Verse 1.1
beginnerउशन् ह वै वाजश्रवसः सर्ववेदसं ददौ। तस्य ह नचिकेता नाम पुत्र आस॥
uśan ha vai vājaśravasaḥ sarvavedasaṃ dadau | tasya ha naciketā nāma putra āsa ||
"Vajashravasa, desiring rewards, performed a sacrifice in which he gave away all his possessions. He had a son named Nachiketa."
What This Means:
The story begins with a father performing a sacrifice, giving away all he owned to gain spiritual merit. His young son Nachiketa watched carefully.
Going Deeper:
This sets up the contrast between external ritual (giving possessions) and true spiritual seeking. The father seeks worldly rewards through sacrifice.
How To Apply This:
Notice when your spiritual practices are motivated by gain versus genuine seeking.
#sacrifice#father-son#motivation
Jump to section
119 verses of the Katha Upanishad
The Story of Nachiketa
- 1.1Vajashravasa, desiring rewards, performed a sacrifice in which he gave away all his possessions. He had a...
- 1.2When the gifts were being distributed, faith entered young Nachiketa. He thought to himself:
- 1.3"These cows have drunk their last water, eaten their last grass, given their last milk, and are barren...
- 1.4He said to his father: "Father, to whom will you give me?" He asked this a second and third time. The...
- 1.5Nachiketa thought: "Among many, I go as the first; among many, I go as the middle. What purpose of Yama...
- 1.6"Look back at those who came before, look forward to those who will come. Like grain, mortals ripen and...
- 1.7When a Brahmin guest enters a house like fire, the householder must offer him water and a seat. Bring...
- 1.8Hope and expectation, the fruits of association and sweet speech, sacrifices and good works, sons and...
- 1.9Yama said: "O Brahmin, since you, a venerable guest, have stayed three nights in my house without food, I...
- 1.10"May my father Gautama be calmed in mind, free from anger, and kindly disposed toward me when I return...
- 1.11Yama said: "Your father Auddalaki Aruni will recognize you and be as he was before. Released by me, seeing...
- 1.12"In the heavenly world there is no fear; you (Death) are not there, nor does one fear old age. Having...
- 1.13"You know, O Death, the fire sacrifice that leads to heaven. Teach it to me, for I am full of faith...
- 1.14Yama said: "I will teach you - listen carefully, O Nachiketa. I know the fire that leads to heaven and...
- 1.15Yama described to him the fire that is the source of the worlds, what bricks are needed, how many, and how...
- 1.16The great-souled Yama, delighted, said: "I give you another boon today. This fire shall be known by your...
- 1.17"One who has performed the Nachiketa fire three times, being united with the three (mother, father...
- 1.18"One who knows these three, and with this knowledge builds the Nachiketa fire, throws off the bonds of...
- 1.19Yama said: "This is the fire leading to heaven, which you chose as your second boon. People will call this...
- 1.20"When a person dies, there is this doubt: Some say he exists; others say he does not. I want to know this...
- 1.21Yama said: "Even the gods had doubts about this in ancient times. It is not easy to understand - this...
- 1.22Nachiketa said: "You say that even the gods had doubts, and that it is not easy to know. No other teacher...
- 1.23Yama said: "Choose sons and grandsons who will live a hundred years, many cattle, elephants, gold, and...
- 1.24"If you think any boon equal to this, choose it - wealth and long life! Be a king over the vast earth, O...
- 1.25"Whatever desires are hard to obtain in the mortal world, ask for all of them according to your wish...
- 1.26Nachiketa said: "Ephemeral are these things, O Death, and they wear out the vigor of all the senses. Even...
- 1.27"No man can be satisfied with wealth. If we have seen you, we shall obtain wealth; we shall live as long...
- 1.28"Having approached the undecaying immortals, what decaying mortal here below, knowing this, contemplating...
- 1.29"Tell me, O Death, of that great beyond about which people have doubt - this boon which penetrates the...
The Secret of Death
- 2.1Yama said: "The good (shreya) is one thing; the pleasant (preya) is another. Both bind a person with...
- 2.2"Both the good and the pleasant present themselves to a person. The wise, examining both, distinguishes...
- 2.3"You, O Nachiketa, pondering on dear desires and their forms, have let them go. You have not taken the...
- 2.4"Far apart and leading to different ends are these two: ignorance (avidya) and what is known as knowledge...
- 2.5"Living in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, the deluded go round and round...
- 2.6"The hereafter does not shine forth to the careless child, deluded by the glamour of wealth. Thinking...
- 2.7"Many do not even get to hear of the Self; many, hearing, do not understand it. Wonderful is the one who...
- 2.8"This Self, when taught by an inferior person, is not easily understood, being thought of in many ways...
- 2.9"This understanding is not attained by reasoning alone. It must be taught by another for easy...
- 2.10Yama continued: "I know that treasure is impermanent. The eternal cannot be reached through non-eternal...
- 2.11"Having seen the fulfillment of desire, the foundation of the world, the endlessness of ritual, the shore...
- 2.12"The wise, knowing the Self - hard to see, deeply hidden, set in the cave of the heart, dwelling in the...
- 2.13"A mortal who has heard this, fully grasped it, drawn out this subtle essence of dharma and attained it...
- 2.14Nachiketa said: "Tell me what you see as beyond dharma and adharma, beyond what is done and not done...
- 2.15Yama said: "That goal which all the Vedas proclaim, which all austerities declare, desiring which people...
- 2.16"This syllable OM is indeed Brahman. This syllable is indeed the supreme. Whoever knows this syllable...
- 2.17"This is the best support; this is the supreme support. Knowing this support, one is honored in the world...
- 2.18"The Self is not born, nor does it die. It did not come from anywhere, nor did anything come from it...
- 2.19"If the slayer thinks he slays, if the slain thinks he is slain, both of them do not understand. This one...
- 2.20"Subtler than the subtle, greater than the great, the Self is hidden in the heart of every creature. One...
- 2.21"Sitting still, it travels far; lying down, it goes everywhere. Who but I can know that radiant being who...
- 2.22"Knowing the Self as bodiless within bodies, stable amid the unstable, great and all-pervading, the wise...
- 2.23"This Self cannot be attained by discourse, nor by intellect, nor by much learning. It is attained by the...
- 2.24"One who has not ceased from bad conduct, who is not tranquil, who is not collected, whose mind is not at...
- 2.25"For whom both the priestly and warrior classes are food, and death itself is a condiment - who can know...
The Eternal Self
- 3.1"There are two who drink the fruits of karma in the world of good deeds, entered into the cave, in the...
- 3.2"May we master the Nachiketa fire, which is the bridge for sacrificers, the imperishable Brahman, the...
- 3.3"Know the Self as the rider of the chariot, the body as the chariot. Know the intellect as the charioteer...
- 3.4"The senses are said to be the horses; their roads are the sense objects. The Self, joined with the senses...
- 3.5"One who lacks discrimination, whose mind is always uncontrolled, has senses that are unmanageable, like...
- 3.6"But one who has discrimination, whose mind is always controlled, has senses that are manageable, like...
- 3.7"One who lacks discrimination, who is mindless and always impure, does not reach that goal but wanders in...
- 3.8"But one who has discrimination, who is mindful and always pure, reaches that goal from which one is not...
- 3.9"The person who has discrimination as charioteer and the mind as well-controlled reins reaches the end of...
- 3.10"Beyond the senses are the objects; beyond the objects is the mind. Beyond the mind is the intellect...
- 3.11"Beyond the great Self is the Unmanifest; beyond the Unmanifest is the Purusha (Supreme Person). Beyond...
- 3.12"This Self, hidden in all beings, does not shine forth. But it is seen by the subtle seers through their...
- 3.13"The wise should merge speech into mind, mind into the knowing self, the knowing self into the great Self...
- 3.14"Arise! Awake! Having obtained the great teachers, understand! The wise say the path is sharp as a razor's...
- 3.15"Realizing that which is soundless, touchless, formless, unfading, tasteless, eternal, odorless, without...
- 3.16"The wise one who tells or hears this ancient story of Nachiketa, told by Death, is honored in the world...
- 3.17"One who, with effort, recites this supreme secret in an assembly of Brahmins, or at the time of ancestral...
The Inner Controller
- 4.1"The Self-existent pierced the openings outward; therefore one looks outward, not within. Some wise one...
- 4.2"The childish pursue external desires and walk into the snare of death spread wide. But the wise, knowing...
- 4.3"That by which one perceives form, taste, smell, sound, touch, and the pleasures of love - by that alone...
- 4.4"That by which one perceives both the dream state and the waking state - knowing that great, all-pervading...
- 4.5"One who knows this Self, the experiencer of sweetness, the living one, always near, the lord of past and...
- 4.6"That which was born before cosmic heat, born before the waters, which entered the cave and dwells there...
- 4.7"Aditi, consisting of all the gods, who arises with the breath of life, who entered the cave and dwells...
- 4.8"Agni, the all-knowing, hidden in the fire-sticks like a child well-carried by pregnant women, to be...
- 4.9"That from which the sun rises and into which it sets - in That all the gods are established, and none...
- 4.10"What is here is there; what is there is also here. One who sees difference here goes from death to death."
- 4.11"By mind alone this is to be realized: there is no diversity here at all. One who sees diversity here goes...
- 4.12"The Purusha, of the size of a thumb, dwells in the middle of the self. Lord of past and future, one does...
- 4.13"The Purusha, of the size of a thumb, is like a flame without smoke. Lord of past and future, it is the...
- 4.14"As water rained on a height scatters among the hills, so one who sees things as separate runs after them."
- 4.15"As pure water poured into pure water becomes just like it, so the Self of the discerning sage becomes one...
The City of Eleven Gates
- 5.1"The city of eleven gates belongs to the unborn one of unwavering consciousness. Meditating on Him, one...
- 5.2"The Self is the sun dwelling in the sky, air dwelling in space, fire dwelling on the altar, guest...
- 5.3"It sends the prana upward and casts the apana downward. All the gods worship that adorable one seated in...
- 5.4"When this embodied self dwelling in the body is released from the body as it falls apart, what remains...
- 5.5"No mortal lives by prana or apana. They live by something else, on which both these depend."
- 5.6"Come, I will tell you this secret, the eternal Brahman, and what happens to the Self after death, O Gautama."
- 5.7"Some embodied souls enter wombs for rebirth; others go into stationary forms (plants) - according to...
- 5.8"That Purusha who remains awake in those who sleep, creating desire after desire - that alone is the Pure...
- 5.9"As the one fire, entering the world, becomes varied in shape according to the shape of each object, so...
- 5.10"As the one air, entering the world, becomes varied according to each form, so the inner Self of all...
- 5.11"As the sun, the eye of the whole world, is not tainted by the external faults seen by the eye, so the...
- 5.12"The one Controller, the inner Self of all beings, who makes the one form manifold - to the wise who see...
- 5.13"The eternal among the non-eternal, the conscious among the conscious, the one among many, who fulfills...
- 5.14"This is That" - thus they realize the indescribable supreme bliss. How can I know it? Does it shine by...
- 5.15"The sun does not shine there, nor the moon and stars, nor these lightnings, much less this fire. When He...
The Imperishable
- 6.1"This eternal ashvattha tree has its roots above and branches below. That alone is the Pure, that is...
- 6.2"Whatever exists in this entire world trembles in prana, having come forth from it. This is a great...
- 6.3"From fear of Him, fire burns; from fear, the sun shines; from fear, Indra, Vayu, and Death, the fifth...
- 6.4"If one is able to realize (Brahman) here before the falling of the body, one is liberated; if not, one is...
- 6.5"As in a mirror, so in one's self; as in a dream, so in the world of the fathers; as in water, so in the...
- 6.6"Understanding the separate nature of the senses, their rising and setting, and that they arise...
- 6.7"Beyond the senses is the mind; beyond the mind is the intellect (sattva); beyond the intellect is the...
- 6.8"Beyond the Unmanifest is the Purusha, all-pervading and without any mark. Knowing Him, a creature is...
- 6.9"His form is not to be seen; no one sees Him with the eye. By the heart, by wisdom, by the mind, He is...
- 6.10"When the five senses together with the mind cease and the intellect does not stir - that, they say, is...
- 6.11"This they consider to be yoga - the firm holding of the senses. Then one becomes undistracted. Yoga...
- 6.12"He cannot be attained by speech, mind, or eye. How can He be realized by anyone other than one who says...
- 6.13"He is to be realized first as existing, and then as His true nature. Of the two, to one who has realized...
- 6.14"When all desires that dwell in the heart are released, then the mortal becomes immortal and attains...
- 6.15"When all the knots of the heart are cut here, then the mortal becomes immortal. This is the teaching."
- 6.16"There are a hundred and one arteries of the heart. One of them leads to the crown of the head. Going...
- 6.17"The Purusha, of the size of a thumb, the inner Self, is always seated in the heart of creatures. One...
- 6.18"Nachiketa, having received from Death this knowledge and the complete teaching of yoga, attained Brahman...