kathopanishad-1-2-13-etacchrutvā

Commentary by Swami Krishnananda of the great Divine Life Society

Etac chrutvā samparigṛhya martyaḥ pravṛhya dharmyam aṇum etam āpya, sa modate modanīyaṁ hi labdhvā vivṛtaṁ sadma nachiketasam manye (1.2.13): “I think the door is open for you, Nachiketas. The gates of heaven are slowly opening for you.” For most of us the door is closed; for Nachiketas it is now open. Etac chrutvā: Having heard this; samparigṛhya: having grasped it also—not merely hearing it, but having grasped the meaning of it; martyaḥ: a human being; pravṛhya dharmyam: this anu, this subtle dharma, having been absorbed into one’s own life, such a person enjoys the best joys of all joys which one can think of in one’s mind.

Priya, moda, pramoda are the three states of joy. We can be happy in three ways. When a dear object is seen, we are happy. That is called priya. When the dear object comes very near, we are happier. That is moda. When the dear object is completely under our possession, we are happiest. That is pramoda. Priya, moda, pramoda. This pramoda cannot be had through contact with objects because it is said that we have this highest happiness only when the objects of desire are completely under our possession, but we can never have complete control over anything in this world. Objects always remain as objects; they can never become subjects. Therefore, the subject, which is totally different from the object, can never be in possession of the object. Hence, no one in this world can be happiest. There can be only a comparative degree of priya and moda, but pramoda, the actual possession of joy, is not to be granted to any mortal in this world because possession of a thing is impossible here. Possession implies unity of the subject and the object, which is not possible as long as space and time exist. Sa modate modanīyaṁ hi labdhvā: Having enjoyed that which is worth enjoying, one sees the open door.

It is said that this fort of eternal bliss has eighty-four doors, and all except one are closed. Eighty-four doors represent the eighty-four lakhs of species through which one has to pass in the process of evolution. Within this fort everyone is caught up. We can somehow come near the one door which is open, which is human-like. To all the other categories of life, which are lower, the door is closed. The mineral, the plant, the animal are the species to whom the door is closed. Only at the human level is the door open. There is only one open door, and the other doors are closed. All are inside this fort. The human being is blind and cannot see where the open door is—blind due to the ignorance, avidya, engendering kama and karma. Due to the obliteration of the knowledge of reality and the compulsion to visualise the externality of the objects of sense, the consciousness of there being an open door is completely obliterated. He is blind. So, what does the man do? He tries to feel the wall. Like a blind man going around the fort to see where the door is open, he goes, touching every little brick of this wall. He goes round and round, round and round. Somehow when he comes near that open door, he has an itching of the head. He scratches his head, and then misses the gate. That is to say, when the human being is about to be endowed with the capacity to transcend this human nature, he gets sunk in the desires characteristic of human nature. Impelled by egoism and avidya, once again the propulsion for kama and karma drowns him. He gets some itching, and then he cannot go out. Again and again, again and again he goes around and around. But Nachiketas has found the open door.

Nachiketas says, “Please speak further. Let me hear something more. Whatever you have told me up to this time appears to be related to a truth which is not of this world. There are good things and bad things in this world, there are causes and effects in this world, there are things to be done and things which ought not to be done in this world, there is past and present and future in this world, but this truth about which you are about to speak to me cannot be of this nature. It can be neither dharma nor adharma, neither good nor evil, neither cause nor effect, neither action that is permitted nor action that is prohibited, neither the past, nor the present, nor the future. What is that? Please tell me.”