KATHA UPANISHAD: 8 - Swami Gurubhaktananda.

on the 90 Lectures delivered by Swami Advayanandaji

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

Saturday 07, February 2025, 06:15.
KATHA UPANISHAD: “A Leap into the Beyond”:Parts 1 & 2 
with Bhashya by Sri Adi Shankaracharyaji.
on the 90 Lectures delivered by Swami Advayanandaji 
KATHA UPANISHAD:  Part 1 – Total 71 Mantras
Reflections by Swami Gurubhaktananda 
Chapters 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3 
Chapter 1.1: (29) Mantras
Mantram-1.1.9: Lord Yama Offers Justice
Post-8.

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

Mantram-1.1.9: Lord Yama Offers Justice:

Yama, now addressing Nachiketas: 

1 

Tisrah raatrih yat avaatseeh grihe me = “As you have dwelt three nights in my house 

2 

anashnan Brahman atithih namasyah; =  without food, O venerable Brahmana guest, 

3 

namah te astu Brahman svasti me astu =    I beg of you, O Brahmana, be good to me. 

4 

tasmaat prati treen varaan vrineeshva. =  Hence, in return, please choose three boons.

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

This mantram is a reflection of the spirit of the great Aryan tradition. Not only in  hospitality but in all other sectors of life, there was this nobility of spirit which did not see age, status or learning, etc, as a barrier to express honest modesty. Here, none other than the Lord of Death himself becomes supplicant to a mere boy of nine years age.  

1-4

Lord Yama takes the oversight in hospitality very seriously. He is prepared to offer three boons to Nachiketas, one for each day that the boy had been made to fast outside his doors. It is not so much to make good the bad Karma which he and his family  accrued, but to provide a just settlement to the boy whom he had offended; one may even add to the boy who already suffered the injustice of coming to him so soon. 

One can expect this order of perfection from Lord Yama. 

It is adherence to Dharma that qualified him in the first place for this high post as Lord of Death. 

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

THE FIRST BOON:

And so, Nachiketas asks his boons one by one. Lord Yama has given young Nachiketas three blank cheques. What does the boy do with them? 

He thinks of his family first – the suffering of his father, the anguish in his mind of having had to lose his son in a fit of rage. Then he thinks of the welfare of others, his community, through gaining merit for them to go to higher worlds after death. And thirdly, he rises even higher than that and seeks liberation– to go beyond all sorrow, beyond birth and death, to that realm for which Lord Yama alone is the most perfect teacher.

*****

Next
1.1.10:
Boon 1: “Forgive my Father” 
Continues

Reflections by Swami Gurubhaktananda (sitting&watching)

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