यस्मिन्निदं विचिकित्सन्ति मृत्यो
यत्साम्पराये महति ब्रूहि नस्तत् ।
योऽयं वरो गूढमनुप्रविष्टो
नान्यं तस्मान्नचिकेता वृणीते ॥ २९॥
॥ इति काठकोपनिषदि प्रथमाध्याये प्रथमा वल्ली ॥
yasminnidaṃ vicikitsanti mṛtyo
yatsāmparāye mahati brūhi nastat .
yo’yaṃ varo gūḍhamanupraviṣṭo
nānyaṃ tasmānnaciketā vṛṇīte .. 29..
.. iti kāṭhakopaniṣadi prathamādhyāye prathamā vallī ..
Tell me, O Death, of that Great Hereafter about which a man has his doubts.
Commentary:
Here a peculiar word is used: sāmparāye mahati brūhi nas tat. It appears that Nachiketas is not actually wanting to know what happens to the soul after dying in this world. He wants to know what happens to the soul when it is finally free from individuality itself. That is why the words here are mahati sāmparāye. Sāmparāye is ‘death’. Mahati sāmparāye is ‘great death’. Nachiketas was wise enough to know something about what happens to the soul after passing from this body. He was not ignorant. He does not want to know only about the rebirth condition of the soul. He wants to know something more. Perhaps that is the reason why Yama does not want to say anything. Nachiketas is asking, “What happens to the soul when it is finally divested of individuality itself, which is the greatest death?” He does not want to know what happens at the physical death. It is the death of individuality itself. This is a terrible question. Nobody can tell us where God was before He created the world, because He cannot sit anywhere. There is no place, no time, and nobody to talk to.
In Milton’s Paradise Lost Adam speaks to God Almighty: “Lord, you are very unkind to me. You have created trees. You have made so many creatures. You have created so many animals. Each one has a friend; one is living with another. You have made me alone. I have nobody to talk to. Why are you so unkind?”
The Almighty answers, “Do you know, Adam, that I have been alone for eternity? I have no friends; I have nobody to talk to. Do you think that I am an unhappy person?” This is what Milton puts into the mouth of God in that great poem.
What is this situation that the soul would find itself in when it is divested of individuality? Our minds cannot comprehend this truth. There is some great point indeed in Yama not being ready to answer the question. Yat sāmparāye mahati brūhi nas tat: “What happens in that condition of that great death of deaths? Please tell me that,” asks Nachiketas. Yo’yaṁ varo gūḍham anupraviṣṭaḥ: “Subtlest and most secret is this question. I shall not ask for any other boon.” Nānyaṁ tasmān naciketā vṛṇīte: Nachiketas will not ask for any other boon. Only this, only this, only this. Very insistent, very persistent, very wise indeed is this great, exemplary student of the highest spiritual experience, Nachiketas.
This is the introductory section of the Kathopanishad, something like the First Chapter and the first ten verses of the Second Chapter of the Bhagavadgita. It is only from the twelfth verse or so of the Second Chapter that the Lord really speaks words of wisdom.
The teaching actually commences at the start of the Second Chapter of the Kathopanishad. As I mentioned, in the same way as the Bhagavadgita distinguishes between sankhya and yoga, a specific subject of the Second Chapter of the Bhagavadgita, here the Lord distinguishes between the good and the pleasant. The good is not always pleasant, and the pleasant need not be good. In the Gita we are also told that what appears to be very unpleasant in the beginning but is nectar-like in the end should be considered as the best form of happiness, but that which appears to be nectar-like in the beginning but poison-like in the end should be considered as rajasic and tamasic, and should be discarded.
Swami Vivekananda Says —
“Therefore, tell me this secret about the great hereafter, I do not want anything else; that is what Nachiketas wants, the mystery of death.”[Source]
Then the God of death was pleased. We have been saying in the last two or three lectures that this Jnâna prepares the mind. So you see here that the first preparation is that a man must desire nothing else but the truth, and truth for truth’s sake. See how this boy rejected all these gifts which Death offered him; possessions, property, wealth, long life, and everything he was ready to sacrifice for this one idea, knowledge only, the truth. Thus alone can truth come.[Source]