The Secret of the Katha Upanishad: 4 - Swami Krishnananda

================================================================================

Sunday 18, Feb 2024 07:00.

Discourse No. 1.

Post - 4.

=================================================================================

This is the introduction to the Upanishad. Now, the Upanishad really begins. This great sacrifice of Vajasravasa Gautama for the purpose of enjoying the pleasures of heaven is the exoteric multitude of the deeds of humanity. The Upanishad is, as I mentioned to you, an exposition of the secret of the entire life of man, the secret of your life, the secret of my life and the secret of the life of every blessed thing. Vajasravasa represents humanity, as in the Bhagavadgita we say Arjuna represents mankind. The performance of this Vishvajit sacrifice by Vajasravasa Gautama is the performance of deeds by mankind as a whole. Man performs actions for the purpose of the enjoyment of the consequence of his actions. Why do you work from the morning till the evening in the various fields of your duties? To relieve yourself of the tensions of life and to enjoy the pleasures that are consequent upon the release of tension, and these pleasures to be enjoyed for as long a time as possible. You understand the purpose of your works in life. You work in this world because you want to come to a state of affairs when you need not work any more but will only enjoy the pleasures consequent upon your actions.

But what is your conception of happiness and delight? What is your notion of the happiness that may come as a consequence of your actions in life? It is the very same concept that Vajasravasa had. “I shall go to heaven and be with the gods and enjoy life.” But what do you mean by “enjoying life”? Can you describe to me what actually is meant by enjoyment of life? Have you any idea, the faintest notion, of what enjoyment means? If you are pressed to answer this question, you may say, “Logically and scientifically I cannot say anything about this; but it appears to me that my idea of happiness is to be in the possession of all desirable things in the world. Well! That possession is perhaps happiness for me. The greatest amount of physical wealth, the largest amount of pleasurable relations and perhaps the longest life with this body to come in contact with these objects and be in their possession—what else can be my notion of enjoyment?” This was Vajasravasa Gautama's concept, and is our concept also. Man is man, always. He never changes. What man was when the world was created, he is today, also. He is made of the same stuff. He will never change. You rub any man, you will find the same substance inside. He may be a primitive or the modern cultured, so-called educated man—they are all made of the same substance, same stuff. They have the same weaknesses and their desires are of the same character. So, what Vajasravasa Gautama thought, we also think today, and what was his fate shall be our fate, also.

But, we have something inside us, an urge that propels us in some other direction, apart from this exoteric urge which directs us to the enjoyment of the objects of sense. This something peculiar within us is the Nachiketas. The son of Vajasravasa Gautama, the progeny of the sage, is the conscience of the sage, which spoke out his heart. In the mythical terminology of the Upanishad, the conscience of Gautama speaks in the language of his son, Nachiketas. While we are after the enjoyment of life, rulership, authority, prestige and power and whatnot, we have also a subtle voice speaking from within us, every now and then, pestering us, as it were, sometimes annoying us with its demands, telling us something quite different from what we are thinking in our mind. “Are you going to enjoy the pleasures of the world? Are you going to perform deeds and actions for this sake alone?” What are the kinds of action that we perform? They are selfish to the core. They are utterly related to our bodily personality. Though we have heard much of what is known as unselfish action, it is something quite strange to our bodily individuality.

All the deeds of our day-to-day life are remotely connected with our personal pleasures known as egoistic enjoyments. As the enjoyments are brittle, short-lived, with a beginning and an end, so are the actions which engender these pleasures. Our deeds have a beginning and an end. They started sometime and they shall end also sometime. Similarly, that fruit which accrues out of these actions also has a perishable constitution. Our longing shall never be quenched by the brittle, dry, momentary objects of the world.

*****

Continued

======================================================================================