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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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