By Victor M Fontane
The Katha Upanishad is one of the mukhya Upanishads, embedded in the last eight short sections of the Kaṭha school of the Krishna Yajurveda. It is also known as Kāṭhaka Upanishad, and is listed as number 3 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads.
The Katha Upanishad is an important conversation between Naciketas, a young man and Yama, the Lord of Death. According to the Upanishad, Naciketas was sacrificed by his father Vajasravas in a fit of anger and upon dying, he went to the world of Yama and waited there for three days. When Lord Yama came to know about this, he felt greatly concerned as he made a pious Brahmana boy, pure and innocent, wait in his house for three days without receiving the honors due to a house guest.
Lord Yama did not consider Naciketas a sinner, but a pious soul worthy of honor and respect. To rectify his lapse and avoid the sin of neglecting a house guest, he offered Naciketas three boons. Naciketas accepted them with great dignity and humility and determined to make the best use of them. What followed was a long conversation of great philosophical importance between the two on the relevance of materialism, spiritualism, self-knowledge, Brahman and liberation in human life.
The Katha Upanishad has a few verses in common with the Bhagavadgita and the conversation between Lord Yama and young Naciketas is spiritually as profound as that between Lord Krishna and Arjuna. While Naciketas had a long conversation with Death itself in the house of Death, Arjuna saw the most terrifying universal form of Death (Kala) in the battlefield of life. The similarities are thus very striking and profound. The Upanishad also signifies the importance of Aum and the practice of yoga. Most importantly, some important lessons are hidden in the legend of the Naciketas which are relevant to modern life and they are listed below.
You get limited opportunities in life. Make use of them. Life is short. Most of the time it is your actions which determine your destiny; but sometimes you get chances or opportunities to improve things or redirect your life in the direction of your desires and dreams.
The three levels of existence in humans are the physical level, the subtle level, the causal level and beyond that our true reality, the witness or the prior three levels, Atman or God.
Thus, the three levels of the mind are the awake or physical state, the subtle or dreaming state and the causal or deep sleep state. Beyond all that, one consciousness, your pure consciousness.
Comments