na nareṇᾱvareṇa proktᾱ eṣa suvijñeyo bahudhᾱ cintyamᾱnaḥ:
ananya-prokte gatir atra nᾱsty aṇīyᾱn hy atarkyam aṇupramᾱnᾱt. (8)

This knowledge cannot be had by personal effort alone. You cannot get it by reading a book. The teacher of it must be an expert—so subtle is this knowledge. “If an inferior teacher teaches about Him, this knowledge will not enter you, as He is thought of in many ways. But there remains no doubt when He is taught by one who knows Him as himself. Subtler than the atom is this truth. You may be able to see an atom, but this cannot be seen.”

Knowledge is not words, but spirit spoken. The teacher is like the honeybee who draws the honey from all books and gives you the essence. The force behind the words spoken by the Guru is important. It is his power that is conveyed through his words. Not merely this; the proximity to the teacher is itself a force. The words he speaks, his thoughts and the good notion he has about the disciple are important. Unless it is taught by a superior teacher, it cannot be understood. Without him, there is no way.

naiṣᾱ tarkeṇa matir ᾱpaneyᾱ, proktᾱnyenaiva sujñᾱnᾱya preṣṭha:
yᾱṁ tvam ᾱpas satyadhritir batᾱsi; tvᾱdṛṅ no bhῡyᾱn naciketaḥ praṣṭᾱ. (9)

“It is not only that you cannot attain this knowledge without a teacher, but also that you cannot attain it by logic and reasoning. But, my dear, taught by one who knows the truth, it is well understood.”

Mental processes belong to the realm of phenomena, but truth does not; and so there is no connection between them. Even scriptures speak in a language, and words cannot convey it. It cannot be communicated to another for want of means, say the scriptures. It is insight—the intuition of the Guru that reveals this knowledge. The intuition of the Guru reveals itself as intuition in the disciple. They are not two persons; they are only two centres—one revealed and the other unrevealed. “If seekers there be, if questioners there be, may we have seekers, questioners like you, Nachiketas!”

The Superiority of Wisdom to Wealth, Earthly as Well as Heavenly

jᾱnᾱmy aham śevadhir ity anityam, na hy adhruvaiḥ prᾱpyate hi dhruvaṁ tat
tato mayᾱ naciketaś cito’gnir anityair dravyaiḥ prᾱptavᾱn asmi nityam. (10)

There is a transition of instruction between the lower and the higher, vaishvanara-agni and hiranyagarbha. “I know that all the treasures of the world are perishable, and that the perishable cannot be a means to the imperishable. Yet, as a candidate of the celestial realm, I performed the vaishvanara sacrifice. I have reached the everlasting by impermanent means.”

This is a difficult mantra to understand, and various commentators have different opinions about it. Some think it is spoken by Yama; some others, by Nachiketas. There is no ‘uvacha’ in the Upanishad like in the Bhagavadgita. However, it cannot be Nachiketas saying it for at least one reason. The speaker says, ‘I have performed the nachiketas-agni’, so they must be Yama’s words. Because Nachiketas has only heard about it but has not yet performed it.

Anandagiri’s comment, which has been accepted by many, says that this is the teaching of Yama to Nachiketas, revealing the former’s own personal condition. “Do you know how I have become Yama, the Lord of Death? It is by performing the vaishvanara-agni. I know it does not by itself lead to the absolute Truth. It is anitya and through it one cannot reach the nitya.” This means that nothing of this world can lead you to the imperishable; even the higher realms are, like this world, for the senses even though objects come closer in these higher realms because of their subtlety. The residents of brahma-loka do not have a physical or even subtle body, but have only a causal one, merely one step below the Absolute where it makes no difference as to where things are; everything is everywhere. But there is something higher than these levels: the subject of the third boon, which Yama refuses to teach.

What is the wonder of this? The wonder is that nothing is the means to it. The non-eternal cannot take you there; and everything you have—body, mind, intellect etc.—are non-eternal. “Then what is the means to it?” is the great question which Yama refuses to answer. But Nachiketas wants to know only that. “People say it is ‘something’. It must be, because we are asked to do good, show affection to others. A rule of righteousness is imposed upon us. So, there must be something, but what is it? When one approaches it, one loses himself. And when I am not there, neither is the other. If the subject is not, the object is also not. This is the mystery: that something seems to be there, and yet it appears as not there.” Thus, Yama says that nothing that is non-eternal can be a help in knowing the eternal. Logic, your possessions, all that is conceivable by your thoughts, is perishable and cannot help you. Hence, in the realisation of God, nothing can come to your aid but God Himself. The human element, everything sensual and external must be cast aside, and only the divine element relied upon. The question of Nachiketas is how to bring about this transition from the human to the divine.

When the soul is released of its individuality, what happens to it? No one has given an answer to this. When asked by Maitreyi, Yajnavalkya says that the question itself ceases to exist when the answer reveals itself. The questioner and the answer vanish: ‘Where one speaks to another, sees another, understands another, communication is possible. But where there is no one to speak, no one to see, and no one to understand, who is to communicate to whom?’ Yama comes to a similar conclusion by taking Nachiketas to the universal knowledge of hiranyagarbha, to That Which Is, asti. We have to know It as That Which Is. Even the state of universal knowledge is comparatively transient, because in it everything is an object of omniscience. The subject-object relationship exists even there. But Reality is going beyond everything, because there is not even that everything in the Absolute. Though eternal means alone is the eternal realised; this is the mystery. Because of the subtlety of this wisdom it is said that a Guru is necessary as an embodiment of insight which can be conveyed, but not spoken or written.

kᾱmasyᾱptiṁ jagataḥ pratiṣṭhᾱṁ krator ᾱnantyaṁ abhayasya pᾱram
stoma-mahad urugᾱyam pratiṣṭhᾱṁ dṛṣṭvᾱ dhṛtyᾱ dhīro naciketo’tyasrᾱkṣīḥ. (11)

This is a description of the state of mahatattva or hiranyagarbha – the highest state that can be reached in all creation, the satisfaction of all desires. Here, all your loves and affections get fulfilled, like flowing rivers finding their contentment in reaching the ocean. The movement of desires to objects is a blind activity of the senses, continuing until this stage is reached. All desires are due to a sense of separation from the beloved object. The longing to unite oneself with that from which one is separated is desire. The urge to come together is desire. So, when you come into union with an object, you seem to be in a state of fulfillment. But, says the Upanishad, this is not really fulfilling wants, because they rise again, like a creditor coming again and again until his dues are cleared. If they had really been fulfilled, why should desires rise again? They are not satisfied with what you give, because in a so-called enjoyment, you do not unite. The whole world cannot make you happy because you never can come into union with it, and because you fail in this, you take another birth. Yet, you do not learn the lesson. Your understanding cannot arise, precisely due to the desires. Satisfaction comes only in the ocean of hiranyagarbha. Here, you reach a state of perpetual balance. You do not stand opposed to the object of desire, as you do now. You are able to move freely into the very soul of it. There is no isolation of subject-object, and hence there is perpetual happiness.

Hiranyagarbha, the universal mind or intelligence, is also the support of all the worlds, the cause of all creation. The virat is an external or physical expression of that internal hiranyagarbha. Just as our mental condition supports our body, hiranyagarbha supports all the worlds. Here, all sacrifices, all good works, all charity, find their rewards, because from indra-loka, swarga-loka and other realms, you come back, but from brahma-loka there is no return. Tearless is this region, because there are no desires. Where there is no desire, there is no fear, because there is no opposition or counterpart to one another. One flows, merges into the other. All your praises reach hiranyagarbha. You may praise anyone, it reaches Him. All words that you utter are a description of His Being. He is the only object of praise. When you call anyone, you call Him. When you taunt anyone, you taunt Him, because He is the One Ultimate Being. He is the grand Goal of expression in action and speech. Can you imagine this state? Your head will reel. Nachiketas rejected even this, because it is a part of creation.

“Having seen this Supreme Being, O wise Nachiketas, you have rejected even this!”

Apprehension of the Supreme Through Adhyatma-yoga

taṁ durdarśaṁ gῡḍham anupraviṣṭaṁ guhᾱhitaṁ gahvareṣṭham purᾱṇam
adhyᾱtma-yogᾱdhigamena devam matvᾱ dhīro harṣa-śokau jahᾱti. (12)

What did he choose, then? Hiranyagarbha is the highest satisfaction, but the seeking soul must abandon It and ask for that which is hidden even behind It. What happens to a person when he overcomes the sense of individuality, was Nachiketas’ question, and Yama, satisfied, begins to answer.

That about which even the gods have doubt, about which even the scriptures do not speak adequately, what is That—That Being which cannot be perceived, either by the eyes or any other sense-organ? He is the most hidden of all hidden secrets, the mysterious divine Being. Where is He hidden? In the jungles? In the caves? In the sky? In the forest? What a mystery! People go to different places seeking Him, but He is hidden in the bottom of the very seeker himself. You carry Him wherever you go, yet you ask for Him. He cannot be seen because He is what sees through the eyes. He cannot be thought of, because He is that which thinks through the mind. So deeply hidden is He in your own heart that you cannot see Him. You yourself stand as an object to Him. You are an empirical subject, while He is the Absolute Subject or the paramarthika-satta. Most ancient is this Being.

He was here before your coming into existence, before creation came into existence. Before the creation of the cosmos, even behind the sankalpa of the cosmic Creator He was. And so, even the gods came into being after Him. Temporary, transient things cannot be a means to the realisation of this Truth. There is something fundamentally wrong in our approach to it. You can liken it to a supreme emperor whom one can approach by no means; yet he is approachable. Even the ground upon which you tread to see the king is his. Similarly, even the life that we possess is His. It is difficult, thus, to understand how to reach Him. Nothing can please Him because He has everything. You cannot offer anything to Him because everything belongs to Him, and you yourself are His property. Then, what is the way? Yama does not want to explain it, because it cannot be explained, as all questions imply the connection of a means with an end, while He is neither a means nor an end.

By the practice of adhyatma-yoga this God of gods is known. This yoga is the way to God-realisation. In the whole Kathopanishad, there is no explanation of what this adhyatma-yoga is. We have to go to other Upanishads, like the Brhadaranyaka—especially in the discourses of Yajnavalkya to Janaka and Maitreyi—for a description of it. “There is no conceivable consciousness after the annihilation of individuality. Then you have nothing before you, of what can you be conscious? And yet I say it is consciousness; for while there is nothing to be conscious of, still It Is consciousness, because everything has merged into It. This is the Absolute.”

Adhyatma-yoga is a state of meditation where there is no thinking. Where there are objects to think of, it is hiranyagarbha, but where everything has merged into consciousness, nothing remains to be explained.

“It is attainable by him through whom it is sought,” is Sankara’s explanation to this mantra. The seeker and the sought are the same. “One, having known that primal God deeply hidden in the cave of the heart, abandons joy and sorrow because they belong to the world of thought.”

etac chrutvᾱ samparigṛhya martyaḥ pravṛhya dharmyam aṇum etam ᾱpya
sa modate modanīyaṁ hi labdhvᾱ vivṛtaṁ sadma naciketasam manye. (13)

Yama continues: “On hearing this and reaching the Essence, the Source of joy, one rises to a status of ecstatic consciousness. Nachiketas, for you this gate is open.”

It is difficult to say what happens to him who catches a glimpse of it. The atman is the support of all dharma, the supreme law. Every law is but an expression of His nature. This supreme righteousness is anu, the subtlest of all existences, and once we have seen the atman, we know all laws. Saints are therefore the vehicles of righteousness. They do not follow the Manu Smirti or any other law, but the smritis follow them. If one listens to this supreme dharma, one gets transported into spiritual ecstasy. One becomes supremely joyous, because the object of joy has been attained. If your son whom you thought dead came back to you, how joyous you would be! You have lost your own Self and you have found it now! That which you have been seeking for years and years has come!

While the gates of heaven are closed to ordinary people, they are open to such seekers as Nachiketas who have a clarified understanding. Really speaking, the gates of heaven are always open. What happens is that people lose their eyesight when they go near them. This happens every day to us, in deep sleep. We touch them, but we become unconscious and blindly pass them by, and then say that they are closed. Our own desires make us pass them by when we try to approach these gates, by saying: ‘We are unfulfilled! No going unless we are fulfilled!’ Like the worldly wife of one who wants to take sannyas forcibly drags him away, the desires drag us from that high state. They give us a blow on our head when we are about to see God face to face. No man of desires can see God.

When Sri Krishna was to visit Duryodhana’s palace, Vidura told the people that they would not see Him. The reason behind this is that the Lord cannot be seen by men of desires.

anyatra dharmᾱd anyatrᾱdharmᾱd anyatrᾱsmᾱt kṛtᾱkṛtᾱt.
anyatra bhῡtᾱc ca bhavyᾱc ca yat tat paśyasi tad vada. (14)

“Glad am I, O Lord! Please, tell me more!” says Nachiketas. Now that Yama has answered, Nachiketas will not cease to question. After having been given a wonderful description of the highest, he says: “Tell me what is other than dharma and adharma, beyond what is done and not done—That which Is.” That which is neither dharma nor adharma, neither truth nor falsehood, neither goodness nor otherwise, neither subject nor object—what is that? Where dharma and adharma have their play, where subject and object come together, is world-consciousness. What is That which shoots up like a spark when the match is struck, consuming that which is hidden in it? What is That which is neither the done nor the not-done, midway between doing and not-doing, like the karma yoga of the Bhagavadgita? That which is not past or future—not coming by your effort and also not otherwise.

That which Yama sees is not a content of creation, because what is seen is hiranyagarbha which has already been passed over. You must go beyond creation. It is not contained in space, and so not in time. It is an eternal Presence. It is said to be ‘here and now’, meaning that it is infinite and eternal. The question of Nachiketas is itself a hint of what he seeks from Yama. That which exists as the non-interfering Principle in all, that which is the Seer of the activity of the cosmos—that is the Being which he wants.