The three boons from death: a short introduction to the Katha Upanisad

Naciketā, a Brahmana boy, meets Yamaraja and is granted three boons. His third request surprised even Yamaraja Himself.

The Kaṭha Upaniṣad brings a conversation between Naciketā, a Brahmana boy, and Yamaraja. It is divided into two chapters, each with three parts, or six in total.

The first part sets the narrative, with Nachiketā angering his father and being sent to the abode of Yamaraja, where he waits for three days for an audience. Surprised by his tolerance, Yamaraja grants him three boons. Nachiketā first asks to be reunited with his father, and then to be instructed in a process of fire sacrifice that leads to liberation. Yamaraja instructed him, and as an extra blessing, renamed the process in homage of him: Naciketā. By knowing this process, based on the knowledge of the Lord, the jīva and the fire, Yamaraja promises, one can become free from material attraction and lamentation and attain Vaikuṇṭha.

Liberation means the destruction of one's subtle body and material consciousness. In other words, what we call "jīva", the material consciousness that is developed around the reflection of the consciousness of the spirit soul, is destroyed when one attains liberation. What happens after that? Does one cease to exist, as believed in Buddhism? Does one merge into the absolute truth as believed by impersonalists (which also implies ceasing to exist as an individual), or is there something else that allows one to continue existing as an individual in the transcendental plane? As the third boom, Nachiketā asks for detailed knowledge of this topic, which is a great secret.

Yamaraja reveals himself hesitant to grant this boon and explain all these intricate philosophical topics, but the real reason behind his hesitancy is the fact that this knowledge is very confidential. Essentially, Nachiketā asked for knowledge about the process of devotional service, which is a great secret, hidden in the verses of the scripture. Yamaraja granted the three boons, expecting he would ask for simple material blessings, but instead Nachiketā revealed himself intelligent enough to ask for the most valuable secret.

Hesitant, Yamaraja tries to lure Nachiketā by offering him a long life and all kinds of opulences, by the intelligent boy is not interested. Yama is thus forced to reveal to him the great secret, which is the central topic of the rest of the discussion.

The second part starts with a discussion on the nature of śreyas and preyas (doing what is truly beneficial, compared with what is just momentarily pleasant), a glorification of Nachiketā for his sincerity. This is followed by a discussion on the nature of transcendental knowledge and the nature of the soul, in a description similar to what we learn in the 2nd chapter of the Gītā.

The section starting from verse 1.2.20 speaks about the Supreme Lord. Text 1.2.20, for example, states:

aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān ātmā’sya jantor nihito guhāyām

tam akratuḥ paśyati vīta-śoko dhātu-prasādān mahimānam ātmanaḥ

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead is smaller than the smallest and greater than the greatest. He dwells within the heart of all living beings. When, by the mercy of the Lord, one can with a pure mind understand His glories, he becomes free from lamentation."

Text 1.2.22 explains that the Lord has no material bodies but at the same time is situated within all temporary bodies, being all-pervading and endowed with all power, and so on.

Text 1.2.23 brings the first of many passages that indicate devotional service to the Lord:

nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena

yam evaiṣa vṛṇute tena labhyas tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛṇute tanūṁ svām

"The Lord cannot be attained by mere contemplation, intellectual brilliance or scriptural study. He is attained by a person whom the Lord chooses. The Lord then reveals himself to that devotee."

This verse shows how the mechanical process of meditation, study, austerity, etc., can't bring one to the Lord. They may help in the beginning, and even bring one to the stage of impersonal liberation, but the supreme goal can be achieved only by satisfying the Lord by practicing devotional service. As in other verses of the Upaniṣads, it is not as direct as in the Srimad Bhagavatam, but it clearly makes the point that God is a person and the ultimate goal is to establish a personal relationship with Him, which is possible only through loving service.

Text 1.2.25 brings us a famous and enigmatic passage:

yasya brahma ca kṣātraṁ ca, ubhe bhavataḥ odanaḥ

mṛtyur yasyopasecanaṁ, ka itthā veda yatra saḥ

“There is a person for whom the Brāhmaṇas and Kṣatriyas are food, and death is merely a seasoning. Who truly knows this person and his variegated qualities?”

The Vedas include many passages describing the feats of great Kṣatriyas who can fight even with the demigods. Arjuna fought with Lord Śiva, Muchukunda assisted the demigods in fighting the asuras, and so on. Brahmanas, in turn, are described as even more powerful than Kṣatriyas, because they are full of mystical power and can easily kill them using curses. Vena was extremely powerful, but when he became a tyrant, the Brahmanas killed him by just cursing him to die. After that, they churned his dead body to produce a new king, Pṛthu. Therefore, in Vedic societies, both Brahmanas and Kṣatriyas are revered and taken as role models.

Who is this mysterious entity that eats even the most powerful Brahmanas and Kṣatriyas? He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

This is explained by Vyāsadeva in the Vedanta Sutra, with the words carācara-grahaṇāt: Because He takes both moving and non-moving entities.

As pointed out by both Srila Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa and Ranga Ramanuja, in the deeper sense, brahma ca kṣātraṁ in the verse of the Kaṭha Upaniṣad doesn't mean just Brahmanas and Kṣatriyas, but the entire universe, which is both created and destroyed by the Lord. Therefore, the eating of Brahmanas and Kṣatriyas is not a planned specific intent, but just part of the universal cycles.

The Lord creates, and when the time comes, the whole universe is destroyed. Because the whole cosmic manifestation merges into the body of Mahā-Viṣnu, it is said that it is sprinkled with the sauce of death and eaten. It may sound terrifying, but this is just another manifestation of the power of the Lord. Since no one else apart from the Lord can eat the whole universe (and all the other material universes), it's clear that the whole passage describes Him.

A sauce is something which, while being eaten itself, is the cause of other things also being eaten. Death causes the end of all living beings, but at the end, death itself (which is just one of the Lord's energies) is eaten by the Lord, together with everything else.

Even with all the previous explanations, the idea of God destroying and "eating" may sound unsettling to some. To this, we can answer that God has both a beautiful and a terrible aspect. Srila Prabhupada mentions that those who are devotees see God in His beautiful aspect, as Govinda, while the ones who are atheistic are forced the meet with Him in his terrible aspect as death.

This can be understood in connection with Bhagavad-Gita 11.32, where Krsna says:

kālo ’smi loka-kṣaya-kṛt pravṛddho, lokān samāhartum iha pravṛttaḥ

ṛte ’pi tvāṁ na bhaviṣyanti sarve, ye ’vasthitāḥ praty-anīkeṣu yodhāḥ

"Time I am, the great destroyer of the worlds, and I have come here to destroy all people. With the exception of you [the Pāṇḍavas], all the soldiers here on both sides will be slain."

The word "kāla" means "time". Time is the force that destroys everything that is material. All material manifestations are created at some point, persist for some time, and are eventually destroyed. Everything that exists inside the universe (and the universe itself) has to face destruction at a certain point. Because the identity we have now is not our eternal identity as souls, we can only keep it for a certain time. Eventually, it will be destroyed. Because kāla or time eventually destroys everything. That's why kāla, in the context of this verse, can also be translated as "death".

Time is controlled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and thus He is ultimately the eater, the One who destroys everything and kills everyone. This was seen by Arjuna in his vision of the Universal Form. Astonished, he spoke (Bg 11.25-30):

"O Lord of lords, O refuge of the worlds, please be gracious to me. I cannot keep my balance seeing thus Your blazing deathlike faces and awful teeth. In all directions I am bewildered.

All the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, along with their allied kings, and Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Karṇa – and our chief soldiers also – are rushing into Your fearful mouths. And some I see trapped with heads smashed between Your teeth.

As the many waves of the rivers flow into the ocean, so do all these great warriors enter blazing into Your mouths. I see all people rushing full speed into Your mouths, as moths dash to destruction in a blazing fire.

O Viṣṇu, I see You devouring all people from all sides with Your flaming mouths. Covering all the universe with Your effulgence, You are manifest with terrible, scorching rays."

Why is it so? Why can't God be just a kind old man who approves whatever we do?

The point is that the material world and temporary and transient by nature. In his original state, the soul has an eternal and transcendental position, but when one desires to lord over this material world, he accepts material identities under the spell of the false ego. Because these identities are different from his original identity as a soul, they can't be eternal. In this way, we transmigrate through different forms of life, with each body representing a new chapter in our journey in the material ocean.

Once inside a material body, we can play for some time, but if at the end of this period we are not ready to return to our original position in the spiritual world, we are forced to abandon it and accept another body, starting again from the beginning. This process is called death, and the Lord is the ultimate controller.

This is ultimately His mercy because if we were allowed to stay eternally in the same body, we would become entrapped in some kind of eternal torment, without ever being able to return to our original sat-cit-ananda position. Through this process of birth and death in different forms of life, the Lord gradually coaches us into returning to our original consciousness.

After receiving the instructions of Yamaraja and perfectly understanding them, Naciketā attained not only liberation, but a spiritual body, becoming an associate of the Lord in Vaikuṇṭha. In this way, the Upaniṣad teaches us the path for attaining the same perfection.

mṛtyu-proktāṁ naciketo’tha labdhvā vidyām etāṁ yoga-vidhiṁ ca kṛtsnam brahma-prāpto virajo’bhūd vimṛtyur anyo’py evaṁ yo vid adhyātmam eva

"The boy sage, having obtained the complete devotional knowledge taught by Yamaraja, attained a spiritual body, pure and eternal. One who knows the Supreme Lord attains the same supreme goal as Him."

If you read this article to the end, give it a like. This helps it to reach more people.
If you have questions, use the comments; I will answer as possible. They may even become the topic for another article.