Kathopanishad : ( 04/03/2013. )

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 24/12/2019. Chapter 3: Nachiketas’ Third Boon-7. ======================================================================== 7.1 #We use the words ‘existence’, ‘being’, ‘that which is’, etc., as if things are very clear to us. Existence is the counterpart of non-existence. We cannot think of what is unless we are simultaneously thinking what is not. The moment we think of day, the idea of night also arises. When we think of the good, the bad also is there. Everything that we are capable of thinking in the mind appears to be relative to its own counterpart. That which is absolutely self-sufficient cannot become an object of our understanding or reason; hence, the reluctance of the great Lord to answer this question. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 28/11/2019.  Chapter 3: Nachiketas’ Third Boon-6. ======================================================================== Much worse, we cannot even distinguish between what is good and what is not. We have been educated in a wrong way, due to which reason we confuse the good with the pleasant, and vice versa, and we ask for immediate satisfactions, though in the long run they may bring us untold sorrow and suffering. We would not mind going to hell tomorrow if today our ego is to be scratched to its own satisfaction. Tomorrow will be hell, but it does not matter if today I am happy. The great Master Yama initiated Nachiketas into the mystery of the discrimination between the real and the unreal, that is, the capacity to know what is and what is not. Actually, the question was: What is finally?  Astity eke nayam astiti cai

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24/10/2019 Chapter 3: Nachiketas’ Third Boon-5. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We are presented with two opportunities in our life: the good one and the pleasant one. We always choose the comfortable and the pleasant one, and not the good one if it is not pleasant and comfortable. The good one need not necessarily be comfortable because our idea of pleasantness and comfort is an acquiescing in what is in harmony with the requirements of our sense-ridden physical individuality. If the psychophysical structure of our personality is to be satisfied with a particular circumstance, that is what we shall grab at the very first opportunity. Whether it is good or bad, that is a different matter. A bit

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 06/10/2019 Chapter 3: Nachiketas’ Third Boon-4. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Great Masters do not initiate us into high mysteries unless we are tested and trained and disciplined in various ways. Anything that can detract our attention will be presented first, and then let us see what our reaction is in regard to these presentations. When Gauranga Mahaprabhu Krishna Chaitanya Deva went to the great saint and sage of the Madhva Sampradaya for initiation, he was not ready to initiate Gauranga Mahaprabhu without a test. We are told that he asked him to take a few grains of sugar and put them into his mouth. Generally if we put a few grains of sugar into the mouth, they will immediately melt into

======================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  30/08/2019 Chapter 3: Nachiketas’ Third Boon-3. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recap :  The word that is used in the Kathopanishad is deeply mystical, esoteric, eluding in its significance. Mahati samparaye is the word used in the Upanishad. Samparaya is life beyond, or we may simply say ‘the beyond’. Well, usually the word ‘life beyond’ is something with which many people are acquainted. It is a process of being reborn into some other form, incarnation; we may call it rebirth somewhere in some way. Was Nachiketas wanting to know how a person is reborn after death? This could not have been his question. One who has been granted this great boon of the mystery of Vaishvanara, which was the s

09/07/2019 Chapter 3: Nachiketas’ Third Boon-2. Well, Nachiketas was not an ordinary boy. He was an exceptionally gifted genius, a mature spirit, though he looked like a lad in his teens. “I shall not ask for any other boon. I shall press only for this gift from the great Master that you are. You are saying that no one can understand this. ‘Even the gods have been in great doubt as to the meaning of this great mystery.’ When you say this before me, I shall take it for granted that you know the answer to this question. Otherwise, you will not be speaking like this. Having been blessed with the opportunity of seeing you, the great one, face to face, when I am before you, the great Lord who knows the answer to this question, will I ask for another boon? Here is Nachiketas adamantly standing, and I shall not budge from this place until an answer comes to this question from no less a great man than you.” “Press me not, my dear boy. I am sorry that I asked you to seek a third boon

03/05/2019 Chapter 3: Nachiketas’ Third Boon-1. The first boon which was granted to Nachiketas was great enough, and to us almost incomprehensible. The second boon that was granted was greater still, and more difficult to comprehend. Yet they were granted. They were exceptional things which mortal minds cannot perceive, and such heavenly, or even super-heavenly boons were granted by the great Lord Yama to Nachiketas – boons people like us can neither imagine in our minds, nor understand. However, such supernatural benefits accrued to the little boy Nachiketas by his contact with the supreme master of yoga, Yama-Dharmaraja. “Yes, I have granted you the two boons. Ask for the third boon.” Now the little boy took the great Master by surprise. He asked for something which the great Lord never expected him to ask, a question which no one will put because it will never occur to our minds. Such a mysterious query was raised by this little boy. What did he ask? "Yeyam prete v

29/04/2019 1. INTRODUCTION : 1. The Kathopanishad may be regarded as a most appropriate introduction to spiritual life in general. The story with which the Upanishad begins provides the proper foundation for commencing a study of the science of the higher life of man. From the exoteric ritual of the performance of sacrifice and charity by sage Vajasravasa, the Upanishad takes us to the spiritual longing of the seeker, Nachiketas, which moves along a definite pattern of development. "The three boons requested for by Nachiketas from Yama represent the 1.terrestrial, 2.heavenly and 3.spiritual realms of attainment." In the movement from the outward liturgy of Vajasravasa in the world to the inner aspiration of Nachiketas for spiritual values, we have the first step taken towards the higher consciousness. The second step is the rise from temporal relationships to the universal significance of all things found in the all-comprehensive Vaisvanara, known also as Hiran

20/04/2019 The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad : 2-10 Chapter 2: Nachiketas’ First Two Boons-10. Unless we know what this Vaishvanara is, we cannot be safe in this world. We cannot have security of any kind. We shall find ourselves in an insecure condition every moment if we depend on anything other than the Vaishvanara, because the Vaishvanara is the ruling government of the cosmos. It is the central ordinance of the Absolute. It is, in a way, the Creator of the universe. Sometimes people identify Vaishvanara with Hiranyagarbha, Brahma. The way in which we can grasp everything in a total spirit is the way into the mystery of Vaishvanara. ‘Visva’ is the universe; ‘nara’ etymologically means man. Visvanara is the Cosmic Man. Vaishvanara is that which pertains to the cosmic personality. There is only One Person in the whole universe. Vaishna bhaktas especially who follow the madhurya rasa method contemplate God as the only male, and everybody is a gopi. We are all w

03/04/2019 The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad : 2-9 Chapter 2: Nachiketas’ First Two Boons-9. Asking for too much is very bad, but Nachiketas could contain this mystery and receive it. He was a well-baked pot, not a half-baked pot. Otherwise, we would misinterpret the whole thing like the half-baked disciple who heard from Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Deva that all souls are immortal and immediately went to the Ganga and started fishing, saying that all souls are immortal so fishes can be killed. This was all he could understand from this immortality of the soul. You can kill anybody; that is the meaning of this great dictum that Atman is immortal. If this is the way we receive the teachings of the great Masters, they have to be guarded in communicating this knowledge. Maybe even Yama, the great Master, must have had some reservations; anyhow, he communicated it. But it was not easily communicated to all people like that, even to well-trained persons, as we hear o

04/03/2019 The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad : 2-8 Chapter 2: Nachiketas’ First Two Boons : 8. We know things piecemeal, bit by bit, little by little. We go from one shop to another shop. We cannot go to all shops at the same time and see everything at one stroke. We cannot even memorise all things at one stroke, and so we memorise them little by little. Even when we want things, we want things one after the other, not all things at one stroke. But there is a mystery by which we can know many things as one thing, just as we know this whole body as one object. I am sitting here as one person, you are seated there as another person. This body is made up of many parts. Each one knows that many parts constitute this body. There are eyes and ears and nose and what not. But we do not have to count these limbs in order to know that we are here. “Well, I have two eyes, two ears, a nose, ten fingers, legs. Yes, I am here.” This is not the way we say we are here. We nee

01/02/2019 The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad : 2-7 Chapter 2: Nachiketas’ First Two Boons : 7. Asking for too much is very bad, but Nachiketas could contain this mystery and receive it. He was a well-baked pot, not a half-baked pot. Otherwise, we would misinterpret the whole thing like the half-baked disciple who heard from Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Deva that all souls are immortal and immediately went to the Ganga and started fishing, saying that all souls are immortal so fishes can be killed. This was all he could understand from this immortality of the soul. You can kill anybody; that is the meaning of this great dictum that Atman is immortal. If this is the way we receive the teachings of the great Masters, they have to be guarded in communicating this knowledge. Maybe even Yama, the great Master, must have had some reservations; anyhow, he communicated it. But it was not easily communicated to all people like that, even to well-trained persons, as we hear

10/01/2019 The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad : 2-6 Chapter 2: Nachiketas’ First Two Boons : 6. “I have heard, great Master, that there is a thing called Vaishvanara, which comprehends everything. I am enamoured of this very name. I have heard that it is a great mystery. Initiate me into this mystery of the Vaishvanara.” The Upanishad is very cryptic here. Either some passages are left out in the printed editions or the great Master did not speak in an elaborate manner. Maybe the editions are defective. Whatever the case may be, in the present editions of the Upanishad we have very little said about this matter except that everything was done. The necessary appurtenances for initiation into this mystery of the Vaishvanara were collected at once, and Nachiketas was initiated into the mystery of the Vaishvanara, the origin of all things. We shall be staggered by hearing these things. We shall be giddy. We will not want our lunch, dinner, breakfast, or anything. W