The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad -1.4.

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24/03/2018

The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad -1.4

Chapter 1: The World is an Arena of Sacrifice-4.


We cannot gainsay that we have a goodness in us with all the crude behaviours that one is capable of under pressurised circumstances. This basic cooperative instinct is seen seen sometimes in animals, though we may dub them as utterly beastly and selfish. Tame animals do not behave like animals. When they are educated into a new type of awareness, they behave in a more coordinated way than they would be expected to behave as beasts in the jungle.

The miracle of God’s creation is said to be man himself, and this mystery that man is incapable of being dissected into scientific apparatus or objects capable of observation by telescopes or microscopes is laid before us in an interesting narration of a scripture that goes by the name of the Kathopanishad, a spiritual saga sung before us by the ancient masters who had, to a large extent, plumbed the depths of being and saw things with an eye that could vitally associate itself with what it saw.

I began by saying that this world seems to be an arena of sacrifice. We cannot explain the martyrdom of people and the hectic activity of nationalists, or even the protagonists of creeds and cults and religions, if utter beastly selfishness is the essential nature of man. Would any person wish to die for the sake of the objective which is not visible to one’s eyes – national welfare, communal wellbeing, and family protection, for instance? Even the guarding of one’s own brother or sister cannot be associated with utter selfishness unless we completely rule out the very existence of such expressions of the human psyche in the world.

To be continued ...
Swami Krishnananda

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