Exploring death
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
681
Swamiji continues speaking on the Katha Upanishad
Now Nachiketa was that one who chose consciously and intelligently to know what is beyond death. He was not talking about ordinary death (ordinary death is the corn) [see previous posting Day 680 for context]. We must consider here what kind of death he is talking about.
The vishwajit yajna [universal sacrifice] also means that you must give away your ego. If the ego is given away you have won the vishwajit. Who is the enjoyer? Who is going to enjoy what? Even in a dream you have to have the ego to enjoy the dream. But in vishwajit you have to give everything away, including your ego. And that is nothing else but renunciation. You renounce everything. Man possesses the ego, so he gives it up. Nachiketa was not only the son of his father but he was the projection of his father's pure consciousness.
When Nachiketa went to Yamaraja [the Hindu lord god of death], Yamaraja said to him, 'Ask me for three things.' So Nachiketa said: 'Firstly, when I go back home my people must welcome me and my father must recognise me, not as a son but as a holy man, and let everyone be friendly to me. Secondly, tell me the yajnas [sacrifices], the karmakanda [spiritual injunctions], needed to get heaven.'
Everybody knows how to go to hell; very few people know how to go to heaven. So Yamaraja gives him the three fire sacrifices. Firstly he wins the physical world when he asks that everybody must recognise and be friendly to him; then he wins the psychic world, the mind world, whereby he can get heaven. We know that it is not the Atman [soul] that takes birth but the mind, so it is in the mind world that he can get heaven and everything else.
Then Nachiketa said, 'Thirdly, please tell me what happens to people after death?' This is a very serious question. He is not talking about human death.
1) Care should be taken by the reader to understand and take Swamiji's words in these postings, in context. Every teaching or instruction that he gave was specific to the people who were with Swamiji at the time. 2) Mouse-over the words highlighted in red in the posting for further explanation or links.
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Sri Ramakrishna Sri Sarada Devi Swami Vivekananda
Swami Nischalananda Swami Shivapadananda
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - read online
Reference websites – please mouse over the name and click to connect:
Ramakrishna Math and Mission Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa Ramakrishna Dham