By surrendering himself in the domains of body, mind and intellect Nachiketas earns the enlightenment in these domains.
Vaishvanarah pravishanti
Atithir braahmano grhaan
Tasyaitaam shaantim kurvanti
Hara vaivasvatodakam
Nachiketas looks at death as Vaivasvata, the son of Vivasvan. Vivasvan lights up the universe with his rays. Nachiketas realizes that the darkness of mystery surrounding death is the corollary to the brilliant sense of purpose emanating from an enlightened mind. So he acknowledges death as a qualified teacher who can provide him proper lessons on life.
An ideal is the object of one’s true love. Passion is the energy that draws one to an ideal. All legitimate movements in life are in fact the pursuits of true loves. The fire of passion consummates the objects offered to it.
The fire of passion is like a Brahmin entering a home as a guest. It is to be tended with respect and its appetite is to be appeased appropriately. Only then the household will enjoy prosperity. Total blissful dissolution of oneself happens when one uses all possessions to consummate his passions. The passions are extinguished only when he has totally given himself up in this process. Death, the son of Vivasvan fetches the water to quench the passions of mortal beings.
Ashaprateekshe samgatam soonrutam
Cheshtapoorte putra pashum shvasarvaan
Etatvrunkete purushasyalpamedhaso
Yasyaanashnan vasati brahmano gruhe
The fire of passion is important for a virile being in this universe. If a dumb man drowned in anxieties and fears ignores his passions it is like neglecting a Brahmin guest visiting his home without giving him proper hospitality. His life will be a compromise. Whatever he does will become meaningless. His aspirations will be without point. His hopes will be vague. His environment will be polluted. His perceptions will be skewed. His projects will cater only to fleeting fancies. The products emanating from him will be of doubtful usage. The processes and other things associated with him will not serve any useful purpose.
Tisroratriryadavatseer gruheme
Anashnan brahmannatithir namasyah
Namaste/stubrahman svastime/stu
Tasmaat prati treen varaan vruneeshva
Nachiketas had been contemplating about death for three nights. It was as if he had entered the domain of death as a guest and stayed there for three days. He had deprived himself of any kind of worldly food. He had fasted for three nights to distill his passions in the domains of body, mind and intellect to extract their essence. By this fasting he became eligible for three boons, in the domains of body, mind and intellect. The fasting had brought the passions in these domains to a crescendo. The intensity of the passions in these domains provided him the power to go after the objects of his desire.
The lord of death had granted him three boons as a reward for his fasting, which had spanned over three nights.
Friday, November 16, 2007
The Encounter with Death
The unknown instills fear. While encountering the unknown the first instinct is to wish it away. Such wishful thinking, with all the apparent comfort it may seem to provide, takes one away from reality. It is a deluded existence. In that state of delusion one tends to believe that the trauma of death is something that happens only to others. The primary step in the search for truth is the acceptance of the fact that the phenomenon of death applies very much to oneself. While facing the stark reality of one’s own mortality the delusions that were used to prop up the wishful thinking falls away and one acquires the freedom to perceive truth as it is.
With the total acceptance of the reality that one is bound by death, the child Nachiketas acquires the authority to venture into the secrets that connect this domain of mortality with the immortality that transcends this domain. He says to himself:
Bahoonaamemi prathamo
Bahoonaamemi madhyamaah
Kimsvid yamasya kartavyam
Yanmaya/dya karishyati
‘This process of death is not something that is being initiated by me. I am the predecessor to the many who will be gobbled up by death after me. But this is an ongoing process and I am only one of the many rushing towards death right now. What exactly is the purpose of this process? And what can I meaningfully contribute to it by my participation?’
Nachiketas is talking the language of one who wants to belong totally. For any entity the penultimate process is the process of consummation that takes away its identity. Shedding of identity is a negative experience as long as one wants to hold on to one’s ego. When one gives up ego it becomes a positive experience. Nachiketas is fully prepared for this sacrifice and boldly reflects on what he can contribute in the final act of consummation.
Anupashya yathapoorve
Pratipashya tathaapare
Sasyamiva martyah pachyateh
Sasyamiva jayate punah
Generally men don’t confront death intelligently. They have seen and heard about the deaths that have happened before. And they keep anticipating the death of others. The unknown, however, is not eliciting in the minds of men the curiosity to know. Instead, it clouds the faculties for understanding by anxiety and fear making proper knowing difficult. In such a dumb state intelligence is frozen and men get consumed like vegetation and gets reborn as vegetation again and again. By confronting death without fear Nachiketas frees his intelligence to pursue deeper spiritual questions.
With the total acceptance of the reality that one is bound by death, the child Nachiketas acquires the authority to venture into the secrets that connect this domain of mortality with the immortality that transcends this domain. He says to himself:
Bahoonaamemi prathamo
Bahoonaamemi madhyamaah
Kimsvid yamasya kartavyam
Yanmaya/dya karishyati
‘This process of death is not something that is being initiated by me. I am the predecessor to the many who will be gobbled up by death after me. But this is an ongoing process and I am only one of the many rushing towards death right now. What exactly is the purpose of this process? And what can I meaningfully contribute to it by my participation?’
Nachiketas is talking the language of one who wants to belong totally. For any entity the penultimate process is the process of consummation that takes away its identity. Shedding of identity is a negative experience as long as one wants to hold on to one’s ego. When one gives up ego it becomes a positive experience. Nachiketas is fully prepared for this sacrifice and boldly reflects on what he can contribute in the final act of consummation.
Anupashya yathapoorve
Pratipashya tathaapare
Sasyamiva martyah pachyateh
Sasyamiva jayate punah
Generally men don’t confront death intelligently. They have seen and heard about the deaths that have happened before. And they keep anticipating the death of others. The unknown, however, is not eliciting in the minds of men the curiosity to know. Instead, it clouds the faculties for understanding by anxiety and fear making proper knowing difficult. In such a dumb state intelligence is frozen and men get consumed like vegetation and gets reborn as vegetation again and again. By confronting death without fear Nachiketas frees his intelligence to pursue deeper spiritual questions.
The Theme of Kathopanishad
Kathopanishad attempts to grasp the principle of Brahman by exploring the nature of life
A principle comes to focus when it is denied. Eternal principles get polished only through violent debates that try to extinguish them. Here the denial of the principle of life is done by Usan, the conservative parent.
Usan ha vai vajasravasah sarvavedasam dadou
Tasya ha nachiketanamaputra asa
Usan is obsessed with holding onto the objects of desire. He also craves for the glory accompanying the performance of sacrifices. In the grand sacrifice of life where everything is to be given away Usan acts as a miser intent on absorbing all vital resources giving out as little as possible. The prana principle in him dominates over the apana principle.
A thesis gives life to its antithesis. Nachiketas is the son of Usan. Nachiketas is the fire of pure passion. When one has inhaled fully the inner urge to let out the breath becomes powerful. The relief of letting out the breath is as intense as the joy of taking it in. Usan, the conservative parent, lives in all of us. But so does Nachiketas the child.
Tam ha kumaram santam dakshinasu neeyamaanaasu shradha/avivesha
So/manyata
Peetodaka jagadhtruna dugdhadohanreendriyah
Anandaa naama te lokastan sa gachchati tadadat
As Nachiketas watch the miserly behavior of Usan the urge to give away all accumulations keeps growing. Just as Usan wants to be pure prana Nachiketas wants to be pure apana. Even though Nachiketas is a child he carefully observes the nature of the gifts being given away in the sacrifice being performed by his father. He says to himself: “These cows can not drink water. They refuse to eat the grass offered to them. They have stopped yielding milk. A person giving away only such cows ends up in the domain of unhappiness.”
The most sublime form of giving is giving someone a connection to the flux that converges to the central ideal that holds everyone together. But this type of giving can be done only by parting with some amount of personal power. A spiritually evolved person knows the art of giving. He will delegate everything and is fully prepared to remain without any feeling of personal power. The authoritarian parent, on the other hand wants to delegate only the vestigial processes that do not count. He wants to cling to the lifelines exclusively because he feels that giving out any of that will erode his personal power. Such authoritarian behavior takes one to a joyless existence.
Sa hovacha pitata taru kasmaimam dasyati iti
Dviteeyam truteeyam tam hovacha
Mrutyuve tvadadat iti
The childlike instinct in the seeker asserts itself through the words of Nachiketas to question the validity of the actions of his parental nature. Nachiketas asks his father: “To whom are you going to give me?” He repeated the question thrice. The three repetitions are addressed to the parental behavior in the domains of body, mind and intellect. A question when properly asked contains its answer. To his questions Nachiketas gets the answer: ‘You are being given away to death”.
Is this an act of exasperation on the part of Usan? No. It is an act of enlightenment. There is no exasperation anywhere in Upanishad. Every word, every nuance, in Upanishads is an instrument for enlightenment. The direct question of the uncompromising child, still in touch with divinity, is addressed to the body, mind and intellect of the worldly conservative parent. Nachiketas is challenging the reluctance to change that is the characteristic of a conservative. Death is only the extreme form of change where the magnitude of the transformation and the uncertainties of the hereafter are exemplified ad infinitum. The declaration of Usan that he gives up the acquisition closest to his heart, his son, to death is an act of consecration. He is now no more afraid of the phenomenon of change. It is this total acceptance of change that makes spiritual progress possible.
The dialogue Nachiketas has with death reveals the subtle principles of the phenomenon of life. This is the theme of Kathopanishad.
A principle comes to focus when it is denied. Eternal principles get polished only through violent debates that try to extinguish them. Here the denial of the principle of life is done by Usan, the conservative parent.
Usan ha vai vajasravasah sarvavedasam dadou
Tasya ha nachiketanamaputra asa
Usan is obsessed with holding onto the objects of desire. He also craves for the glory accompanying the performance of sacrifices. In the grand sacrifice of life where everything is to be given away Usan acts as a miser intent on absorbing all vital resources giving out as little as possible. The prana principle in him dominates over the apana principle.
A thesis gives life to its antithesis. Nachiketas is the son of Usan. Nachiketas is the fire of pure passion. When one has inhaled fully the inner urge to let out the breath becomes powerful. The relief of letting out the breath is as intense as the joy of taking it in. Usan, the conservative parent, lives in all of us. But so does Nachiketas the child.
Tam ha kumaram santam dakshinasu neeyamaanaasu shradha/avivesha
So/manyata
Peetodaka jagadhtruna dugdhadohanreendriyah
Anandaa naama te lokastan sa gachchati tadadat
As Nachiketas watch the miserly behavior of Usan the urge to give away all accumulations keeps growing. Just as Usan wants to be pure prana Nachiketas wants to be pure apana. Even though Nachiketas is a child he carefully observes the nature of the gifts being given away in the sacrifice being performed by his father. He says to himself: “These cows can not drink water. They refuse to eat the grass offered to them. They have stopped yielding milk. A person giving away only such cows ends up in the domain of unhappiness.”
The most sublime form of giving is giving someone a connection to the flux that converges to the central ideal that holds everyone together. But this type of giving can be done only by parting with some amount of personal power. A spiritually evolved person knows the art of giving. He will delegate everything and is fully prepared to remain without any feeling of personal power. The authoritarian parent, on the other hand wants to delegate only the vestigial processes that do not count. He wants to cling to the lifelines exclusively because he feels that giving out any of that will erode his personal power. Such authoritarian behavior takes one to a joyless existence.
Sa hovacha pitata taru kasmaimam dasyati iti
Dviteeyam truteeyam tam hovacha
Mrutyuve tvadadat iti
The childlike instinct in the seeker asserts itself through the words of Nachiketas to question the validity of the actions of his parental nature. Nachiketas asks his father: “To whom are you going to give me?” He repeated the question thrice. The three repetitions are addressed to the parental behavior in the domains of body, mind and intellect. A question when properly asked contains its answer. To his questions Nachiketas gets the answer: ‘You are being given away to death”.
Is this an act of exasperation on the part of Usan? No. It is an act of enlightenment. There is no exasperation anywhere in Upanishad. Every word, every nuance, in Upanishads is an instrument for enlightenment. The direct question of the uncompromising child, still in touch with divinity, is addressed to the body, mind and intellect of the worldly conservative parent. Nachiketas is challenging the reluctance to change that is the characteristic of a conservative. Death is only the extreme form of change where the magnitude of the transformation and the uncertainties of the hereafter are exemplified ad infinitum. The declaration of Usan that he gives up the acquisition closest to his heart, his son, to death is an act of consecration. He is now no more afraid of the phenomenon of change. It is this total acceptance of change that makes spiritual progress possible.
The dialogue Nachiketas has with death reveals the subtle principles of the phenomenon of life. This is the theme of Kathopanishad.
Introduction - "The Spirit of Life"
For a living being the most fascinating enigma is the phenomenon of life. As he himself is entrapped in the phenomenon he finds it extremely difficult to understand it clearly. Detachment is a necessary condition for clear understanding. But life is something to which man clings on with desperation and knowledge about the true nature of life eludes him.
This subtle nature of life is brought out in the verse that serves as an introduction to Kathopanishad. A free translation of the Sanskrit verse is given below.
"Life!
It is the divine spirit
That dwells in a cavern of subtlety
That contains all mortal beings.
It sprints like a restless horse
Even while anchored
In a haven of sensibilities.
The spirit of life
Wanders from form to form
Carrying with it
The residues of karmas.
It never dies
And continues in various forms
In bodies
That were offered to it by nature.
It moves in and out
Imposing its subtle governance
On forms that host its presence.
Knowing it is to be with Brahman."
This subtle nature of life is brought out in the verse that serves as an introduction to Kathopanishad. A free translation of the Sanskrit verse is given below.
"Life!
It is the divine spirit
That dwells in a cavern of subtlety
That contains all mortal beings.
It sprints like a restless horse
Even while anchored
In a haven of sensibilities.
The spirit of life
Wanders from form to form
Carrying with it
The residues of karmas.
It never dies
And continues in various forms
In bodies
That were offered to it by nature.
It moves in and out
Imposing its subtle governance
On forms that host its presence.
Knowing it is to be with Brahman."
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