Just got curious about hearing this great book, and wanted to read for a long time. Then found this book commentary on Kathopanishad by Swami Chinmayananda, right in my house, so thought that this is the sign for me to begin this book. It took about four months, and two trips ( andaman & goa ) , almost daily reading after the meditation, just to read & understand this 270 page commentary once !!! .If its a novel, would have finished in a day or two.
We have to appreciate the genius of the rishis in telling the great knowledge of death, as a story. Its the most feared by anybody, and to bravely tell about it, in a form of a story, itself is really great. That's why its called Katho(means story) -Upanishad. Upanishad in a form of a story. Stories goes like this, a small boy called Nachiketa, questions his father when he is giving old cows as charity to brahmins. His father in anger replies "go to Yama" , like we generally say "go to hell". But this boy literally followed his father`s words, thinking whatever elders tell, there should be some good in it, and went to the Yama Loka. As Yama the Lord of Death, was not available for three days, and Nachiketa is patiently waiting in the door steps of death. Yama got pleased and gave three boons.
Nachiketas third boon is the main point of this upanishad , "Is there life after death ?" . Lord Yama tried to tempt the boy with all the wealth’s ( lordship over the whole world, all material desires fulfilled for loooong periods of time) yama offered in bargain, to not to ask this question. This was mainly to test the boy. Its time to reflect on ourselves, how committed are we in pursuing any thing. All nachiketa had to do, was to take back the question, and in return he will be the lord of all the worlds, but still he persisted with his question.
And Yama started a normal discourse of about the two paths of knowledge & good / ignorance & pleasure available to man. The majority of us, chooses the second path becomes slaves to Me (Death) , meaning they revolve in the same birth-death cycle. Anybody who realizes the self becomes free from Me (death)...
Like the yoga sutras of Patanjali, currently what we call Yoga, the asanas is just covered in just one passing statement, here the main question is covered in a passing statement that anybody who are deluded by this world, thinks this is the only world, there is no other, falls again and again and under MY(Death) sway.
When Lord Yama, started praising nachiketa for his sincere quest, nachiketa interrupted Yama and boldly asks again " This is all ok. But tell me, what is beyond all dualities good/bad, dharma/adharma , beyond past & future , beyond cause & effect unmanifested/manifested" . A great question to ask, even understanding the question itself needs a great maturity ;)-
A simple answer, to the great question yama says is "OM" . it has 22 meanings which the word represents, both the symbol of the absolute and also the guiding post to meditate to reach it. The answer becomes a anti climax, our ego wants a more complicated answer !!!
A great discourse follows after this, about the Self which is not born/nor die, not the cause or the effect, greater than the greatest but subtler than the subtlest, ever lasting, beyond all our senses/mind/intellect to comprehend, beyond our knowing/not unknowing ( e.g i don't know Russian but i know that i don't know Russian But the concept of the self is beyond our knowing of the not knowing )......
It can be only felt in deep rest called meditation, when all the other faculties also rests, not intellectually. Like if there is a continuous motion of objects in the TV screen, when you get lost on the movies/soap operas, you don't get to see the underlying pixels which is the basis of all the motion. when there are no disturbances on the screen, then the underlying pixels are "seen".
Pausing the TV and observing the pixels is meditation, switching of the TV is sleep/death.
Pausing the TV and observing the pixels is meditation, switching of the TV is sleep/death.
Ignorance of the ever lasting, all pervading self , creates and sustains the separateness and hence the "Me/Ego" comes. This leads to desires in the level of the intellect/mind complex, which gets translated as actions in the physical plane. As all actions gives either good/bad results the dharma/adharma cycle starts, and strengthens the Me/Ego concept. Even after the physical death of the body/matter, when the matter in us dissolves into the five elements, this energy by its very nature, takes up another form, to sustain itself and to fulfill its unfinished desires . E.g if you like a particular ice-cream shop, till you get bored, you go back to the same shop again and again, this energy fuelled by unfinished desires comes back again and again. Lord Yama says after body physical dealth for some, it goes to enter the womb, and some to plants ( then consumed by humans and enters the womb ), according to their work ( quality of actions, and to reap the benefits & experiences) and knowledge.
A beautiful sloka says, there is no difference here in the manifested world, and also between the unmanifested and the manifested world. That's the real meaning of "So Hum", "Iam That" . Those who sees differences here come back again and again. For modern intellectuals who don't believe these, even scientists have started telling the same, that everything is energy, in wave theory.
A nice point for the intellectuals telling the order of greatness are sense objects -> senses -> mind -> intellect -> ego -> Manifested Self (Atman)-> Unmanifested Self (Avyaktam) -> Supreme Pure Existence (Purusa) , and then he says beyond that is nothing. a big FULL STOP.
Upanishads gives the path to realize this, is this order of placing our attention . Instead of getting lost in the objects, place the attention on the senses, then on the mind, ....... Those who can realize ( beyond the five senses ) the atman is freed from jaws of death.
Lord Yama in a series of slokas praises the atman and tells Nachiketa "This is verily that" what you have asked for. Just as water/air/fire assumes the shape of what it enters, once the everlasting energy enters the physical body, it assumes the laws and characteristics of the physical world, and that's why we don't realize its greatness. Also just like sun does'nt get contaminated by the defects of what its lighting, the Atman does'nt get contaminated by the defects of the physical body/mind complex.
Lord Yama in a series of slokas praises the atman and tells Nachiketa "This is verily that" what you have asked for. Just as water/air/fire assumes the shape of what it enters, once the everlasting energy enters the physical body, it assumes the laws and characteristics of the physical world, and that's why we don't realize its greatness. Also just like sun does'nt get contaminated by the defects of what its lighting, the Atman does'nt get contaminated by the defects of the physical body/mind complex.
Upanishad also talks about different worlds, and how in each plane there are procedures to realize this self, and concludes that in human life, and that too in this birth itself, its possible through Yoga. What a great opportunity !!!
A simple question from normal wordly person "Well , why to have this knowledge of death & beyond ?". I think, "So that life can be lived to the fullest, knowing that we will back again and again and this life is just one temporary birth cycle, and all problems are just temporary"
Not sure how much goes into anybody who is reading this, a suggestion to read it (again) after meditation ;)-
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I could see a honest attempt to convey the idea consumed.Thanks for sharing and keep writing.Hope sometime I will know my self
Shankar jee, please elaborate on Avyaktam -unmanifested self ?
difficult to explain, what i think, it is the source of all the manifestations, whatever you see here, is Avyaktam. As explained its beyond all senses.
For e.g if thoughts are the manifestation, the source of the thoughts ( that nothingness ) is the Avyaktam,