Katha

UPANISHAD


The Katha Upanishad is embedded in the last 8 sections of the Krishna Yajurveda. It has two chapters divided into three Vallis each. It is a Mukhya upanishad and listed as #3 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads.

Katha

The Katha Upanishad is the legendary story of a little boy, Nachiketa – the son of Sage Vajasravasa, who meets Yama (the deity of death). Their conversation evolves to a discussion of the nature of man, knowledge, Atman (Soul, Self) and Moksha (liberation). This Upanishad is one of the most popular Upanishads for its simplicity and clarity in making the subject matter regarding the Highest truth easily comprehensible. It consists of two chapters (adhyāyas), each divided into three sections (vallis) that contain a total of 119 mantras. Many mantras of Kathopanishad have been repeated in the Bhagavad-Gitä in verbatim/or adapted.

Swami Tapovanam’s Introduction

Katha Upanishad Verses - In Sanskrit and English with Meaning and Commentary by Adi Sankaracharya

Katha Upanishad
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Two words on Kațhopanişad
Sadguru Śrī Swami Tapovan Mahārāja

Guru of Swami Chinmayananda


Kațhopanişad is perhaps the clearest of all the ten classical Upanişads. Upanişad means Brahmavidyā, that is, the knowledge of Brahman. Kațhopanișad explains Brahmavidyā most clearly, most vividly, and repeats the essentials without making the subject complicated by unconsciously mixing up upāsanās with it as almost all the other Upanișads do. It goes on adding colour after colour in its description of the pure Ātman, which is Brahman, the only Reality. The root cause of all the miseries and calamities of this world is ignorance (avidyā). By instinct or by intellect a man thinks that he is the body. This is ignorance. ‘Body cannot be the meaning of l’. I am Ātman, ever shining, everlasting, eternal, pure Consciousness. To understand Ātman in such a way by intellectual thinking and discrimination, and to experience it by clear perception and Realisation, is called Knowledge. This Self-knowledge – this Ātmavidyā – was demanded by Naciketā, and Yamarāja explained it in a simple style, adopting different methods. This constitutes the whole text.

स मोदते मोदनीय हि लब्ध्वा
sa modate modanīyaň hi labdhvā – Kațhopanișad-1.2.13
Having attained the blissful Atman, he becomes happy.

Ātman is of the nature of eternal Bliss. The only source of happiness is Ātman. And that Ātman is one’s own Self. It is already attained. Therefore, Its attainment is nothing but to know It. It is not to be attained or enjoyed as an object, like a mango or an apple. Ātman, the pure Caitanya, is ever luminous in all Its glory in this body. The man of ignorance does not know It though he is doing all his actions by that Caitanya. Therefore, Mother Śruti says with wonder and sorrow –

उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत
uttişthata jāgrata prāpya varānnibodhata  – Kațhopanışad-1.3.14
Arise! Awake! Sitting at the feet of Mahātmās, the Realised souls, know It! Realise It!

This knowledge of Ātman, the destroyer of ignorance, is being discussed again and again in the Kathopanișad and can be easily understood and fully realised by an intelligent and faithful aspirant who is hearing and studying it. The knowledge – I am eternal and ever blissful Brahman; I am beyond this body, senses and mind – which a man acquires by simply hearing the Upanişad cannot be perfect and, therefore, would produce no great result. Incessant flow of remembrance of Ātman in the mind that ‘I am pure, blissful, birthless and deathless Ātman’ like the continuous flow of the Ganga is called perfect Knowledge (jñāna) which alone can destroy ignorance (avidyā) and give perpetual peace.

Even an ikkā driver who attends some lecture of Vedānta on the roadside can have the knowledge of the Ātman for a moment. Though he hears that he is Ātman, he cannot think of it again for himself, as his mind is so deeply rooted in his body and body idea. Ātman idea or Self-knowledge has no place in his mind. His greedy and lustful mind with hundreds of desires, hatreds, ambitions and anxieties cannot think of the Ātman continuously even for a few moments without having the body consciousness, ‘I-ness’ and ‘my-ness?. It burns and boils in the waters of his clinging attachments (trşņā). Ātman can be thought of, realised and remembered only by a calm, quiet and concentrated mind and not by a greedy, anxious and wavering mind. If those who hear the discourses on the Kathopanişad are intelligent, they can have an idea of the Self, that is, they can acquire an intellectual estimate of the Ātman in their understanding. But one cannot be an Atmavit – a Realised soul – by such a knowledge of the Self. Because that knowledge is not perfect; it is only a conditioned knowledge of Ātmā. If the mind of the hearer is faithful, pure, concentrated and calm, then only it can realise and get established in pure Knowledge (jñāna) by continuous remembrance of the Atman. Therefore, the hearers of Vedānta who want to acquire perfect jñāna, which alone can eliminate ignorance and give eternal peace and happiness, must have a pure, calm and concentrated mind. Hence the mantra definitely advises –

नाविरतो दुश्चरितात् नाशान्तो नासमाहितः।
नाशान्तमानसो वापि प्रज्ञानेनैनमाप्नुयात्॥
nāvirato duscaritāt nāśānto nāsamāhitaḥ,
nāśānta-mānaso vā’pi prajñanenainam-āpnuyāt. – Kathopanişad-1.2.24
One who is indulged always in vicious actions, and desirous of various sensual enjoyments, and who has got no concentrated mind cannot attain Ātman through Knowledge.

This is the reason why renunciation (vairāgya) is considered as an unavoidable sādhanā for Brahma-jñāna everywhere in Vedānta. Vairāgya can destroy all sorts of desire-dirts and make the mind pure. No other Upanişad has so clearly described the full and true nature of healthy vairāgya as Kathopanişad has done. Naciketā, the glorious student of Brahmavidyā in Kațhopanişad, was an embodiment of vairāgya. No such great adhikarī for Brahmavidyā is ever so exhaustively narrated anywhere in the whole Upanişad literature –

तवैव वाहास्तव नृत्यगीते॥
tavaiva vāhāstava nrtyagīte. – Kathopanişad-1.1.26
You may keep yourself these carriages, these singing and dancing girls.

This was the prompt and immediate reply to his Ācārya, Lord Death, when these things of sensual enjoyment were offered to him. Yamarāja utterly failed in his attempt to make Naciketā covetous. By vairāgya and by practising meditation, one’s mind becomes slowly concentrated. Concentration of mind is absolutely necessary for the direct perception and realisation of the Self. By attaining Yoga, the concentration of mind, one can realise the Paramātman and get established in the eternal Bliss – the absolute perfection – beyond all pleasure and pain. What is the nature of the yoga which is described here, as the unavoidable sādhanā for the Brahmajñāna? Śruti very clearly says –

यदा पञ्चावतिष्ठन्ते ज्ञानानि मनसा सह।
बुद्धिश्च न विचेष्टति तामाहुः परमां गतिम्॥
तां योगमिति मन्यन्ते स्थिरामिन्द्रियधारणाम्।
yadā pañcā-vatisthante jñānāni manasā saha,
buddhiếca na viceștati tāmāhuḥ paramām gatim.
tām yogamiti manyante sthirām-indriya-dhāraņām, – Kathopanişad-2.3.10,11
When the five senses and mind become controlled and the intellect also becomes steady, then that stage is the highest, and that is called ‘Yoga’ by the great yogīs of the past.

Though ancient rșis called this – sthirām-indriya-dhāraṇām – the control of the outer senses and the inner mind – as ‘yoga’ and though this is the real Yoga which leads us to Self- realisation, perfection and eternal Bliss, the word ‘yoga’ is nowadays greatly misunderstood by the Eastern and the Western book readers. They think that ‘yoga’ means some occult powers and superhuman strength of the body and the senses. The exaggerated descriptions of the power of kundalinī and its awakening in the books on yoga make them eager to become a yogi. They want no realisation of the Self. They never practise yoga for Self-realisation. Real Yoga is concentration of mind, according to the Upanișads and that is to be practised and attained by a spiritual aspirant.

As there is no possibility of realising the Ātman without vairāgya and without concentration of mind, every aspirant must try to acquire these two at any cost. This is what the above mantra in Kaſhopanişad means to say. Therefore, first of all, be good, do good actions like the worship of God, like meditation upon His form, constant remembrance of Him and so on, and thus purify the mind. Practise upāsanā also; that is, do japa and meditation upon the form and qualities of a personal God. By practising selfless service and upāsanā, the wavering state of mind will end, and the mind will become gradually purified. Then you will be able to undoubtedly realise the Ātman, and thereafter come to live in the Ātman which you have intellectually understood by attending the discourses on Kathopanişad.

Never be satisfied by simply attending and hearing the discourses of Vedānta. Intellectual knowledge of the Ātman is only the first stage. Do not think that it is the last and the final stage. Many ladders you have to climb on after the acquisition of this intellectual knowledge if you must have the bright vision and the blissful experience of the Ātman. That is the supreme Brahmavidyā which the Kaſhopanișad teaches us. Try to reach that final stage by performing continuously severe spiritual sādhanās. Never feel contented with the preliminary intellectual knowledge of the supreme Self in you. Strive to become and be.

Blessings