When we hear the word “death”, In our first reaction, I think we can learn a lot about our relationship to death;
because our relationship to death is revealed in this immediate, perhaps unconscious reaction, as to who we are.
For me, love lies in looking at ourselves as we are in non-judgmental awareness; without coming up with objections or justifications, without wanting to say “what is” “how it should be” or “what to do with it”. This requires observation without words.
When we enter inwardly in this way in relation to the flux of reactions to the word “death”, we already touch the light-filled side of dying; the dying to habitual reaction. It is withering away in this direct seeing and learning, free from conclusions.
We usually associate the word “death” with the final end of the physical body. Yet dying, ending, is omnipresent in all processes on earth and in the cosmos. Without the harmonious combined movement of that which creates and that which dies, there could be no life. Life is, as it were, the loving movement that flows in harmony between the creative and the dying.
Autumn carries all that has been coming forth in spring and summer into the grave of winter. The cells of our body likewise undergo continuous processes of death and regeneration, without which our body would come to an end very quickly. And even the birth and death processes of stars can be observed in the cosmos; supernovae and hypernovae, which release immense amounts of energy. Dying and coming into being are like a breathing process of the cosmos. Ending is the prerequisite for all renewal and all life.
If we now go beyond the mere physical reality of death, what role does this cosmic law of destroying-creating-living play in our soul, in our psyche, in our being?
This question lies at the heart of the Katha Upanishad (ca. 5th century BC), which conveys the essence of timeless Indian wisdom unlike any other text through a narration. The Katha Upanishad[1] describes how the protagonist Nachiketa is forced by inner questions to leave his home and tradition, seeking out the significance of death by approaching the God Yama, the King of Death.
Nachiketa is an adolescent growing up in a family deeply rooted in the ancient scriptures and traditions of India. One day, however, he begins to question his family’s traditional fire rituals, during which cows are sacrificed. His father is enraged by the doubts of the young Nachiketa. In a dispute, Nachiketa leaves his family and seeks to understand the deeper meaning of the fire sacrifice. To do so, he turns to Yama, the King of Death, who mythologically oversees the fire rituals. We can understand the encounter between Nachiketa and Yama – which is the subject of the following – as an inner exploration by Nachiketa of the meaning of death.
Nachiketa sets off for the abode of the King of Death. After he reaches it, Yama does not show himself immediately. Nachiketa has to wait for three days until Yama, the King of Death, finally enters and speaks:
When a spiritual guest enters the house,
like a bright flame, he must be received well,
with water to wash his feet. Far from wise
are those who are not hospitable
to such a guest. […]O spiritual guest, I grant you three boons.
After Nachiketa first asks that his family be able to receive him with understanding once he returns, he formulates his second boon as follows:
Nachiketa:
You know the fire sacrifice that leads to heaven,
O king of death. I have full faith
in you and ask for instruction. Let this
be your second boon to me. […]Yama:
Yes, I do know, Nachiketa, and shall
teach you the fire sacrifice that leads
to heaven and sustains the world, that knowledge
concealed in the heart. Now listen.For Nachiketa, Death becomes a teacher. In accordance with his wish, Yama teaches him how to perform the fire sacrifice, what it means to prepare the inner altar in order to light the fire which, as it is said, “brings forth the cosmos“. When the boy carries out the instruction correctly, the King of Death is very pleased and speaks:
Let me give you a special boon: this sacrifice
shall be called by your name, Nachiketa. […]
Those who have thrice performed this sacrifice,
realised their unity with father, mother,
and teacher, and discharged the three duties
of studying the scriptures, ritual worship,
and giving alms to those in need, rise above birth and death.Knowing the god of fire
Born of Brahman, they attain perfect peace.
[…]
Thus have I granted you the second boon,
Nachiketa, the secret of the fire
that leads to heaven. It will have your name.
Ask now, Nachiketa, for the third boon.Nachiketa:
When a person dies, there arises this doubt:
“He still exists,” say some; “he does not,”
say others. I want you to teach me the truth.
This is my third boon.Yama:
This doubt haunted even the gods of old;
for the secret of death is hard to know.
Nachiketa, ask for some other boon.
and release me from my promise.
Yama tries to distract Nachiketa by offering him numerous worldly temptations not to have to reveal the secret of death and life to him. However, Nachiketa remains steadfast and rejects Yama’s offers, saying that all worldly pleasures are fleeting and unpalatable to him now that he has realised that they are all subject to death. He formulates his question one last time.
Nachiketa:
Does a person live after death or does he not?
Nachiketa asks for no other boon
than the secret of this great mystery.
Yama:
The joy of the spirit ever abides,
but not what seems pleasant to the senses.
Both these, differing in their purpose, prompt
us to action. All is well for those who choose
the joy of the spirit, but those miss
the goal of life who prefer the pleasant.
[…]
Far apart are wisdom and ignorance.
The first leads one to Self-realisation;
the second makes one more and more
estranged from one’s real Self. I regard you,
Nachiketa, as worthy of instruction,
for passing pleasures do not tempt you at all.
After this argument, Yama grants Nachiketa his third boon and answers his question about the mortal and the immortal. It prompts Yama to proclaim a hymn on the one, eternal Self, the Atman. Death becomes the herald of the immortal.
Yama:
The intellect cannot reveal the Self,
beyond its duality of subject and object.
Those who see themselves in all
and all in them, help others through spiritual
osmosis to realise the Self themselves.
[…]
Wise are you, Nachiketa, because you
ask for the Self eternal. May we have more
like you!
[…]
Those who know, they are neither body nor mind
but the immemorial Self, the divine
Principle of existence, find the source
of all joy and live in joy abiding.
I see the gates of joy are opening
For you, Nachiketa.
[…]
The all-knowing Self was never born,
nor will it die. Beyond cause and effect,
this Self is eternal and immutable.
When the body dies, the Self does not die.
[…]
They go beyond all sorrow
who extinguish their self-will
and behold the glory of the Self
through the grace of the Lord of Love.
[…]
The Self cannot be known by anyone,
who desists not from unrighteous ways,
controls not the senses, stills not the mind,
and practices not meditation.
None else can know the omnipresent Self,
whose glory sweeps away the rituals,
of the priest and the prowess of the warrior
and puts death itself to death.In the secret cave of the heart, two are
seated by life’s fountain. The separate ego
drinks of the sweet and bitter stuff,
liking the sweet, disliking the bitter,
while the supreme Self drinks sweet and bitter,
neither liking this nor disliking that.
The Ego gropes in darkness, while the Self
lives in light.
[…]
May we light the fire of Nachiketa
that burns out the ego and enables us
to pass from fearful fragmentation
to fearless fullness in the changeless whole.
[…]
The supreme Self is beyond name and form,
beyond the senses, inexhaustible,
without beginning, without end, beyond
time, space, and causality, eternal,
immutable. Those who realise the Self
are forever free from the jaws of death.
[…]
The god of creation, Brahma,
born of the Godhead through meditation
before the waters of life were created,
who stands in the heart of every creature,
is the Self indeed.
[…]
What is here is also there; what is there,
also here. Who sees multiplicity
but not the one indivisible Self
must wander on and on from death to death.
[…]
The Self is the sun shining in the sky,
the wind blowing in space; he is the fire
at the alter and in the home the guest;
he dwells in human beings, in gods, in truth,
and in the vast firmament; he is the fish
born in water, the plant growing in the earth,
the river flowing down from the mountain.
For this Self is supreme!
[…]
As the sun, who is the eye of the world,
cannot be tainted by the defects in our eyes
or by the objects it looks on,
So the one Self, dwelling in all, cannot
be tainted by the evils of the world.
For this Self transcends all!
[…]
The Self is the light reflected by all.
Shining, everything shines after him.The tree of eternity has its roots above
and its branches on the earth below.
Its pure root is Brahman the immortal,
from whom all the worlds draw their life.
[…]
Realising him one is released
from the cycle of birth and death.
[…]
They say Yoga is this complete stillness
In which one enters the unitive state,
never to become separate again.
If one is not established in this state,
the sense of unity will come and go.
[…]
When one rises above the I and me and mine,
the Atman is revealed as one’s real Self.When all desires that surge in the heart
are renounced, the mortal becomes immortal.
[…]
This sums up the teaching of the scriptures.
[…]
Know yourself to be pure and immortal!
Know yourself to be pure and immortal!
OM shanti shanti shanti
So ends the Katha Upanishad about Nachiketa and Yama.
When approaching this story about Nachiketa, it is important to note that the name Nachiketa has an original meaning in Sanskrit. The syllable Na is a negation form and means “not”. “Ciketa” is a subjunctive form of the verb Ci, which means “to seek for” or “to be intend upon”. In English, Na-ciketa would mean something like “seek-not” or “will-not”[2]. Such an allusion, which is hidden in the protagonist’s name, would be in accord with the narration. After all, Nachiketa is actually inwardly “not willing” when he encounters death – it is his will that ends. He enters into the silent awareness of “what is”.
In this original stillness of not-desiring and not-seeking, the flame for the fire sacrifice called by the name of “Nachiketa” – as Yama points out – is ignited. It is the fire in which all ignorance is burnt away.
Nachiketa is the person who deeply understands that nothing perishable can attain the imperishable. He is the person who understands that all seeking – external and internal – is a reaction of ignorance and can therefore only bring forth the fruits of ignorance. From this seeing, from this insight, sacred not-willing unfolds inwardly.
The state of ignorance – and all movement that is born of it – manifests itself inwardly as the “thinker”. Not-willing goes hand in hand with the choiceless awareness of all movements of thinking, in whose shadows the impression of a thinker – the ego – comes forth[3].
It is this thinking that creates the impressions of “sweet” and “bitter” in the mind as well as the impressions of “I have attained” and “I have not attained”, or fear and pleasure.
Just as Yama comments on the quality of the true Self, it can be said about Nachiketa that he neither repels nor attracts “what is” – neither the sweet nor the bitter. There is only a non-judgmental, effortless awareness. This state of mind is sacred negation; the end of volitional activity.
In this way, Nachiketa faces inwardly the fact of death of all that is impermanent. For that which is not vivified and has no life of its own, dies. But that which has life of itself, which is true, blossoms.
In this dying in not-willing and therefore not-doing, the action of the undivided Self, the Atman reveals itself – untouched by the I, mine or me. It breaks through the shell of ignorance. The light of the eternal Self emanates and acts, boundless in its nature.
[1] The retelling and quotations are based on the English translation of the Katha Upanishad by Eknath Easwaran from „The Upanishads introduced and translated“, Nilgiri Press, second edition, 2007, p. 69 ff.
[2] Translation according to the Sanskrit-English dictionary „Harvard-Kyoto“, https://sanskritdictionary.com/ci/80935/1
[3] See also the Sanskrit term „Ahamkara“: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahamkara
