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Kathopanisad

Adyaya 1 Valli 2 Mantra 10

Lecture

Mantra

jānāmy aham śevadhir i̱ty anityam
na hy adhruvaiḥ  prā̱pyate hi dhruvaṁ tat
tato mayā nā̱ciketaś cito’gnih
a̱nityair dravyaiḥ prā̱ptavān asmi nityam

aham jānāmi = I know; iti = this; śevadhiḥ = treasure; anityam = are impermanent; hi = for indeed; tat = that; dhruvaṁ = permanent reality, na hi = cannot be; prāpyate = attained; adhruvaiḥ = through that which is impermanent; tataḥ = therefore; mayā = by me; naciketaḥ cito’gniḥ = the fire called Naciketa was accomplished; anityaiḥ dravyaiḥ = with impermanent things; prāptavān asmi = I have achieved; nityam = the everlasting [the relatively everlasting abode of Yama which is called heaven].

I know that wealth is impermanent. The Eternal is not attained through non-eternal things; yet by performing the Naciketa Sacrifice, I have, by sacrificing impermanent things reached the imperishable.

Some translators (e.g. Max Muller and Hume) attribute this verse to Naciketas. But surely Naciketas has not yet performed the sacrifice called by his name as he is still in conference with Yama.

Shankara attributes these words to Yama, who makes out that through the sacrificial fire meditation that he taught earlier, he has obtained the enduring sovereignty of heaven. But this sovereignty is only relatively permanent. Through the transitory means of Karma (action) including sacrifices, nothing truly permanent can be achieved. The performer of the Naciketa fire,sacrifice will endure as long as the cosmos lasts but such endurance is not eternity, since the cosmos with all that it contains will be absorbed (pralaya) into the eternal at the end of the cosmic day.

Rāmānuja says that this verse means that by burning in sacrifice all transient things the eternal is attained, in other words, we must perforce use the finite tools available to us to obtain that which is infinite. The trans-empirical is obtained through the empirical.

Another commentator Gopala Yatindra has stated that through sacrifice Yama obtained his status as Overseer of Dharma and the controller of all beings.

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