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 a...

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ...

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...