This is a continuation of our discussion in the previous blogs on the Kathopanishad.
The Parable
The king of death (Yama) asks the young seeker to ask for three boons. The first boon Nachiketa asks is that when he goes back from the abode of Yama. His father Vajashravas would be free of all anger towards him. Yama grants him the boon that your father’s heart will be free from that passion towards you and he will sleep sweetly through the nights and his anger towards you will be gone forever as you are released from my abode.
The cardinal meaning
This explains how a true seeker should seek his spiritual journey. Here Nachiketa is a true symbol on non-attachment and surrender yet he asks the guru, the god of death that as he returns home from his abode that his father should be free from anger towards him and should forget the past. Here the father is a symbol of attachment and does actions with a sense of expectations.
The psychology
Here what we must learn is that when a person embarks on a spiritual journey, he tends to forget his loved ones such as parents, friends, siblings etc. One thinks that they do not need our attention and go about their business thinking of them as a hindrance for their spiritual goal. It is of utmost importance that in the path of enlightenment every action of the seeker or the student must be directed to his spiritual evolution but this can be done by making our family understand about our path. It is our responsibility to make them understand what our inner needs are and also if possible, make them a part of it. In this day and age, the conviction that we have to remove and cut our ties from the society and family may not be too practical.
The seeker returns back
This can also be learned as, when the seeker full of devotion reaches on the doorstep of the guru and gains the knowledge which is in isolation, he returns back to the world and is then his duty to spread that knowledge and experience he has gained from the master and return it back to the society so the society as a whole can evolve and can make this place a better place to live.
Never discriminate
Nachiketas here is a symbol of a true seeker while his father is a symbol of the mundane world. The Upanishad here is telling us never to discriminate things that are spiritual or non-spiritual. As a true seeker he has to experience that everything in this world is an extension of the one divinity. In the modern world it is usually seen that we turn towards spirituality once we are tired of the external world or when we are at unease, we blame our uneasiness to external factors whilst the root of our agony lies within us. Therefore, a true seeker is one who understands the importance of inner as well as the outer worlds and tries to be peaceful in both the worlds.
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