The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad -1.10.

07/07/2018
Chapter 1: The World is an Arena of Sacrifice-10.

In this spirit of a self-deceptive conduct, Vajasravasa is said to have been offering things which were not worth their salt. Cattle which were famished, cows which would not yield any milk further and were counting their days, having drunk their water for the last time and eaten their fodder finally – such things were evidently being given as charity, a great sacrifice for the sake of the heavenly rejoicings to come later on.

He seems to have had a son called Nachiketas. We know very little of this intricate story except the bare outline we have been given in the Taittariya Brahmana and the Kathopanishad. From what we can gather from the story given to us in outline, it appears this boy was intelligent. He knew the nature of the sacrifice that was being performed by the father, the purpose for which it was conducted, and so on.

He knew that it was a sacrifice, a vishwajit, which required the performer to give in charity everything that he possessed. The boy seemed to have observed that he did not offer in charity everything that he possessed. The good cows were kept perhaps, and the old ones, the decrepit ones, were given in charity.

In a mood which we are not able to describe today as we are not living in those days, in a peculiar mood the boy ran to the father and queried him: “My father, to whom are you offering me?” because he was also one of the properties belonging of the father. Why the boy queried like this, we are not able to understand.

What was the motive behind this question? Was he sarcastically pointing out to the father that his sacrifice was only a whitewash, or was he honestly feeling that he too had to be given one day because he is also one of the properties? Whatever the reason be behind this query of the boy, he presented himself before the father and said, “Father, to whom are you going to offer me?”

To be continued ..