The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad -1.8.

30/05/2018

Chapter 1: The World is an Arena of Sacrifice-8.

The little gesture of sacrifice that we communicate in respect of others is a tendency towards movement in the direction the higher world. Our world is this body only, and when we do a little sacrifice we have transcended this bodily world and extended it to the realm of other people’s existence. We cannot have any sense of affection for other people unless we have overcome the sense of satisfaction with only this bodily world.

If this body were all and I am totally satisfied with living in this body only, there would be no point in my talking to another person. I would totally mind my own business. The gesture of good will, in whatever form it may be expressed, is a tendency to the recognition of an existence of a world transcending the physical world of body. Here is a philosophical note attached to the story that I am trying to narrate.

Vajasravasa performed this yajna, and offered everything that he possessed. What was it that he possessed? He had plenty of land, buildings, silver, gold, cattle and the like, evidently, the details of which are not available to us in the Kathopanishad. The Upanishad, in a very cryptic form, tells us that this sacrifice which he performed was not true to its spirit, it was true only to the letter. He followed the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.

To be continued ..;