Kathopanishad : ( 04/03/2013. )

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...

12/11/2018 The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad : 2-5 Chapter 2: Nachiketas’ First Two Boons : 5. This great experience is a highly advanced stage of communion with all things, where we are sarvabhutahite ratah (Gita 5.25). We are friends. We do not belong to parties. It is like the President of a country representing the whole nation. He is above the government, and is a super-departmental head. So a spiritual adept who returns to the world does not come as a man or a woman. He is not a human being coming back to the world of human beings. He will not be received as a human being; he will be received as a soul of all beings. He can shake the hearts of everyone. Though he may appear to be encased in a physical body like a great incarnation such as Krishna, Rama,  he is not really encased, as money is not contained inside a coin or a little piece of paper, though it appears as if it is. Money is everywhere. It is a pervading principle, an economic strength,...