next post in a few days.
Bibliography –
Katha Upanishad
Bhagavad Geeta