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Kathopanisad

Chapter 1 Valli 1 Mantra 19

Lecture

Mantra

Yama Invites the Third Boon

Eshah te agnih nachiketah svargyah
yam avrineethaah dviteeyena varena;
etam agnim tava eva pravakshyanti janaasah
triteeyam varam nachiketah vrineeshva.

 

Eshah te agnih nachiketah svargyah -- Yama: “This then is the ‘Nachiketas Fire Sacrifice’, which leads one to Heaven, (O Nachiketas);
yam avrineethaah dviteeyena varena; -- and which you had chosen as your second boon.
etam agnim tava eva pravakshyanti janaasah -- Hereafter, people will call this Fire by your name alone.
triteeyam varam nachiketah vrineeshva. -- Now your third boon, O Nachiketas, you may choose!”

1 – 3. The second boon is brought to a conclusion in the first three lines. There seems to be no need to devote three lines to conclude the second boon, as it has already been well concluded in the previous verse. However, they do have a dramatic effect. They have the effect of drawing open the curtains as in a live drama, ushering in a new scene.

And drama certainly is. The step from the second boon to the third boon is so significant that it may be called dramatic: It represents the change from Apara Vidya to Para Vidya, from secular concerns to the spiritual quest, from the Unreality to the Reality, the most significant shift in life. We are moving into a whole new dimension to discover the Ultimate Reality. To spend three lines on creating the dramatic effect of welcoming the new topic cannot be considered to be lavish.

4. Two conditions need to be fulfilled for Nachiketas to ask the particular boon that would most satisfy his spiritual thirst. They are:

1. The Guru’s Grace: The knowledge is only given when the Guru is pleased with one’s service. It cannot be had otherwise. Nachiketas has so far pleased Yama in every
2. The Guru’s Realisation: In addition, Self-knowledge can only be asked from someone who possesses it. Who would be more conversant with this subject than the Lord of Death himself?

Nachiketas is now all fired up with the desire for the highest realm – the state of total liberation from Samsara which means oneness with the supreme Brahman. This requires completely different qualifications from those required for the earlier Karma Kanda rituals or the Upasana Kanda meditations. Here the main quality required is total Dispassion, which is extremely difficult for human beings to possess. It is also very rare to see one so young as Nachiketas reaching out to attain this state of ultimate spiritual enlightenment. This is a moment of history for humanity!

Dispassion is not anti-love, nor is it pro-love. It is not concerned with relative love. It is love for the Highest. The third boon is about fulfilling this desire for the Supreme.

With the next verse, we enter into the Upanishad proper. The serious, spiritual side of it begins to unfold. Up to this point, we have been building up a dramatic scene that has led the disciple to arrive at the feet of his Master. Now the crucial boon is asked . . .

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Kathopanisad

Chapter 1 Valli 1 Mantra 18

Lecture

Mantra

Glorification of Sacrificial Fire Worship

Tri-naachiketah trayam etat viditvaa
yah evam vidvaan chinute naachiketam;
sah mrityu-paashaan puratah pranodya
shokaatigah modate svargaloke.

Tri-naachiketah trayam etat viditvaa -- Yama: “The threefold Nachiketas Sacrifice,etc – the one who knows these (the above-named) ‘Three’,
yah evam vidvaan chinute naachiketam; -- if such a knowledgable one performs the Nachiketa Sacrifice,
sah mrityu-paashaan puratah pranodya -- he throws off the chains of Death even before death itself;
shokaatigah modate svarga-loke. -- having crossed over all sorrow, he rejoices in heaven.

1-2. The science of Fire sacrifices named after Nachiketas is here being eulogized by Lord Yama both to glorify the boy and to glorify its performance as a form of ritualistic worship and an Upasana. Although it does not represent the highest spiritual science that liberates man, it is a positive start in that Hence it is glorified.

3. This claim of crossing ‘death’ while still in one’s body is usually reserved in Upanishadic literature to the state of Jivanmukti or Liberation while living. In the context of the Nachiketas Sacrifice, it would mean overcoming the fear of ‘death’ and the accompanying mental anguish by attaining the heavenly worlds where there is no body and hence no Hence, ‘throwing off death’ refers to the bodiless existence in heaven.

4. The claim made of crossing over all sorrow is another aspect of the same It refers to the dense sorrows of gross material existence on earth, which is absent in heaven. It does not refer to the deeper freedom from sorrow which is removed only through spiritual knowledge. The former type of sorrow can be removed by Upasana combined with rituals like the ‘Nachiketas Fire Sacrifice’, which leads one heaven.

Nevertheless, it is an important canon in Vedantic philosophy that this also leads to the ultimate release from sorrow but by the process of Krama Mukti or gradual liberation. In this method, the theory is that the devotee first attains the heavenly region of Brahmaloka, where he is instructed by the Lord Brahma Himself in the knowledge that liberates him completely from birth and death, i.e. the equivalent of Jivanmukti or Liberation.

The Karma Kanda is not anti-Jnana; it is just pro-Ajnana. In contrast, the Jnana Kanda is directly in opposition to Ajnana, which it is the opposite. Jnana and Ajnana cannot co-exist, as they are like light and darkness. The stage is now set for asking for Knowledge of the Self (Atma Jnana). This will be the “Boon of Heroism” that has made Nachiketas so famous in all Upanishadic lore.

THE THIRD BOON

 The moment is most appropriate for Nachiketas to ask his third boon. Nachiketas has been waiting for this – the moment that promises to usher in the Knowledge that he seeks. There is a palpable feeling of expectancy in his heart. He knows he is standing on the threshold of an immense change in his life.

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