KATHA UPANISHAD - 54. Swami Advayananda.

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Tuesday 16, Apr 2024 06:30.

Chapter 1. Section - 2: (25 Mantras): THE CHOICE:

Mantram - 25: Simile: The Lord at His Meal 

Post - 54.

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Mantram - 25: Simile: The Lord at His Meal 

1 

Yasya brahma cha kshatram cha = To the Self the Brahmana and Kshatriya classes 

2 

ubhe bhavatah odanah; = are both, as it were, a main dish of cooked rice;  

3 

mrituh yasya upasechanam kah = to Him death itself is merely a side dish – he who  

4 

itthaa veda yatra sah. =  knows thus (of sinful conduct), where would he be? 

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The last  mantram of this chapter paints a rather humorous picture. The Self is depicted

as being at His dinner table. The scene may be imagined as something quite awesome: It is

midday and the Lord has just come home very hungry. The Earth itself is the Lord’s dining

table: what His Dining hall must be like can just be imagined. And what is His food? This is

where the mantram begins…

The people on Earth make up the Lord’s various dishes!

1-2 The most sagely and valorous ones are the Brahmanas and Kshatriyas. They

comprise the choicest, largest or main dish of His meal, the Odanah or cooked rice.

3 The rest of humanity such as the Vaishyas and Shudras, who live such lives as make

them playthings in the hands of Death due to repeated cycles of births and deaths, make up

only His Upasechanam, the side-dish, i.e. the pickle of His meal. He just licks them at his

leisure! They classify only as snacks in His menu! In the verse these people are themselves

called “death itself”. They live only to die!

4 Now for the best part of the simile. With all four groups of people who perform

their allotted duties already taken care of, where would we put the people who “know

thus”, i.e. who live the kind of life described in the previous verse – the sinful conduct of

eating, drinking and making merry? They don’t even have a place on the Lord’s dining table!

Acharyaji humorously said that perhaps they will not even feature in His great “burp”

after His meal! What an unusual simile to manifest in the luminous mind of the Rishi!

Yama is telling Nachiketas, “My dear Nachiketas, there is only one way of knowing

the Self: You must love Him alone above everything else, with passion. Don’t give up. Silence

the mind and find in it a gap to sneak through to the Self. Yearn for this for Its own sake.

Love Him with all your heart, and do not allow the Ego to get even the slightest chance to

gap in and steal the show.”

With this amazingly picturesque simile ends the second Chapter of the Upanishad.

Indeed, the Self is unknowable except to the purest of souls like Yama and Nachiketas. Most

of humanity would have to be content being just a speck on His side-plate! 

Chapter-1, Section-2: Ends here.

Next

Chapter - 1. Section -3: 17 Mantras: THE JOURNEY AHEAD

Continued

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