This is a continuation of our discussion in the previous blogs on the Kathopanishad. Here we will be talking about the second boon Nachiketas was asked to ask and the reply he gave. This part of the Upanishad also tells about the thought of attaining heaven by the mortal man is embedded in us since time immemorial.
The Parable
The parable moves ahead after asking his first boon as seen by us in the earlier blog the god of death asks Nachiketas to ask his second boon. Nachiketas the symbol of a sincere spiritual aspirant asks the god of death or the guru the method of attaining heaven. Wherein he says that he wants to reach such a place where there is no sorrow and life is lived without fear and without the fear of death. He asks about the place where people reach or attain immortality.
Attaining heaven by the mortal man
Nachiketas who is a symbol of a sincere and a non-attached seeker is asking the guru by the means of heaven the underlining meaning of heaven being emancipation. A true spiritual seeker never asks the Guru for worldly riches but contrary to that is behind the aim of human life that is total emancipation from sorrow, grief fear and death. Heaven is referred here as total emancipation. Heaven is not meant by some physical space that lies up in outer space but is a state of a seeker’s spiritual being.
The holy fire
Nachiketas asks the god of death (Yama) the knowledge of the holy fire by which he can reach heaven. The holy fire here is not the usually interpreted external sacrificial fire but Prana (life force) that lies deep in the existence of each being and by whose knowledge one can reach moksha or heaven. The practice of the prana or the life force is by which every person on the planet will be free of sorrow and death. One who has mastery over this Pranic force, attaining of heaven by the mortal man is possible.
The guru teaches
As Nachiketas asks the technique over this mastery over prana the guru initiates him to the technique. Once taught by the guru the guru examines Nachiketas and Nachiketas replies back the exact technique without any flaws and thus overjoying the master. The master again grants him two boons namely that the holy fire from or the prana will be named after you and the second he grants him a necklace of many figures.
Mastery over senses and nature
Here mastery over nature should not be confused by exploitation of nature on the contrary in tandem with nature being the real meaning. The necklace the guru puts around the pupil is significant of the fact that the student has progressed in his spiritual practices and his further growth cannot be blocked by the temporary lures of the world. The student has become a master of his senses thus signifying attaining of the heaven by the mortal man. A person who is not in control of his senses but oppositely is under the control of his senses can never be free of sorrow and grief as sensory pleasures are temporary and are the root cause of misery, sorrow and fear.
Significance of AUM
This what the immortal Vedic symbol of AUM signifies wherein it suggests that there is a Turiya or fourth state of consciousness meaning a state of consciousness that transcends mental, physical and emotional states of human consciousness.
Summary
Thus. to summarise the topic if a true seeker wants to attain immortality, heaven or emancipation he has to rise above his senses and that can only be done through the practice of the prana. As the prana is the true source of creation and is the link that leads man to superconscious being. Attaining heaven by the mortal man is possible if he leads the path laid down by his guru.
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