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Kathopanisad

Adyaya 1 Valli 2 Mantra 2

Lecture

Mantra

śreya̍śca preyaśca ma̱nuṣya̍meta-
stau sa̱ṁparī̍tya vi̱vina̍kti dhīrah,
śreyo̍ hi dhī̱ro’bhi̍ preyaso vṛṇīte
preyo ma̱ndo yoga̍-kṣemādvṛṇīte

śreyaḥ ca preyaḥ ca = the preferable and the pleasurable; manuṣyam etaḥ = approach people; [as though they are a couple. Therefore just as a swan separates milk from water, similarly]; dhīraḥ = the intelligent one; samparītya = having pondered fully, having considered their importance and unimportance; vivinakti = separates; tau = those two. [And having distinguished]; abhivṛṇīte = selects; śreyaḥ hi = the electable indeed; preyasaḥ = in preference to the delectable; mandaḥ = simple-mind; vṛṇīte = selects; yoga-kṣemāt = material well-being, one adopts a materialist view of life for the sake of nourishing and protecting of the body and procreating.

Both the good and the pleasant approach, the wise one, pondering over them, discriminates. The wise choose the good in preference to the pleasant. The simple minded for the sake of material well-being prefers the pleasant.

Shreyas is a Sanskrit term meaning “that which brings light or happiness and is good.” It can also be translated as meaning “auspicious,” “fortune” or “conducive to well-being and prosperity.” Shreyas comes from the root sound, shri, which means “to cause to lean in or rest on,” “diffuse light” or “beauty.”

In yogic philosophy, the word, shreyas, is often used to refer to an approach to life in which immediate gratification and short-term pleasure is delayed or deferred in order to pursue greater goals. This is considered the best approach for long-term happiness.

Everyone has the free will to choose but since most people do not have the ability to discriminate with regard to their means or with regard to their results, therefore they make the wrong choice.
yoga-kṣema — Shankara understands yoga (union) to refer to the contemplation of the divine — jñāna and kṣema (well-being) being the elimination of faults and the acquisition of virtues which are the results of Karma. Rāmānuja takes yoga to mean the development of the body and kṣema is everything that is accumulated and consumed for its protection. (śarīrasya upacayaḥ yogaḥ, kṣema paripālanam). Dr. A Coomaraswamy suggests that the simple-minded (manda) referred to in this verse is one who prefers kṣema or well-being to yoga or contemplation, yogāc ca kṣemāc ca, taking his stand on Sutta Nipāta 2.20:
asamā ubho dūra-vihāravuttino, gihī dāraposī, amamā ca subbato.
‘Unlike and widely divergent are the habits of the wedded householder and the holy monk without a sense of ego. He says that this verse means that the fool prefers the ease of the householder to the hard life of the Yogi or mendicant.

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Kathopanisad

Adyaya 1 Valli 2 Mantra 3

Lecture

Mantra

sa tvam pri̱yān pri̱yarū̍pāṁśca kāmā-
nabhi̍dhyāyan-na̱cike̍to’tyasrākṣīḥ
nai̱tāṁ-sṛ̱ṅkāṁ-vi̱ttamayī̍m-avāpto
yasyā̎ṁ majjanti ba̱havo̍ manuṣyāḥ

naciketaḥ = O Naciketas; saḥ tvam = you, such as you are [though tempted by me again and again]; abhidhyāyan = having considered the defects such as impermanence and unsubstantiality of; kāmān = desirable things; ca = and; priyān = dear ones such as spouse, offspring etc; priya-rūpāṁ = producers of delight, such as nymphs etc.; atyasrākṣīḥ = you have rejected; na avāptaḥ = you have not accepted; etāṁ = this; sṛṅkāṁ = course; vittamayīm = abounding in wealth; yasyām = by which; bahavaḥ = many; manuṣyāḥ = mortals; majjanti = sink, come to grief.

You, O Nachiketas, after pondering all pleasures that are or seem delightful, have rejected them all. You have not gone onto the road that leads to wealth, in which many mortals have perished. You have not taken to the chain of wealth in which many mortals are entangled.

Naciketas, by refusing all these temptations, states clearly that his goal is not to have and to become someone of this ephemeral world – he hungers and thirsts for the eternal, in which alone he can find real satisfaction and abiding joy – ānanda.

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