Katha Upanishad

01The Upanishad of the Kathas

The Katha belongs to the Krishna Yajurveda and takes its name from the Katha shakha, one of the old branches of that Veda. The boy Nachiketa is already known to the Taittiriya Brahmana, which tells his katha briefly while teaching the Nachiketa fire rite (3.11.8). The Upanishad takes the same boy and the same Yama and draws from their meeting the full teaching on the Atman. Like every Upanishad it is Shruti, revealed and not composed. It opens with the shanti mantra saha navavatu: may He protect us both, teacher and student, may our study be bright, and may we not quarrel.

02Two adhyayas, six vallis

A valli is a creeper, and the Katha grows in six of them, three to each adhyaya, 119 mantras in all. The first adhyaya carries the katha: the gift, the three nights, the boons, Yama's temptations and his first teaching, closing with the chariot and the call to awake. The second adhyaya leaves the narrative behind and goes inward, to the purusha in the heart, the one fire in many forms, the inverted tree and yoga. Its last mantra returns to the boy: Nachiketa, having gained this knowledge from Mrityu, became free of stain and death, and so will anyone who knows the Self in this way.

03Nachiketa at Yama's door

Vajashravasa was giving away all he had in a yajna, but the cows he gave were old and dry. His young son Nachiketa asked, to whom will you give me? Asked three times, the father burst out: to Death I give you. The boy went. Yama was away, and Nachiketa waited three nights without food. To atone for leaving a Brahmin guest unhonoured, Yama offered three boons. The first: that his father greet him without anger. The second: the knowledge of the fire that leads to heaven, which Yama named the Nachiketa fire.

04The third boon

For the third boon Nachiketa asked what happens when a man dies: some say he is, some say he is not. Yama tried to turn him: ask for sons and grandsons who live a hundred years, cattle, gold, long life, the fairest women with chariots and music. Keep them, said the boy, along with your dances and songs. Wealth will not satisfy a man who has seen you. Pleased, Yama taught him the difference between shreyas, the good, and preyas, the pleasant, and the Atman that is not born and does not die.

05The good and the pleasant

Yama begins with a choice every person meets daily. Two things come to a man, the good and the pleasant. The wise one weighs them and chooses the good; the dull one chooses the pleasant for the sake of getting and keeping. You, Nachiketa, have looked at every pleasure and let it go. Then the teaching on the Self pours out. It is not born and does not die; it was not made from anything; unborn, eternal, ancient, it is not slain when the body is slain. If the killer thinks he kills and the slain thinks he is slain, neither understands. This Self is not won by lectures, or by intellect, or by much learning; it reveals itself to the one it chooses.

06The chariot and the razor's edge

Know the Atman as the lord of the chariot, the body as the chariot, the intellect as the charioteer, the mind as the reins and the senses as the horses. Whoever has a steady charioteer reaches the end of the road, the highest place of Vishnu. Then the call: arise, awake, find the great teachers and learn; the path is sharp as a razor's edge. Swami Vivekananda made those words his message to Bharat. Several mantras of the Katha appear again, almost word for word, in the second chapter of the Gita.

07The thumb-sized purusha

The second adhyaya begins with a complaint. The Self-born pierced the senses outward, so a man looks out and not within; only some rare wise one, seeking immortality, turns his gaze back and sees the Self. Then the images come one after another. A purusha the size of a thumb dwells in the middle of the body, like a flame without smoke, lord of past and future. The body is a city of eleven gates. As one fire entering the world takes the shape of each thing it burns, so the one Self within all beings takes the shape of each, and stays beyond them. There the sun does not shine, nor moon and stars; by its light all this shines.

08The tree and the hundred-and-one channels

The last valli opens with the eternal ashvattha, roots above and branches below, the same tree that stands at the start of the fifteenth chapter of the Gita. Then Yama defines yoga: the firm holding of the senses, when the five organs of knowing rest together with the mind and the intellect does not stir. When every desire that dwells in the heart is let go, the mortal becomes immortal and reaches Brahman here. A hundred and one channels leave the heart; one rises to the crown of the head, and going up by it a man reaches immortality. Draw the inner Self out from the body with patience, as one draws the stalk from the munja grass.

09Shankara, Madhva and the Sutras

Badarayana's Brahma Sutra discusses the Katha more than once. Sutra 1.2.11 takes up the two who have entered the cave of the heart (Katha 1.3.1) and reads them as the jiva and the Supreme Self. Sutra 1.4.1 asks whether the avyakta of Katha 1.3.11 is the pradhana of the Samkhyas, and answers no. Adi Shankaracharya's bhashya reads the whole Upanishad as the knowledge of the one Self, with Yama's two paths as the line between ritual and liberation. Madhvacharya reads the purusha in the heart as Shri Vishnu, ever distinct from the jiva he dwells with, and Vaishnavas of every school point to 1.3.9, where the road ends at the highest abode of Vishnu. Rangaramanuja Muni wrote the Vishishtadvaita commentary.

10Nachiketa today

Several mantras of the Katha come back, almost word for word, in the Bhagavad Gita: the Self that neither kills nor is killed (1.2.18–19, Gita 2.19–20), the word that all the Vedas declare (1.2.15, Gita 8.11), the inverted ashvattha (2.3.1, Gita 15.1). Saha navavatu, its shanti mantra, is chanted at the start of lessons in pathashalas and in many schools. Nachiketa himself has become the model of the student who will not be bought off, and teachers still tell his katha to children. On 12 January, Swami Vivekananda's birthday and National Youth Day, the words uttishthata jagrata are printed and recited across Bharat.

What it contains

1. 1
   Adhyaya 1, Valli 1

   Vajashravasa gives away old, barren cows in his yajna, and his son Nachiketa, asking to whom he himself will be given, is sent to Death. He waits three nights unfed at Yama's house and receives three boons: his father's goodwill, the Nachiketa fire, and the answer to what lies beyond death. Yama tries to buy back the third boon with every pleasure, and the boy refuses.

2. 2
   Adhyaya 1, Valli 2

   Yama praises the boy for choosing shreyas over preyas and begins the teaching. The Self is unborn and undying and is not slain when the body is slain. Om is named as the word all the Vedas declare, and the Self is said to reveal itself only to the one it chooses.

3. 3
   Adhyaya 1, Valli 3

   The image of the chariot: the Self as its lord, the body as the chariot, intellect as charioteer, mind as reins and senses as horses. The ladder from the senses to the purusha beyond which there is nothing. The adhyaya ends with the call uttishthata jagrata and the praise of the Nachiketa katha.

4. 4
   Adhyaya 2, Valli 1

   The senses were made to turn outward, and only the rare seeker turns his gaze within. The purusha the size of a thumb dwells in the heart, a smokeless flame, lord of past and future. Many mantras end with the refrain etad vai tat, this indeed is that.

5. 5
   Adhyaya 2, Valli 2

   The body is a city of eleven gates, and the one Atman within all beings takes the shape of each, as one fire takes the shape of all it burns. It is untouched by the world's sorrow, as the sun is untouched by the faults of the eye. There the sun does not shine; by its light all shines.

6. 6
   Adhyaya 2, Valli 3

   The eternal ashvattha tree with roots above. Yoga is defined as the firm holding of the senses, and the mortal becomes immortal when the knots of the heart are cut. One of the hundred and one channels of the heart leads upward to immortality, and Nachiketa, having learned all this from Mrityu, attains Brahman.

Famous verses

येयं प्रेते विचिकित्सा मनुष्येऽस्तीत्येके नायमस्तीति चैके। एतद्विद्यामनुशिष्टस्त्वयाऽहं वराणामेष वरस्तृतीयः॥

There is this doubt about a man who has died: some say he is, others say he is not. Taught by you, may I know this. This is the third of my boons.Katha Upanishad 1.1.20

श्रेयश्च प्रेयश्च मनुष्यमेतस्तौ सम्परीत्य विविनक्ति धीरः। श्रेयो हि धीरोऽभि प्रेयसो वृणीते प्रेयो मन्दो योगक्षेमाद्वृणीते॥

The good and the pleasant both come to a man. The wise one examines them and tells them apart. The wise choose the good over the pleasant; the dull choose the pleasant for the sake of getting and keeping.Katha Upanishad 1.2.2

आत्मानँ रथिनं विद्धि शरीरँ रथमेव तु। बुद्धिं तु सारथिं विद्धि मनः प्रग्रहमेव च॥

Know the Self as the lord of the chariot and the body as the chariot. Know the intellect as the charioteer and the mind as the reins.Katha Upanishad 1.3.3

उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत। क्षुरस्य धारा निशिता दुरत्यया दुर्गं पथस्तत्कवयो वदन्ति॥

Arise, awake; go to the great ones and learn. Sharp as a razor's edge, hard to cross, is that path, say the wise.Katha Upanishad 1.3.14

न तत्र सूर्यो भाति न चन्द्रतारकं नेमा विद्युतो भान्ति कुतोऽयमग्निः। तमेव भान्तमनुभाति सर्वं तस्य भासा सर्वमिदं विभाति॥

There the sun does not shine, nor the moon and stars, nor these lightnings, much less this fire. When it shines, everything shines after it; by its light all this is lit.Katha Upanishad 2.2.15