Facing Life Is More Real than Facing Death (Kath Upanishad) || AP Neem Candies
Acharya Prashant: Nachiketa is a mere boy dependent on his father, and he has the honesty and the guts to go to his father and say, “Of what use is all this that you are doing? Who will benefit from these old and sick and milkless cows?” I assure you that was more difficult than facing Yamraj.
We glorify Nachiketa’s encounter with Yamraj and that keeps things safe for us, “Glory to Nachiketa who stood unflinching in front of Yamraj.” Nice, because we very well know that this encounter is a myth. We very well know that we will never have the occasion in our own life to stand face-to-face with the death god, at least not in the way the Upanishad narrates. We all will die, in that sense, we all will face the death god one day; but not in the way Nachiketa faced. Not in the way of having a conversation in words and sentences.
So, nice and safe, say, “Glory to the one who can stand unflinching, unflappable in front of Yamraj.” I’ll put it differently Parmeshwari (Questioner) I’ll say, “Glory to the one who is dependent on somebody close to him, and yet has the guts to utter the truth and the guts to leave his home.” That’s where Nachiketa’s glory really lies.
Yamraj is fictitious; what danger is there in facing fiction? Nachiketa’s father is not fictitious.
There is great danger in facing someone real, especially when you are dependent on that real person.
And at first, father, who is an influential person, keeps dismissing the boy away; but Nachiketa keeps pestering him. Finally, annoyed by the boy’s pesky behavior, the father says, “I am giving you away to death.”
Obviously, the father is just uttering some nonsense in a moment of rage. The boy has been annoying him; the boy has been questioning his moral authority. The father does not really want to put away the boy, the father just wants the boy to leave him alone and not irritate him; after all, it’s a big ceremony that is going on, and thousands of cows are being given away to Brahmins. The father is busy overseeing the arrangement and the boy is chasing him, and the boy is saying, “Father, hold. What the hell is going on? These are useless cows; you’re donating them, what is the worth of such a donation?” Father is saying, “Stay away!” Can you visualize all this?
The Katha Upanishad does not explicitly tell of all this. That which I am narrating consists of a lot of my own construction, but this is how it would have happened. Nachiketa is barely a teenager, and he’s chasing the father. “Father, what really is going on? Look at that cow, look father look, half dead.” The father says, “You keep shut.” The boy does not relent. Finally, Father says, “I am giving you away to God, the death god.” And now comes the moment of glory, real glory, Nachiketa says, “Fine, if you are giving me away to death god, then here I go away to death.” That's dispassion, that’s determination. After that what happens is smooth and natural.
Nachiketa has already cleared the big test; facing Yamraj is the smaller test. Having cleared the big test, obviously, he will emerge with flying colors in the smaller one. The big test is to leave the home, the big test is to give up all dependency and after that, obviously, you’ll be blessed with the Truth. And look at Nachiketa, the first thing he asks Yamraj is – “Let my father be alright, please bless my father, please don’t let him stay angry.” His father has done the unthinkable and Nachiketa still has no bitterness, he says, “God, first of all, you bless my father.” About Truth he asks right in the end, that’s his final query.
What does he ask? “Tell me that by which immortality is achieved. What really is immortality?” He doesn’t directly ask about death, he asks about immortality; and Yamraj says, “Boy, you can have expensive toys if you want. You can have the best of foods, if you want, the latest gadgets, if you so, please. A brand new car for you? Along with the driving license? It doesn’t matter if you’re underage; I am the death god, you see.” All that Nachiketa could be tempted with was tried, it failed on him. That’s the test.
All the knowledge that you find in the Upanishad is easy to get once you have overcome dependency, once you have stayed true to yourself, once you have won over the craving for security, stability, the confines of a comfortable palace, the comfort of a regular routine.
Once you have been able to go beyond all this, then the Truth is obvious. That is not at all difficult. All the great and golden verses that you come across in the Katha Upanishad, they will spring up right from your heart. They will not be distant or difficult anymore. Do you get this? Those verses are the easiest part. You start hearing those verses right in your breath. They are the easiest part.
The more difficult part is right in the beginning. The more difficult part is when you ask your father for the truth, knowing fully well that he is not in the Truth.
Full article linke: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles/talk-later-of-the-truth-first-rebel-against-the-false-1_335c375
