kathopanishad-1-1-11-yathā purastād

Commentary by Swami Krishnananda of the great Divine Life Society

Yathā purastād bhavitā pratīta auddālakir āruṇir matprasṛṣṭaḥ, sukhaṁ rātrīś śayitā vītamanyus tvāṁ dadṛśivān mṛtyumukhāt pramuktam (1.1.11). Yama gives a reply to this request of the boy Nachiketas. “Granted. As your father was loving and affectionate towards you before you came here to me, so will he be loving and affectionate to you even when you go back after having been released by me. In the same way as he was, so shall he be in the future also. After having seen you come back from my realm, his anger will totally vanish. He shall be happy to see you.”

This is another verse which has a similar internal meaning as the earlier one, complementary to the internal meaning attached to the earlier verse, signifying that the principle of death will free us from its clutches provided that we transcend the limitations of the human personality and become supermen.

We have supermen in this world. Bhagavan Sri Krishna was a superman. The Avataras of Vishnu are all symbols of supermen. The Incarnations and the Avataras that we speak of in the religions of the world are supermen. They could walk on this earth and also keep their heads high in the heavens. They think through the heavens but walk with their feet on the earth; such are supermen. That is, they have a direct contact with the two worlds at the same time, the deathless and the death-ridden, whereas people who are ordinary men, not supermen, have no consciousness of a heavenly existence and do not think like heavenly beings. They think like mortals, and their thoughts are overcome by anxieties, vexations and constant distractions, giving no peace in this world even for a moment.

No human being can have real happiness in this world because we are involved in a fluxation of the movements of nature, the world as a whole, and like a straw that is being driven by the flood of a river without any control over itself, we seem to be moving in this world of nature which is helplessly driving us as a shepherd is driving sheep. Such a predicament will no longer be ours if we overcome the defects of human nature by freeing ourselves from passion, greed, anger, and desires of every kind, and cleanse our personality with the knowledge of there being such a connection between the mortal and the immortal. That is to say, we shall be able to live in the world as gods verily walking on earth. Then the world shall not be anymore an inimical presentation before us. It shall be friendly, affectionate, loving.

So the great Lord says, “Go back, and you shall have no problems anymore.” This much is briefly the import of the first boon. Great is the consequence of even this first boon. To be a superman is not an ordinary achievement, but there is something more than being a superman. There are greater secrets than the secrets mentioned already. What are they?

“May I ask you, great Master, another thing which is a different boon altogether, far superior to the one which you were good enough to grant to me? I shall spell out the second boon. Please condescend to grant it to me,” asks Nachiketas. This is something more difficult, deeper, wider and grander than the earlier one.