some essential questions

Nachiketa

Teach me That you see as beyond right 

And wrong, cause and effect, past and future.

Yama

...

The all-knowing self was never born,

Nor will it die.  Beyond cause and effect,

This Self is eternal and immutable.

When the body dies, the Self does not die.

If the slayer believes that he can kill

Or the slain believes that he can be killed,

Neither knows the truth.  The eternal Self

Slays not, nor is ever slain.

Hidden in the heart of every creature 

Exists the Self, subtler than the subtlest,

Greater than the greatest,  They go beyond

All sorrow who extinguish their self-will

And behold the glory of the Self

Through the grace of the Lord of Love.

...

When the wise realize the Self,

Formless in the midst of forms, changeless

In the midst of change, omnipresent

And supreme, they go beyond sorrow.

The Self cannot be known through study

Of the scriptures, nor through the intellect,

Nor through hearing discourses about it.

The Self can be attained only by those 

Whom the Self chooses.  Verily unto them

Does the Self reveal himself.

...

~ The Katha Upanishad (8th-6th century BC)

as translated by Eknath Easwaran

The Katha is a story which beautifully brings together a confrontation

 of the ideal student with the ideal teacher, leading to a highly creative

 and naked consideration of the key questions: "Who am I?" "What dies?" 

"What is left?" and "what, if anything, can we say about death

 - now, while we are alive?

hidden

Hidden in the heart of every creature

Exists the Self, subtler than the subtlest,

Greater than the greatest.  They go beyond

All sorrow who extinguish their self-will

And behold the glory of the Self

Through the grace of the Lord of Love.

Though one sits in meditation in a 

Particular place, the Self within

Can exercise his influence far away.

Though still, he moves everything everywhere.

When the wise realize the Self,

Formless in the midst of forms, changeless

In the midst of change, omnipresent

And supreme, they go beyond sorrow.

The Self cannot be known through study

Of the scriptures, nor through the intellect,

Nor through hearing discourses about it.

The Self can be attained only by those

Whom the Self chooses.  Verily unto them

Does the Self reveal himself.

~ The Katha Upanishad

translated by Eknath Easwaran

as the rain

As the rain on the mountain peak runs off

The slopes on all sides, so those who see

Only the seeming multiplicity in life

Run after things on every side.

As pure water poured into pure water

Becomes the very same, so does the Self

Of the illumined man or woman, Nachiketa,

Verily become one with the Godhead.

...

The adorable one who is seated

In the heart rules the breath of life.

Unto him all the senses pay their homage.

When the dweller in the body breaks out

In freedom from the bonds of flesh,

What remains?  For this Self is supreme!

We live not by the breath that flows in

And flows out, but by him who causes the breath

To flow in and flow out.

~ The Katha Upanishad

(Death as Teacher)

translated by Eknath Easwaran

thank you

.

Meditation enables them to go

Deeper and deeper into consciousness,

From the world of words to the world of thoughts,

Then beyond thoughts to wisdom in the Self.

...

Sharp like a razor's edge, the sages say,

Is the path, difficult to traverse.

~ Katha Upanishad

This is the passage from which the title of Somerset Maugham's book The Razor's Edge was taken. His story traces the spiritual journey of an American fighter pilot traumatized by WWI. The book is apparently based on the life of Guy Hague who had spent time with Ramana Maharshi in Tamil Nadu, India, as did Maugham himself.

William Somerset Maugham was born on this day in 1874 in Paris. He was trained as a doctor and work on the front as a Red Cross volunteer during WWI. He became famous with his semi- autobiographical novel Of Human Bondage in 1915. Maugham's novels seem to make apparent the beauty of and intricacy of the fabric of life in-which we are all entwined.

Happy Birthday Mr. Maugham and thank you.

ignorant of their ignorance

.

Ignorant of their ignorance, yet wise

In their own esteem, those deluded men

Proud of their vain learning go round and round

Like the blind led by the blind.  Far beyond

Their eyes, hypnotized by the world of sense,

Opens the way to immortality.

"I am my body; when my body dies,

I die." Living in this superstition,

They fall life after life under my sway.

It is but few who hear about the Self.

Fewer still dedicate their lives to its

Realization.  Wonderful is the one

Who speaks about the Self.  Rare are they

Who make it the supreme goal of their lives.

.

~ Katha Upanishad

death as teacher

translated by Eknath Easwaran

oneness into many

.

.

As the same fire assumes different shapes

When it consumes objects differing in shape,

So does the one Self take the shape

Of every creature in whom he is present.

As the same air assumes different shapes

When it enters objects differing in shape,

So does the one Self take the shape

Of every creature in whom he is present.

...

The ruler supreme, inner Self of all,

Multiplies his oneness into many.

Eternal joy is theirs who see the Self

In their own hearts.  To none else does it come!

.

~ Katha Upanishad

translation by Eknath Easwaran

.

in the heart of every creature

.

.

The all-knowing Self was never born,

nor will it die. Beyond cause and effect,

This Self is eternal and immutable.

When the body dies, the Self does not die…

.

Hidden in the heart of every creature

Exists the Self, subtler that the subtlest,

Greater than the greatest…

.

The Self cannot be known through study,

…nor through the intellect,

nor through discourses about it.

.

~  Katha Upanishad

.

In the secret cave of the heart

.

In the secret cave of the heart, two are

seated by life's fountain.  The separate ego

drinks of the sweet and bitter stuff,

liking the sweet, disliking the bitter,

while the supreme Self drinks sweet and bitter

neither liking this nor disliking that.

The ego gropes in darkness, while the Self 

lives in light...

~ the Katha Upanishad

.

When a person dies, there arises this doubt:

.

.

When a person dies, there arises this doubt:

"He still exists," say some; "he does not,"

Say others...

.

The joy of the spirit ever abides, 

But not what seems pleasant to the senses.

Both these, differing in their purpose, prompt

Us to action.  All is well for those who choose

The joy of the spirit, but they miss

The goal of life who prefer the pleasant.

Perennial joy or passing pleasure?

This is the choice one is to make always.

.

The first leads one to Self-realization;

The second makes one more and more 

Estranged from one's real Self...

Ignorant of their ignorance, yet wise 

In their own esteem, those deluded men

Proud of their vain learning go round and round

Like the blind led by the blind.

.

It is but few who hear about the Self.

Fewer still dedicate their lives to its

Realization.   Wonderful is the one

Who speaks about the Self.  Rare are they

Who make it the supreme goal of their lives.

.

~ Katha Upanishad

.

Know the Self as lord of the chariot

Know the Self as lord of the chariot,

The body as the chariot itself,

The discriminating intellect as

The Charioteer, and the mind as reins.

The senses, say the wise, are the horses;

Selfish desires are the roads they travel.

When the Self is confused with the body,

Mind, and senses, they point out, he seems

To enjoy pleasure and suffer sorrow.

When a person lacks discrimination

And his mind is undisciplined, the senses

Run hither and thither like wild horses.

But they obey the rein like trained horses

When one has discrimination and 

Has made the mind one-pointed...

...

Knowing the senses to be separate

From the Self, and the sense experience

To be fleeting, the wise grieve no more.

Above the senses is the mind, above

The mind is the intellect, above that

Is the ego, and above the ego

Is the unmanifested Cause...

~ Katha Upanishad

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