Story Telling: Nachiketa-Yamraj samvand

This story that I am going to tell you is mentioned in Kathopanishad.

This story is about How a Boy faces death with his unwavering determination and gets three blessings as a reward from “Yum”, these blessings are believed to be a boon for not only oneself but for a community or society.

So, let us start the story:

Once upon a time, there was a Rishi named Vajrashrva, who was performing “The Vishwajeet Yagya” and as we all know, whenever there is “Yagya/Yajna”, there is always some kind of charity, So, Rishi Vajrashrva was donating Cows to Brahmans.

पीतोदका जग्धतृणा दुग्धदेहा निरिंद्रियाः ।
आनंदा नाम तेलोकस्तान् स गच्चति ता ददत् ॥

These karma were being observed by his Son – Nachiketa, a soul to be appraised very highly, a generous, mature and intellectual child.

So,

He went to his father and said “Father, You are giving out all these cows, and these cows are our ‘Gow-Dhan’, and you also have ‘Putra-Dhan’, So, to whom you will give me?”

His father ignores him.

Nachiketa asks this question again and again.

At last, His father burst out in anger, and says “you stupid! Get out of my sight, Moron!”

But as we know, a child will never let go of his curiosity, even, if we don’t leave our curiosity.

He asks again “tell me, father, please quench my curiosity, I want to know!”

His father tells him “I will give you to the God of the death – Yamraj”

And as this sentence end, he was teleported to the Yam-Lok, and he starts walking on that path of the fire, the hottest environment that you could ever imagine, after a while he saw the gate to hell.

When Nachiketa reached the gate, he got to know that, Yamraj is not here, he will come in three days.

So, he waited beside “the gates of hell” for three days. Thirsty, without food, starving for three days.

When “The God of death” arrived, Yamdoot informed him about, Nachiketa’s story and that, he is waiting for his arrival, for the past three days without any food and water in all this scorching heat.

Yamraj visits Nachiketa and tells him, "To compensate for my lack of hospitality, I would like to give you three boons."

So,

Nachiketa asks Yamraj, “as my first wish I would like to calm down my father’s anger and when I visit him again, he would welcome me with a great smile.”

Yamraj was pleased with his first wish, as it shows his generosity.

Now, As his second wish, Nachiketa asked that “I would like to know, how all the gods and goddesses live so happily, without fear of any substantial problem in heaven. I want this wish so that I can help people on Earth.”

Yamraj gave him “Agni-Gyan”, and as a reward for asking such unimaginable questions with respect to his age, he awarded Nachiketa, by saying, “ from today onwards this knowledge will be known as “Nachiketa-Agni”.

And at last, he asked Yamraj, “Your Highness, we all know that soul never dies or is born, then what happens after the death of a person, what happens to the soul? , as my third wish, I would like to know about this.”

Yamraj was startled by this question because it needs an unfathomable understanding of reality, and usually, it is incomprehensible to the common human brain.

So, he tries to manipulate Nachiketa to ask another question as his blessing. He told Nachiketa, “We gods, are not aware of it, why not ask for another blessing, you can ask for Kamdhenu, Kalp-Virksha, Apsarayein who will be eternally

beautiful, horses who will never get enervated, immortality or Even three more boons but don’t ask for this question. ”

Nachiketa tells Yamraj, “all the things that your holiness said, are short-lived or materialistic, which will not give me pleasure and stability, but this knowledge, the truth of this world cannot be obtained easily. Moreover, I would never get teachings from The God of death, himself. Therefore, I would like to know about the souls, only.”

After looking at his maturity, determination, generous nature, and intellect, “The God of Death” decided to offer him tests to prove his worthiness, and Nachiketa passes the test and gets the blessing, that he wanted which is explained by Yamraj in 8 aadhyay of Kathopanishad.

Now, I would like to conclude by pointing out the most important teaching, that we can learn from this little story:

That is:

We need to have a determination which is judicious and justified and be obstinate over that resolve.