KATHOUPANISHAD - 68. Swami Advayananda.

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Saturday 02, November 2024, 06:05.
KATHA UPANISHAD  
Part 2 – Total 49 Mantras 
Chapters 2.1, 2.2 & 2.3 
Chapter 2.1: (15 Mantras) 
Mantram - 2.1.2: Second Obstacle: The Mind’s Thirst for Pleasure 
Post - 68.

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Mantram - 2.1.2: Second Obstacle: The Mind’s Thirst for Pleasure: 

 1 

Paraachah kaamaan = External pleasures are 

anuyanti baalaah = pursued by “children” (immature ones); 

2 

te mrityoh yanti = they fall into death’s   

vitatasya paasham; = widespread snares. 

3 

atha dheeraah = But the brave and mature ones,    

amritatvam viditvaa = have the knowledge of Immortality, 

4 

dhruvam adhruveshu iha = i.e. what is Eternal amidst the non-Eternal.  

na praartha-yante. = They do not desire anything of this world. 

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The second obstacle is brought into the discussion here, namely, Trishna or thirst for 

external objects of desire. In the Link passage to this verse, the Bhashya clearly identifies 

Avidya and Trishna as the two obstacles to God-vision. 

1.Baalaah: “children; the immature or ignorant ones”. The connotation is the 

unintelligent persons, the ‘children’ who still wishes to play with the toys offered by the 

world. Such persons get trapped by the snares of sense objects. When objects are known to 

give pleasure, they are sought again and again. This is how children behave. 

2.Where does this lead such ‘children’? – into the widespread nets of Death. ‘Death’ 

here has its widest meaning – not just the death of this birth, but the deaths of endless 

cycles of rebirths to which they are condemned due to being slaves of Desire. 

The vicious cycle of the Desire Lineage is “Avidya, Kama, Karma Samudaya”, i.e. the 

group of Ignorance, Desire and Action, as the Bhashya puts it. The words Samyoga – Viyoga, 

meaning ‘union and disunion’, are used in place of birth and death. The individual soul 

constantly unites and disunites with a physical body. 

3-4Dheeraah: “the intelligent, mature persons” are the very opposite of the 

children. They know through discrimination that objects are impermanent. They see that 

which is immortal amidst the mortal objects. Hence they turn their attention inwards to the

Self, which is the immortal aspect of their being. Freeing themselves from Avidya and 

Trishna, they focus their minds on the stable, all-pervading Self within. 

The verb Vyuttishthanti, “they rise above”, is aptly used in the Bashya. It expresses 

the idea that the Dheerah or wise man has raised his awareness to the Self, high above the 

desires for progeny, wealth and pleasures, and thus is not attracted by the sense world even 

though he may be living in the midst of it. That is how he succeeds. 

*****

Next

INTELLECT – INDIVIDUAL INTELLIGENCE 

Nachiketas’s third boon is now being answered directly. The Self, which Nachiketas 

asked about, is being explained in three verses from the level of the individual human 

intellect as the Knowing Principle. We begin with its involvement with the senses.  

Mantram:  2.1.3: The Cogniser of Sense Experiences 

Continued

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