YAMA AND NACHIKETAS
Yama and Nachiketas*
The story of Nachiketas is one of the
well known Upanishadic stories. The young boy Nachiketas goes to the world of
Yama and waits patiently for the arrival of Yama.
Yama is
astounded by the young boy’s commitment to acquiring knowledge and praises
Nachiketas.
Yama says what
is good in this world is not what we may consider pleasing. When confronted
with a choice between what is good and what is pleasing, a wise man chooses
what is good.
The man who
lacks intelligence chooses what he finds pleasant. Kathopanishad uses the word
‘yogakshema,’ here. What it means is that the unintelligent one chooses what is
pleasing in a worldly sense. But these things that give worldly prosperity are
impermanent. They will be lost soon. Moksha is what we should seek, and the
wise man knows this, because moksha is lasting and is never lost, said M.K.
Srinivasan in a discourse.
Yama offers to
Nachiketas many worldly things, but the boy wisely declines all of them. He is
steadfast in his desire for knowledge about liberation of souls. Yama tells
Nachiketas that the soul is not born. Nor does it die. When the body is
destroyed, the soul is not destroyed. The Atman is not killed. Nor does the Atman
kill.
In the same manner, Lord Krishna
clarifies Arjuna’s doubts, through the Bhagavad Gita, when He says that all
souls are eternal. So Arjuna does not have to think he is destroying Bhishma or
others. Just as the Supreme One exists across time, so do all souls exist
across time. When one has no material desires, only then can one try to
understand Brahman.
Even so, He
cannot be known through speech or by the eyes or by the mind. He can be known
only through the scriptures.
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*Source: The Hindu, February 20, 2017, FAITH
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