Actually, if you go deep into the mystery of this question, Nachiketas was not asking what happens to the soul after physical death, because he knew very well what happens to the soul after physical death as he already knew the technique of enjoying cosmic life due to the second boon that was granted to him. So he knew that the soul exists somewhere after death, but he persisted in asking the same question again and again because the implied meaning was what happens to the soul when it attains complete freedom. Mahati samparaye (K.U. 1.2.1) is the word used here, in this context. He did not say, "What happens to the soul after ordinary death?" Mahati samparaye means, "What happens to the soul after the great death?" Great death means the abolition of the soul itself in liberation. At that time, where is the soul?

Now, this circumstance is identical with the other one, which arose in the query of the king before the six learned people. The difficulty in adjusting your consciousness to the circumstance of not placing anything, any object - even the object of meditation - outside you, and not placing it somewhere, that difficulty is identical with this difficulty in knowing what happens to the soul in liberation. Where does it exist at that time? Some say it does not exist; it is destroyed. Is it so? If the soul is really destroyed, then all the efforts the soul puts forth in its life are a waste. You try to do good things. You try to be virtuous. You want to lead a good life. What for, if your soul is going to be destroyed tomorrow? Your aspirations for being good, being virtuous, being charitable and so on imply that you will not be abolished tomorrow - otherwise, who would do anything at all in this world? Who would lift a finger? There is something in you which tells you that you will not be abolished. "But if I am not going to be abolished, where I am going to be?"

All the philosophers of the West have failed in answering this question. I have met several Deans of Philosophy and Doctors of Philosophy from Western universities. I had conversations with them. When I led the argument to this point, they said, "This is something impossible to think in the mind, because if you say that the soul exists somewhere even after liberation, it would mean that it is located in space. Then it contradicts the requisition that the object of meditation should not be in one place. If it is nowhere, then the attainment of liberation has no meaning." The Western mind cannot imagine that there is any significance in the merging of the soul in the Absolute. In the West no one, except some mystics, could grasp this great secret. Would you like to be drowned in the ocean of the Absolute? Maybe it is the Absolute, but who would like to be drowned? Would you like to be drowned in an ocean of nectar? Of course, nectar is very good. But who would like to be drowned? The idea of drowning is terrible.

So, these wonderful circumstances posed by the great master, Yama, and the king Ashvapati before these learned ones, is posed before every one of us. Inasmuch as it is taken for granted that we all want ultimate freedom, and ultimate freedom is only in the recognition of the imperishable soul in us, it becomes a lifelong task on the part of everyone - a dedication for the whole of life - because nothing can be more dear than one's own self. Every action is, finally, a tendency towards the joy of the self, the knowledge of the self, and the imperishability of the self. There cannot be a fear greater the fear of self-annihilation. And there cannot be a joy greater than the feeling that one is perfectly safe and no threat can be discharged against one's own existence. To live is a great joy, whatever be the kind of life that you live. Even a beggar would not like to die, though he is suffering with penury. A diseased person would not like to die. "Cure me," he will say, but he will not say "kill me". "Make me well-fed and happy," the beggar will say. No beggar will say "annihilate me", because the greatest joy is existence.

It is not merely existing like a tree, or a stone, or a pig. It is not that kind of existence that you are asking for. It is an enhanced form of existence. In what way can existence be enhanced? By adding consciousness into it. The existence should be attached to consciousness. It is a conscious existence that you want - not an unconscious existence like a stone. A stone also lives long. Would you like to live long, like a stone? "No. I want to be conscious." Would you like to be conscious for few minutes only, and then perish? No. There is another condition that you put forth: "I want to be conscious of my existence for all time to come." It means to say that you want to defy the process of time itself. But your physical location in one place, which is the finitude of life, is subject to destruction. Everything that is in one place will be destroyed one day or the other by the ravages of time; therefore, what are you asking for when you ask for existence which is unlimited freedom and consciousness? You are asking for the defiance of the limitations of time and the defiance of the restrictions placed by the spatial expanse before you. You do not want to be somewhere, and you do not want to be some-when. What do you want, then? Everywhere you should be, everything should be yours, and for all time it should be. Time has to go, space has to go, and eternity should reign supreme. This is what you are aspiring for, finally.

The mind cannot grasp all these truths unless it is purified. In the Upanishads we have instances of great seekers humbly going to great Gurus. Narada is another instance, which we have in the Chhandogya Upanishad. There was no science or art of which Narada was not a master, but he had no peace of mind. Do we not have people here in this world who are rich enough to burn money and wield authority, but they are disturbed in mind, with no peace within?

This Narada, who was a master of all knowledge, art and science, went to the wondrous sage Sanatkumara and begged of him, "Teach me." Adhihi bhagavah iti (C.U. 7.1.1): Teach me Brahman.

The great sage, Sanatkumara, said, "What do you know already? Please let me know."

"I know cosmology, ontology, epistemology, psychology, astronomy, aesthetics, axiology, political science, economics, history, religion, and philosophy. But I have no peace of mind," replied Narada.

"All these things that you have told me are only words, my dear boy," said Sanatkumara. "Words cannot bring you joy. You may describe what gold is, but it does not mean that by a description of it you are a possessor of gold. A professor of knowledge is not necessarily a possessor of knowledge. That is the distinction. So, all these things that you have recounted before me are of no utility, finally. The peace that you seek is in your own Self, which is the Atman."

"Tell me about the Atman," said Narada.

By a long-drawn discussion - stage by stage, step by step - the sage Sanatkumara took the mind of Narada to the apex point.

"The great Truth alone is the source of peace and bliss," said the sage.

"Tell me the Truth," asked Narada.

"The Truth is the Infinite," said Sanatkumara.

"Tell me what the Infinite is," asked Narada.

"Where you see nothing else outside you, where you hear nothing else outside you, where you are not thinking anything outside you, that is the Infinite. Where you see something outside you, where you hear something outside you, where you are thinking something outside you, that is the finite. The Infinite alone is bliss. Know that!" replied Sanatkumara.

"Where is that Infinite?" asked Narada further.

Sa evadhastat, sa uparistat, sa pascat, sa purastat, sa daksinatah, sa uttaratah, sa evedam sarvam (C.U. 7.25.1). "Where is the Infinite, you are asking me. It is in front of you. It is behind you. It is to the right. It is to the left. It is above. It is below. It is everywhere. It alone is. One who knows this has freedom in all the worlds," replied the sage. No passport is necessary; no visa is necessary to move in the realms of being.

Such a person who knows this secret becomes the Self of worlds galore. He becomes the Self of all beings. He becomes everything! Such a person is the centre of gravitation for everything in the universe. Yathaika ksudhita balah mataram paryupasate evam sarvani bhutany agni-hotram upasate ity agni-hotram upasata iti (C.U. 5.24.5). If that person who knows this secret eats food, the whole universe is satisfied. In earlier days there was a concept of feeding Brahmins. The idea is that a Brahmin is one who knows Brahman, and if he eats, everybody is satisfied. This knowledge makes you such a potentate in the cosmos that the worlds - all beings - gravitate around you for blessing in the same way as children sit around their mother for food. "Mummy, give me food. Give me something to eat," so children cry around the mother. So all beings, all creation - everyone will rally round you and seek your blessing because what you are, they also are. What you eat, they eat, and what you feel, they feel. Your joy is their joy. Your existence is their existence.

This is the import, finally, of this one wondrous story I mentioned to you of the six great people going to Ashvapati, the king, for the knowledge of the Atman, which is not outside and not somewhere, and that Atman about which Yama, the Lord, refused to speak. Ascaryavat pasyati kascit enam (B.G. 2.29), the Bhagavadgita also reiterates. "Wonder is this thing that you are speaking. It is a wonder!" The teacher who can explain this is a wonder. The student who can understand this is a wonder. The thing that is explained is a wonder. The whole thing is a wonder. The greatest wonder is the Ultimate Being called God Almighty, the Absolute. May this wonder bless you, is my prayer!