Index…

Kathopanisad

Chapter 2 Valli 2 Mantra 4

Mantra

a̱sya vi̱sraṁsa̍-māna̱sya̱ śa̱rīra̍sthasya̱ dehi̍naḥ |
dehā̍d vi̱mucya̍māna̱sya̱ ki̱m atra̍ pari̱śiṣya̍te |
e̱tad vai tat || 4 ||

asya dehinaḥ śarīrasthasya = of this embodied one i.e., the Self which is  in the physical body; visraṁsamānasya = as it gets loosened or  detached; vimucyamānasya dehāt = as it gets separated from the body; kim =  what; pariśiṣyate = remains; atra = here; etat vai tat = this verily is That.

When this Atman, who dwells in the body, departs from the body, what remains then? This verily is That.

by Swami Chinmayananda:

The Atman, upon whom all the indriyas depend and who is the controller and director of all the vital airs, is the king of this City of Eleven Gates, our body. Just as when the beloved king leaves the capital permanently to stay in a different chosen capital. All his subject people follow the king into the new capital, so too, when the Atman departs from a body, all the activities of that physical body seemingly departs with the Atman.

When once the Lord quits the body, however great the man might have been, while living, his body starts to decay and perish until ultimately it reaches the dust from which the materials of the body had come.

Kimatra Parisishyate (what remains then?) — When the Atman has departed from the body what remains in the body: With this question Sruti confronts us with the sacred Truth that there remains practically nothing upon which we may glorify that empty shell, the dead body!!

Previous…                                                                                                                                                     Next…