By: Usha Ranganathan
The dialogue between Nachiketas and Yama in the ‘Katha Upanishad’ takes one directly into an awareness of the mystery of life and death, and the compelling need to search for the inner Self while we are alive in this body. The reality of death awaits us all and we have to prioritize our choices quickly. The Upanishad states that our failure to realize our essential nature now may result in a long cycle of rebirths. The dialogue is amongst the earliest expositions of the theory of transmigration and rebirth.
The reflections of the Upanishad are woven into the story of a ten-year-old boy, Nachiketas, who is wished away to Yama, God of death, in a fit of rage by his father Gautam, while in the middle of a sacrificial ceremony.
“I am in bondage to him who does not eat or drink anything without offering it to me first and who constantly meditates upon me. I act according to his wishes.” – Shri Sai Baba (Chap 44, Ovi 151-154)
Nachiketas gets determined to go meet death itself. He waits for Yama for three days and three nights at his abode. On his return, Yama apologizes for having kept him waiting and decides to grant him three boons.
Nachiketas thinks of his father and asks Yama to relieve his father of his emotional distress at having had to lose his son in his fit of anger. Nachiketas then asks Yama to impart him knowledge of the lokas — heavenly worlds, where life is free from all the sorrows of the Earth. Yama is happy to grant him both these boons.
Nachiketas then startles Yama with his third boon, asking him the secret of death, is there life after death? Is there an eternal Spirit behind the body? Yama is taken aback at these questions and tells Nachiketas not to ask for this boon, as Gods themselves have not grasped this secret fully. Yama tries hard to distract the young boy by offering him the boon of heavenly and material powers and temptations. But Nachiketas is adamant.
Yama finally relents and maps the path to understand this secret, stating how each human has to first choose between the path of Preyas, which is pleasurable, and the path of Shreyas, the path of reflection, which is constantly challenging us. And we all are the outcome of our choices. The Upanishad exhorts us to follow the Shreyas path, even though it is ‘like a sharp edge of a razor, difficult to pass over’.
Yama tells Nachiketas how our karma, deeds and our knowledge, experience, get imprinted in our Consciousness, the witness of all our actions and thoughts, and how both these values will decide which womb or body we will take, to continue on the unfinished journey towards the Self.
“I constantly care for him who only longs for me and for him no one is equal to me. I act according to his wishes.” – Shri Sai Baba (Chap 44, Ovi 151-154)
The Katha Upanishad asks us to reflect whether we are using this present body for this uplifting purpose it was meant for or are we using this body-machine to entertain ourselves with the world of senses and the mind.
Freedom from suffering, from the cycle of birth and death is possible, in this birth now, if we are willing. If we choose to postpone the decision, we will remain entangled in the workings of karma. ‘Uttishta, Jagrata’ – Arise, Awake – is the clarion call of the Katha, to choose wisely and come home to the Self in this rare human birth itself.
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