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Kathopanisad

Adyaya 1 Valli 2 Mantra 1

Lecture

Mantra

THE TWO WAYS
Yama’s Teaching

After testing Naciketa and knowing his fitness for receiving Brahma knowledge, Yama explains the great secret to him.

anya̍cchreyo’nyadu̱taiva preya-
ste u̱bhe nā̱nārthe̍ pu̱rusaṁ sinītah
tayo̍ḥ śreya ā̱dadānasya sādhu
bhavati hī̱yate’rthādya̍ u preyo vṛṇīte

śreyaḥ = the preferable, the Moral Good, the supreme goal (freedom from suffering); anyat eva (it) = is certainly different; tathā = similarly; uta = too; preyaḥ = the more pleasant; anyat eva = (is) different indeed; te ubhe = both of them; nānā arthe = serving divergent purposes; sinītaḥ = bind; puruṣam = a person: tayoḥ = of the two; ādadānasya = one who chooses [only]; śreyaḥ = the preferable, sādhu bhavati = well-being, good comes; yaḥ u = the one that; preyaḥ vṛṇīte =  selects the pleasurable; hīyate = gets alienated; arthāt = from this objective, from the human goal; [i.e. falls from the eternal supreme purpose].

(Yama said): There are two paths; the good and the pleasant. Different indeed are their purposes but both of them bind one. Of these two, it is well for one who takes hold of the good; but one who chooses the pleasant loses the very object of human life.

Every being is motivated by the drive to be free from suffering (dukkha) and achieve abiding happiness (sukha). As humans we do this through the pursuit of one of two paths: the path of pleasure and the fulfillment of desires known as the “delectable” — preyas; or through the path of śreyas or the “electable” which is the pursuit of liberation from Samsāra. One either hankers after prosperity, power, and pleasure to avoid the material causes of suffering or craves freedom from the root cause of suffering (ignorance — avidya) through emancipation (mokṣa). Therefore, everyone is said to be bound by these two in that they cling avidly to one or the other. But both of these paths are opposed to each other, inasmuch as the path of Pleasure is based on spiritual ignorance (avidya) and perpetuates one’s suffering and continued existence in Samsara; and the path of the Good arises from wisdom (vidya) and is conducive to one’s ultimate liberation from Samsāra. Everyone eventually must make the choice to pursue one or the other of these two paths. The question may be asked, “If we have free will in this matter why do most people cling to the pleasurable only”? This will now be answered.

Cp. Samyutta Nikāya I.4.2.6.
tasmā satañ ca asatañ ca nānā hoti ito gati | 
asanto nirayam yanti satañ saggaparāyaṇā ||

Therefore do the paths of the good and the evil of this world divide; the evil goes to hell but the final destination of the good is heaven.
In Samyutta Nikāya V.4.5.2 instead of saggaparāyaṇā, (going to heaven) we read nibbāna-parāyaṇam (attaining nirvana)

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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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