Lessons on the Upanishads -2.4: Swami Krishnananda.

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Monday 22, June 2024. 06:30.
Upanishads
Chapter 2: The Problem in Understanding the Upanishads - 4.
Post-12.

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The Upanishads take up this subject, and they want to break this hard nut; but, it is not as easy to break this nut as one may imagine. If we read the Upanishads, we will find ancient seekers undergoing tremendous hardships even in approaching these great masters of yore, and undergoing disciplines which are unthinkably painful for weak wills and minds and bodies like ours. It is not merely that we are weak psycho-physically; we have other difficulties which are more important and crucial—namely, obstacles which will stand in the way of our contacting God.

Regarding the obstacles, I would like you to listen to one instance of the problem that is highlighted in the Upanishads before  I  actually  try  to  touch  upon  the  basic  doctrine  and the philosophy of the Upanishads. This problem, which will harass any person and probably no one in all this creation can escape, is in the introduction to the Katha Upanishad. It is a classical introduction, in a most poetic language. It touchingly expresses not only the processes of the inner disciplines that are required on our part in order to contact the Ultimate Reality, but it also gives a picturesque description of what problems one has to face even in attempting to contact God. Many of you may be well acquainted with this story. I am repeating it because it is very interesting and it is worthwhile remembering as a guiding light for each one of us. It is a warning, and not merely an instruction.

There was an ardent seeker, a very brilliant young boy called Nachiketas. For some reason which is not important for us now, he came face to face with the Lord of Death —Yama, as he is called in the Sanskrit language. The story mentions to us that when he approached the abode of Yama, the Lord was away. He was not there. The boy, in an aspiring mood for receiving the greatest knowledge that one can think of, stood there for three days and nights, waiting for the arrival of the great master. He did not eat and he did not sleep because he was eager to come in contact with the holiest of holies, the master Yama Raja.

After three days and nights, the Lord appeared and said: “I am very sorry, my dear boy, that I made you stand here starving for three days and nights. I could not be present. As a recompense for the sufferings I inadvertently inflicted upon you by not being present here when you came, I request you to ask for three boons. I shall grant them just now.”

Nachiketas replied, “Well, my Lord, I am very grateful for the grant of these three boons and I shall tell you what these three boons could be in my case, which I love very much and are dear to me. Now I am before you, in the abode of death. When I return to the world, may I be received as a friend of the world, as something commensurate with the law of the world, as harmonious with everything that operates in the world as rules and regulations. May I be affectionately treated and taken care of and considered with great love by everybody, including my father whom I have left and come to see you.”

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Continued

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