KATHA UPANISHAD - 17. Swami Advayananda.

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Saturday, January 07,  2023, 06:30.

Chapter 1.Section-1: (29 Mantras) : The story of Nachiketas in the House of Death

(“A Leap Into the Beyond”) :  Bhashyam by Sri Swami Adi Sankaracharya ji.

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Chapter-1, Section-1.

THE SECOND BOON

Mantram - 1.1.18: Glorification of Sacrificial Fire Worship

Post-17.

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Mantram-18. (Glorification of Sacrificial Fire Worship)

With Translation :

1 Tri-naachiketah trayam etat viditvaa = Yama: “The threefold Nachiketas Sacrifice,etc – the one who knows these (the above-named) ‘Three’,

2 yah evam vidvaan chinute naachiketam; = if such a knowledgable one performs the Nachiketa Sacrifice,

3 sah mrityu-paashaan puratah pranodya = he throws off the chains of Death even before death itself;

4 shokaatigah modate svarga-loke. - having crossed over all sorrow, he rejoices in heaven.

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Bhashyam (Vyakyanam) :

1-2 The science of Fire sacrifices named after Nachiketas is here being eulogized by 

Lord Yama both to glorify the boy and to glorify its performance as a form of ritualistic

worship and an Upasana. Although it does not represent the highest spiritual science which 

liberates man, yet it is a positive start in that direction. Hence it is glorified.

3 This claim of crossing ‘death’ while still in one’s body is usually reserved in 

Upanishadic literature to the state of Jivanmukti or Liberation while living. In the context of 

the Nachiketas Sacrifice, it would mean overcoming the fear of ‘death’ and the 

accompanying mental anguish by attaining the heavenly worlds where there is no body and 

hence no death. Hence, ‘throwing off death’ refers to the bodiless existence in heaven.

4 The claim made of crossing over all sorrow is another aspect of the same 

attainment. It refers to the dense sorrows of a gross material existence on earth, which is 

absent in heaven. It does not refer to the deeper freedom from sorrow which is removed 

only through spiritual knowledge. The former type of sorrow can be removed by Upasana

combined with rituals like the ‘Nachiketas Fire Sacrifice’, which lead one heaven. 

Nevertheless, it is an important canon in Vedantic philosophy that this also leads to 

the ultimate release from sorrow but by the process of Krama Mukti or gradual liberation. In 

this method, the theory is that the devotee first attains the heavenly region of Brahmaloka, 

where he is instructed by the Lord Brahma Himself in the knowledge that liberates him 

completely from birth and death, i.e. the equivalent of Jivanmukti or Liberation.

The Karma Kanda is not anti-Jnana; it is just pro-Ajnana. In contrast, the Jnana Kanda 

is directly in opposition to Ajnana, of which it is the opposite. Jnana and Ajnana cannot coexist, as they are like light and darkness.

The stage is now set for asking for Knowledge of the Self (Atma Jnana). This will be 

the “Boon of Heroism” that has made Nachiketas so famous in all Upanishadic lore.

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Next
THE THIRD BOON
To be continued

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