The Kathopanishad-5. Swami Krishnananda.
Friday, 04 Aug 2023. 06:15.
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"Athakamayamanah, yo'kamo niskama apta-kama atma-kamah, na tasya prana utkramanti, brahmaiva san brahmapyeti (B.U. 4.4.6)" says Sage Yajnavalkya to King Janaka in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.
In the context of the transmigration of the soul, Yajnavalkaya mentions here that whatever one's wish is, that will be fulfilled. Remember very well that no wish of ours, even the pettiest, will be unfulfilled. If we think that we want something, it shall come to us. If it is a very strong desire, it may be fulfilled in this life itself. If it is a mild desire, we may have to take time for the fulfilment of that wish – it may be the next birth, or after two or three births. What happens to the person who has no desire? Now I shall speak about the man, the person who has no desire of any kind, who is bereft of any desire, who has fulfilled every desire, who loves only the Self. Only he who has love for the Universal Self can be said to have fulfilled all desires; every other person has some extraneous desire. Such a person, when he departs from this body, what happens to him? He will not depart. We generally say the soul departs. In the case of the Self-realised soul, no departure takes place. It sinks then and there into the Absolute like a bubble in the ocean. When the bubble in the ocean bursts, it does not travel some distance; it dissolves itself into the bosom of the sea, then and there. There is no space and time movement of the soul of that great being. He becomes one with the very existence then and there, here and now. One neither has to go to heaven nor to Brahmaloka, nor to the Garden of Eden – nothing of the kind, because the question of going arises only due to the concept of space and time. A timeless eternity, which is the true essence of the soul of a person, does not travel to any place. He melts here itself into Pure Existence. The soul is the Absolute, and therefore it enters the Absolute. This is what we gather from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. So much detail cannot be found in Yama's answer in the Kathopanishad, but many other things are casually mentioned by way of a tentative elucidation of the answer expected by Nachiketas from Yama.
The Kathopanishad is a most beautiful Upanishad. It is worth committing to memory, if possible. There are some ashrams in India where the residents of the ashram are expected to recite it the whole day. It is, first of all, a very fitting introduction to spiritual life. The very first chapter of the Kathopanishad is something like the first chapter of the Bhagavadgita. It places before us the conditions preceding the quest of the spirit, as we have it in the first chapter of the Bhagavadgita. The second chapter of the Kathopanishad begins with similar circumstances, as in the second chapter of the Bhagavadgita; and as the Bhagavadgita goes on, so also does the Kathopanishad. There is some resemblance, people think, between the Bhagavadgita's approach to things and the approach of the Kathopanishad. Literally also, from the point of view of the Sanskrit language, it is melodious and artistic – a lyrical beauty is there. A very fine, mellifluous style is the passage of the Kathopanishad. Inasmuch as it touches our soul and it is relevant to our own predicament at the present moment, we seem to be something like Nachiketas, and we are perhaps searching for an answer of the same kind. Nachiketas expected three types of boons, and we perhaps also expect the same thing, in some way, in some measure. The Kathopanishad is the best introduction, equal to the Bhagavadgita and all the Upanishads.
So, with these words, the major point that is raised in the Kathopanishad may be said to be complete.
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Another topic on Kathopanishad
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