The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad : 2-6.

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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. We will not be tired of thinking this, and become mad with the unbearable joy that may be injected into our frail personality by the very idea of what this Vaishvanara can be. That we can go mad in one second is the only way I can put it – mad not as a morbid hospital patient but an inexpressible reservoir of unbounded delight. Into this mystery Nachiketas was initiated.

How many of us can be fit recipients of this mystery? This great Master Yama initiated Nachiketas into the mystery of Vaishvanara, about which something is said in other Upanishads, though not in the Katha where only a hint is given in a little passage. This is touched upon elaborately in the Fifth Section of the Chhandogya Upanishad, and a little bit is also mentioned here and there in some of the other Upanishads. Mention is made only with suggestive terms, without elaborate discussions. Nobody wants to say what this is. It is not safe to explain what it is, as it is not safe to allow a small baby to brandish a sharp sword. It is said that genius to madness is near alike; a thin partition divides them both. So in our aspiration for genius we may become mad because a thin partition, like a hair’s breadth, divides them both.

To be continued ..


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