The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad - 3.10 Swami Krishnananda

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27/02/2020.
Chapter 3: Nachiketas’ Third Boon-10.

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1.

However, the difficulty arises because we are trying to think God, to think an answer to a Universal question, and the Universal cannot be thought by the mind. This is the reason why we cannot get a humanly intelligible answer to this query. A Universal situation cannot be conceived by a particular mind. A particular person, a particular reasoning or logic can conceive a particular circumstance but not a Universal circumstance.

#Therefore, God cannot be thought by the mind, and we cannot know what moksha is. Moksha is entry into Universality; we may call it God, Ishvara, Brahman, the Absolute.

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2.

#“But what happens to me when I go there?” asked Nachiketas. 

##We will not be there, and a doubt may arise in our mind : “If you say that, thank God, I shall think thrice before going there.” 

We hesitate to get prepared for the ordeal that may be expected from God-being. We always go to God, temples, churches and godmen with a return ticket. Without that, we cannot go. That ticket is always in our pocket, and only then do we go to the Masters for solutions of mysteries of the whole world. 

###But what about this reservation ticket? That pulls us back.

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3.

#“Enough great Master, Lord. Come down. I cannot behold this any more,” said Arjuna. We cannot behold even God Himself for more than a second. No one can see God and be alive afterwards. 

##This is what great Masters opine. Na sa punar avartate (Chhand. Up. 8.15.1); yad gatva na nivartante (Gita 15.6). Oh, greatest sorrow! 

###After going there, we will not come back. Who would like to be told that we will go to God, and we will not come back?

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4.

#We get fear-struck. What will happen to us? Where are we going? And what are we going to get there? 

##We are going to get nothing because everything is going to be absorbed into that great menstruum of Universal Existence. 

###There we cannot have anything like consciousness of something.  

####The word ‘pretya’ is used by Yajnavalkya almost as an answer, as it were, to the query of Nachiketas. Pretya is an existence after the extrication of consciousness from involvement in the body. Generally, we understand the word ‘pretya’ to mean a ghost. It does not mean a ghost in the way we are thinking of ghosts, devils, etc. In the Sanskrit language pretya simply is that which is discarnate, freed from the involvement of flesh, bones, body; we may say, in a very special sense, freed from mortality itself. 

#####In that condition of Universality, what happens to you, what happens to me, what happens to everybody? Where are our friends? Where is this world? When we enter God, what happens to this world?

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5.

#We would rather like to wind up this whole subject and direct our attention to other occupations in life than delve into these mysteries. But we are not a boy like Nachiketas. We are businessmen, factory owners, children, with weaknesses of every kind. We are not fit aspirants of this Upanishad. Whatever be the nectar that is poured on a rock, the rock will not be able to absorb it because it is hard.

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6.

#Here is a great problem before you, sincere sadhakas here in this sadhana shabira. Here is a great question before you: What will happen to you, what will happen to your family, what will happen to all your property, what will happen to this world when you merge into the Absolute? Think over this matter.

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Chapter 3: Nachiketas’ Third Boon- Ends.
Next 4 : Overcoming the Limitations of Space and Time -

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To be continued ...

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