Nachiketa and the Lord of Death
A boy asked his father the same question three times, and then sat three nights unfed at the door of Death — the story of the Katha Upanishad.
The sage Vajashrava performed the Vishvajit sacrifice, in which a man gives away everything he owns. But the cows he was handing out were old — past milking, past calving.
His young son Nachiketa watched. He thought: what world can my father reach by giving away what is no longer worth giving?
He asked, "Father, to whom will you give me?"
His father said nothing. He asked again. And again.
The third time, his father snapped, "To Death I give you!"
Nachiketa took the word as a word, and walked to Yama's door. Yama was away. The boy waited three nights on the threshold without food or water.
When Yama returned and found that a guest had gone unfed for three nights, he apologised and said, "For the three nights, ask three boons."
The first: "Let my father's anger cool. When I return, let him know me and receive me gladly." Granted.
The second: "Teach me the fire-ritual that leads to heaven." Yama taught it in full, and, pleased, declared that this fire would from then on be called the Nachiketa fire.
The third: "When a man dies, some say he still is, others say he is not. What is the truth? That is what I want."
Yama drew back. "Do not ask this. Even the gods have doubted here. Ask instead for a hundred years of life, for sons and grandsons, elephants, horses, gold, a vast kingdom, celestial dancers — anything you like."
Nachiketa answered, "How long will any of that last? It only wears out the senses. However long a life is, it is short. Keep your chariots, your dancing and your songs. I will take the boon I asked for."
Then Yama was glad. "You have passed over the pleasant and chosen the good." And he gave the teaching of the Self:
The Self is not born and does not die. The body is a chariot, the senses its horses, the mind the reins, the intellect the charioteer — and where the charioteer is asleep, the chariot goes wherever it will.
And the line that still carries: uttiṣṭhata jāgrata — arise, awake, and learn from those who know.
Moral: Nachiketa was offered everything and asked only for the answer. Choosing between what is pleasant and what is good is the whole question of a life.
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