Episode 01 - Katopanishad.

KATOPANISHAD

Most of us are aquainted with the Kata Upanishad - the core part represented by the inter-locution between Nachiketas and Dharma Raja (Yama). The shanti mantra of this Upanishad is also something most of us have often heard and understood:

Omsa ha nāᾱv avatu, saha nau bhunaktu, saha vīryam karavᾱvahai,

tejasvi nav adheetam astu: mᾱa vidviṣᾱvahai; Oṁ śhāntih, śhāntihi, śhāntihi.

“May we both be protected. May both of us be taken care of properly. May we study together. May our teaching and learning be resplendent. May there be no misunderstanding between us. May there be no discord of any kind. May there be peace, may there be peace, may there be peace.” We saw in an earlier post why "SAnthih" is uttered thrice. This is to ward of obstacles or hindrance frompossible three sources (called taapatraya): internally, physical ones; externally, fromoutside world (prakriti); and fromabove, fromthe gods. (May all these cease)

Here are two very absorbing parts fromthis major vedantic work:

Eternal and Transmigratory paths shown

anyac chrEyO anyad utaiva prEyaste ubhe nAnArthe puruṣham sinītaḥ:

tayOḥ śrEya AdadAnasya sAdhu bhavati, hīyatE’rthAd ya u prEyo vṛṇIte. 

“There are two things in this world, and people pursue either this or that. These two may be regarded as the path of the pleasant, and the path of the good. Most people choose the former, and not the second (good). The pleasant is pleasing, but passing, and ends in pain. It is different from the good. But while the good need not necessarily be pleasant, the pleasant is not good.”

SrEyaS ca prEyaS  ca manuṣhyam etas tau samparItya vivinakti dhIrAḥ.

SrEyO hi dhIrO’bhipreyasO vṛṇIte, prEyO mando yoga-kṣhEmAd vṛṇIte. 

“The dull-witted person chooses the pleasant (prEyas) : he wants to pass the day somehow. He does not know where or how the good is. The dheera or hero who is endowed with viveka, the power of discrimination, chooses the Sreyas or the ultimate good.” 

When the pleasant and good come to us, they come together, in a mixed form, so that you cannot understand them. The best example for this is the world itself: you can use it as a passage to eternity, or for your pleasure. Yama tested Nachiketas in the same way as this world tests us. Temptations come every day, in every thing we see. We are caught in them because we are unable to distinguish between right and wrong. We do not know what will happen tomorrow. But our ignorance is so dark that we (ignorantly and mistakenly) expect pleasure to be perennial. Who prevents us from choosing the good? It is lack of understanding, aviveka or ajnana, which hides the defective side and shows only the pleasant aspects.

The truth about the Self revealed

Na jAyathE mriyathE vA vipachchith:

nAyam kuthachchinna pabhUva kachchith:

ajO nithya SASvathOyam purANah:

na hanyathE hanyamAnE SarIrE.

This AthmA which is formless, is never born. It never dies. It was not born out of anything. Nothing is born out of it either. This is birthless. It is, was and will be present, always. It never decays. It never grows. When the body perishes or is killed, AthmA never is killed or does it perish.

AthmA is eternal,.  Right. What is the way to get hold of it?

anOraNIyAn mahathO mahIyAn, AthmASya janthOr nihithO guhAyAm;

Dhamagrathu paSyathi vIthasOkah: dhAthu prasAdhAn mahimAnamAthma.

This AthmA is smaller than the smallest and larger than the largest. It lies in the heart cave of the Being. The one that has discarded desires, helped by the peace in his sense organs, realizes the glory of the AthmA and is released fromsorrow.

nAyamAthma pravachanEna labhya: na mEdhayA bahUnA srudhEna: 

yamEvaisha vruNuthE thEna labhya: naSyaisha Atma vivruNuthE dhanUswAm.

This AthmA is not realized by learning (the Vedas); nor by an exceptional memory; not by repeatedly listening (to the scriptures); The AthmA is realized only by him who the AthmA chooses. Only to him the AthmA reveals itself.

The divine determination (sankalpa) of the realization of AthmA by the saadhaka (aspirant) is underscored here.  

Clarion call by the Sruti

uththishthatha: jAgratha: prApya varAn nibhOdhatha: kshuraSya dhaarA nichithaadhu radhyayA;

Dhurgam padhaSthath kavayO vadhanthi.

Arise! Awake!  Approach the learned great men and learn about the AthmA.  Great learned people have said that this path is like walking on a razor’s edge. 

(This proclamation is home to two very famous allegories: “Arise, Awake” that Swami Vivekananda used so effectively in his messages. “Walking on a razor’s edge” is the other)

Art of meditation for realization of the supreme

 angushta mAthra purusha: madhya Athmani thishtathi: 

IsAnO bhUthabhavyaSya na thadhO vijugupSathE.

The Lord of the past, the present and the future, the Brahmam, of the size of the thumb, presides in the middle of the (jivan’s) body.  The jiva who has understood this would not seek protection for himself. That is that Brahamam. 

3.13 angushta mAthra: purusha: jyOthirivAdhUmakha: 

IsAnO bhUthabhavyaSya Sa EvAth ya ca uSva: Ethathvai Thath.

Of the size of a thumb, glowing without the hindrance of smoke, That Brahmam is and shall ever be.

That principle (thathva) is the Brahmam.

(The instructions that Dharma Raja (Yama) gives to Nachiketas, after the latter spurns all the enticing offers of Dharma Raja and insisting on getting thus instructed, comprise the exceptional messages on the nature of the Ultimate, its equations with the soul and the processes recommended to understand this equation – the Katopanishad. Only a few are illustrated here.)