Showing posts with label Katha Upanishad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Katha Upanishad. Show all posts

Sunday, March 26, 2023

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?




Sunday, May 31, 2020

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



Monday, May 29, 2017

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




Wednesday, January 25, 2017

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.



Thursday, April 28, 2011

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



Wednesday, February 23, 2011

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

.



Sunday, May 16, 2010

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
.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

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
.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

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
.


Monday, February 8, 2010

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
.