Nature of Man: Secrets of Death

Upanishads are important literature in the history of Indian religions and culture that played an important role in the development of spiritual ideal in ancient India.  Upanishads discuss the nature of ultimate reality.  Kathopanishad is one of the primary Upanishad that discusses the nature of man, knowledge, Atman (soul, self) and Moksha (liberation).  It is among the most widely studied Upanishad.  It was translated in to the Persian language in 17^th century which was further translated into the Latin language.

Kathopanishad is the story of little boy Nachiketa, the son of the sage Vajashravasa who meets ‘Yama (Indian deity of Death)’.  Their conversation revolves around the nature of man, knowledge and soul.  The speciality of this Upanishad is that we get the inner truth directly from the deity of death ‘Yama’. 

Vajashravasa (Nachiketa’s father) was performing an yajna (sacrifice) wherein he was suppose to give away everything he owned.  But he gave away old and useless things.  Nachiketa his young son thought that his father was defeating the very purpose of sacrifice and wanted to correct his father by asking his father to whom he would give away his son.  When Nachiketa repeated this question thrice his father got angry and said ‘to Yama’.  Thus, Nachiketa arrived at Yama’s abode.  After meeting Yama he begged him to explain what happens when a person dies.  A long dialogue followed between the two that covered the whole field of philosophy concerning the nature of man. 

‘Yama’ answered Nachiketa’s question.  The good and the pleasant are two different things.  They serve different purposes.  If a person chooses good does good to himself.  Who chooses pleasant misses the purpose of life and the purpose of life being liberation by escaping the cycle of life and death.  Liberation follows when we know ourselves.  Self is not easily seen.  It is not attainable by sense perception.  One does not see, rather self reveals itself to the seeker.

The self is pure consciousness.  The cosmic self and individual self are always together.  They are one and the same but empirically separated.  Man ‘s trouble is with his desires.  They never let him be in peace.  We have to detach ourselves from this. Nachiketa received from death of deity the knowledge of Brahman (Supreme Almighty) and attained union with Brahman.

Upanishads guide and prepare the seekers in their path for liberation.  For layman(like me), Upanishads are always inspiring and encouraging to think about our ancient wisdom.