kathopanishad-2-2-6-hanta ta

Commentary by Swami Krishnananda of the great Divine Life Society

Hanta ta idaṁ pravakṣyāmi guhyam brahma sanātanam: yathā ca maraṇam prāpya ātmā bhavati gautama (2.2.6): Yama says, “Nachiketas, I shall describe to you some mystery. When you really die, you become the Atman. But in ordinary death, one does not become the Atman.” In real death, one really becomes the Atman. What is this real death? Some call it the mystical death. Having known this Supreme Brahman, one becomes the Atman. Having known the Supreme Being, one becomes the Self of all beings.

What happens to a person after death is the answer that is attempted in one or two mantras that follow. What happens is to be determined by the conditions that are of the present and the past. It is said that a straight answer to this question cannot be given, because what was in store even before the birth of this body is to be taken into consideration.

Many karmas are performed, as is usually done by everyone, and these karmas are done under different impulses: intense, middling and mild. Intense thoughts impel deep actions which create deep-seated impressions in the subconscious mind, but mild thoughts produce mild impressions. Every thought is recorded, and nothing goes unrecorded. These impressions are the determining factor for the reincarnation of the soul. Strong impressions may seek expression earlier than weak ones. It is not that the present one will be taken first; it depends on the intensity. For karmas there is no past and present. It depends on their intensity. Very powerful karmas may seek expression even in this very birth itself. When karmas produce an effect, these effects get buried in the unconscious and subconscious levels, and we do not know what is in our store. Subconscious impressions can rise to the conscious level in this very birth if their intensity is strong enough.

It is difficult to escape the nemesis of our thoughts, acts and feelings; we are answerable to them. Like our children, they will claim their due share. These karmas are obstinate, powerful and violent if they are given a long rope, and they will hurl us into samsara, as they have done now. We cannot say what our next birth will be like, because it cannot be said now what karmas will be allotted to us. Jadabharata became a deer, Ahalya a stone, and Yamalarjuna became the trees. This means that human consciousness can degenerate to the animal, vegetable and inanimate levels under certain given conditions, but they will again revert to the human kingdom. The stronger impressions collect themselves, and this is prarabdha karma. When the body dies, all these forces awake and rise to the conscious level, demanding their share; this is prarabdha karma. Because we also do fresh karmas, as we do not remain a witness to them and so we keep adding new ones, another birth is taken as new and fresh karmas are added. Again, karmas are fresh actions done with the sense of doership and enjoyership, and mantras six and seven are some sort of reflection on this subject.

The urge for reincarnation testifies to the immortality of the soul. The soul never ceases its efforts toward its liberation, and its efforts in this direction take the form of a series of births and deaths, outwardly manifesting the internal nature of its constitution. The soul never gets the supreme satisfaction that it hopes for in this endless process of achievements. All its efforts are unfortunately in an erroneous direction, and so instead of immortality, there are only endless births and deaths.

Things are connected by a perpetual bond of affinity, and emotional affections are propelled by the existence of internal unity. This internal union of things and persons manifests as loves outside. While this internal spiritual unity is the reality, it takes the form of an external attraction and pull when it manifests in the world. The ocean is one at the bottom, but if its waters are being let out through different channels, it can be split.

Human beings, and all beings in the phenomenal world, are incapable of diving into this unity at the bottom. They are floating on the surface because their senses are being directed outward right from the time of creation, as mentioned in an earlier mantra, and only a few turn inward. Birth and death are correlative, and when one is there, so is the other. If we are born, we have to die; and if we die, we have to be born. There are repeated births and deaths with an interlinking series of experiences, which is called samsara. So long as there is recognition of value in the things of the world, there will be love and hatred for them; and so long as there is love and hatred, desire cannot cease. Desire is an internal urge, and affection for things is an external movement towards the desired object. The births through which the soul passes indicate the restlessness of the spirit for a search for immortality. But nowhere does the spirit find satisfaction, because love for objects does not touch the bottom unity which we have. Thus, loves and hatreds are far removed from reality. So births and deaths do not cease, and the soul enters different bodies in order to experience a set of karmas.