The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad -1.11.

06/08/2018
Chapter 1: The World is an Arena of Sacrifice-11.

Well, no father would like to listen to such impertinent poses. The father kept quiet. He was busy with his own activities, yajnas. The boy persisted. “To whom are you going to offer me? The father kept quiet. A third time the boy insisted, “To whom are you going to offer me?” In a contour of anger or rage, the father seems to have blurted the imprecation: “To death I give you.” “Go to hell,” as we sometimes say in anger.

The story is very mystical. It is not merely a narration like a novel. Something seems to have happened to the boy immediately after this incident, and the next thing that we are told in the Upanishad is that the boy found himself in the courtyard of the god of death, Yama. Whether he went astrally travelling voluntarily by his own God-given power or he died due to the imprecation and his spirit gravitated to Yamaloka, this is not mentioned in the Upanishad. However, for our purposes it is immaterial as to how he went there. The point before us is something quite different, to which I will refer a little later.

The Upanishad tells us that Yama, the god of death, was not there. The lord of the house was absent; he was out of station; he was not there. The boy stood at the gate of the palace of the great lord. One night passed, two nights passed, three nights passed. He did not eat, he did not drink, and he did not sleep. He observed fast and vigil for three continuous days and nights, and on the third day Yama appeared before him.

“Dear boy, what made you come here? Where were you for these three days? What were you doing? I am very sorry I could not greet you with the respect that is due to a holy man like you. I was not here. It is unbecoming on the part of any person to show scant respect to a guest who comes, especially a guest like you. What have you eaten?”

“I have eaten all the merit that you have performed,” the boy replied. That is, if a guest starves outside while you are eating well in your house, that guest is supposed to eat all your merits. Though you are eating your meal, he is eating your good. All your good karmas are swallowed by him. “I ate your cattle, your children, your merit. Everything I ate.” Some such peculiar reply was given.

Yama was startled. “I am deeply grieved. You have starved before me for three days. Ask for three boons, and go happy.”

Here we conclude today.

NEXT : Chapter 2: Nachiketas’ First Two Boons -1.