KATHOUPANISHAD - 79. Swami Advayananda.

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Sunday 02, March 2025, 10:45.
KATHA UPANISHAD  
Part 2 – Total 49 Mantras 
Chapters 2.1, 2.2 & 2.3 
Chapter 2.2: (15 Mantras) 
THE SEARCH FOR BRAHMAN 
Mantram - 2.1.14:  Dispersion Into Plurality
Post - 79.

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Chapter 2.2: (15 Mantras) 

THE SEARCH FOR BRAHMAN 

WE HAVE ALREADY met with the ‘Chariot’ simile in Chapter 1.3, and the ‘Punished Senses’ and the ‘Rain on the Peaks’ similes in Chapter 2.1. Now we are introduced to another beautiful simile of the Upanishad, namely, the ‘Eleven-Gated City’ of the gross body. This chapter represents the steps to be taken to arrive at the Truth which Nachiketas 

seeks. The chapter is divided into two distinct sub sections. The first covers the search for Brahman as He unfolds Himself in Creation, i.e. the Immanent Brahman, starting with the body. The second section then continues the search in the Transcendend, Absolute realm.

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 THE IMMANENT BRAHMAN

 Mantram: 2.2.1: Brahman in the “Eleven-Gated City”  

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1                

Puram ekaa-dasha dvaaram = A “CITY” with eleven gates is (this body), 

2 

ajasya avakra chetasah; = belonging to the Unborn, unflickering Consciousness. 

3 

anushthaaya na shochati = By meditating on Him, one does not grieve, 

4 

vimuktah cha vimuchyate.=  He is liberated, and being free, he gains emancipation. 

5 

Etat vai tat. =This is verily That! 

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This is another of the extended metaphors used so effectively in this Upanishad to point out the Truth. This time it is the CITY, with its eleven entrances. The body is being

compared to a city. The essential point of this analogy is to correct the usual error of thinking that we are the body. “God has given me (my true Self) a city to live in. Why do I 

need to rest on a couch, to sit on a chair, to want a home as my dwelling?” 

To begin to think that we are not the body but the Self, the Rishi gives us this Upasana by which we learn to view the Body as our real resting place. Only the false “I” needs beds and couches, soft sofas and mattresses, palatial mansions and bungalows.  

In reality there is no resting needed for the Self, but we cannot start that high. We need to build ourselves up towards that Truth. This is only the beginning. By meditation on 

Brahman, we shall slowly expand and accept our God-given “City”. 

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Application of the “City” Metaphor:

A city is a complete unit which is self-supporting and self-governed. Its functions are performed by people specially appointed to execute them. Among them are its gatekeepers 

who keep a check on all input and output from the city. There are others above the gatekeepers who rule the city, such as the King, the ministers and their officers. 

1

 Puram: Each human individual, identified with a body, is a “City” unto himself, functioning as an independent living being. Ekaa-dasha Dvaaram: The “11 gates” of the body are: the 7 openings on the head (2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils and 1 mouth); 3 openings in the lower body (the navel, the genital organ and anus) and 1 non-physical “opening” at the crown of the head called the Brahma-Randhra. 

We have already seen in Tattwa Bodha all the 17 subtle body components and the 5 gross body elements which make up the body-city.  

2

 Ajasya: “of the Unborn (Self)”. The King who is in charge of the city stands as an independent person who is totally responsible for the proper governing of the entire city. 

He takes all the major decisions; all others carry out his orders.  

The King or Swami of this body is the “Unborn” Atman, the Supreme Self. He is the head who provides the driving force behind all the other functions performed within the 

body. This Self is of a completely different nature from that of all the others who serve Him in carrying out the body’s functions.  

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Avakra Chetasah: “of unflickering consciousness”. One of his most outstanding characteristics is that He is Eternal, undying or “unflickering”. The body dies but the Self is Immortal. This is a basic definition of the Self, the one who owns this city. 

Another meaning for this phrase is “one who is not crooked, convoluted, or twisted; who is straightforward and cannot be bribed; of a steadfast nature”. Such indeed is the Self. 

This is how He would run the city – if only had the full power to do so! 

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Upasana on the “Eleven-gated City”

When a metaphor is used for meditation, that meditation is called an Upasana. 

3

 Anushthaaya: “by meditating upon”. The purpose of bringing in the simile of the City is to provide an Upasana or a meditation technique to the student or seeker. The seeker takes up each aspect of the City and tries to meditate on how he would like to see it function if he were the Mayor of the city, the Self. 

The Deities who preside over the senses, as well as over the Pranas and the inner mental equipment are like the Councillors of this city. If these councillors always bear in 

mind (“meditate on”) this Supreme King who dwells in the body, no harm will befall the city.  

4

 It is usual in the Upanishads that, whenever an Upasana is given, it is always accompanied by the Phala or fruit that one gets due to its practice. People who perform Upasanas always keep this fruit in mind when they do the practice. The Upasanas of the Jnana Kanda (Upanishads) always have the Supreme Brahman as the goal to be attained. 

By doing this Upasana, one is freed and emancipated from the endless rounds of births and deaths in Samsara. That is the meaning of ‘emancipation’ in this line. 

5

 This Self is the answer to that which Nachiketas asked about in his third boon. The words Etat Vai Tat meaning “This indeed is that,” are repeated again and again in many 

mantras in order to refer us back to Nachiketas’s question to Yama in boon three.

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Next

Mantram -2.2.2: Brahman – Everywhere, in Everything

Continued

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