Samayasara

Author(s): A Chakravarti
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 54

36
SAMAYASARA
Does it survive death? If it does whither does it
the nature of the soul? go?
These are the questions which are discussed in this Upanisad. These questions have occupied the serious attention of thinkers all over the world. In fact these problems form the pivot of religions and philosophy. Socrates, Plato, Buddha and Christ have all had their attention to these facts and the very same problems are here discussed by the Upanisadic thinkers who were evidently the fore-runners of the above mentioned great world teachers. The Upanisad opens with a simple household scene. A Brahmana wants to obtain certain benefits by offering sacrifices. He promised to offer all his valuable possessions for sacrifice to seek his end. He He was offering his cows and sheep and other things of great value, had an intelligent boy who was watching the whole thing. His name was Naciketas. The sacrifice mentioned in this Upanisad is named after him. It means the sacrifice of Naciketas. This boy perhaps in a scoffing mood reminded his father that he did not offer his most valuable thing referring of course to himself. The boy importunately asked his father, "Whom are you going to offer me to ?" When this question was repeatedly put, the father got angry because of this disturbance during the sacrifice and he answered in a rage, "To Yama, thou shalt go; thou art offered to Death." Before his father could revoke his command the boy started on his journey to Yama's land. Having reached that place he could not meet the Lord of Death, for he was not at home. The boy had to wait three nights without being attended to. Yama returned on the fourth day, and he regretted very much for the neglect shown to the Brahmana boy waiting as a guest at his door. As a compensation Yama offered three boons to the boy and he was asked to choose any three. As his first boon the boy cleverly asked that he might rejoin his father and that his father should forgive and forget and welcome him to his household. This was granted by Yama. As his second boon the boy chose to be instructed in the well-known sacrifice Naciketas leading to heavenly bliss. Yama initiated the boy into the mysteries of the desired ritual and honoured the boy by naming the sacrifice after him. The boy had his third boon still left. When Yama asked him to choose the third, the boy said, "When a man is dead where is this doubt about him-some say that he is and other that he is not. Let me know the truth and let this be the third boon." When the boy asked Yama to lay open the door of Hereafter there was a good deal of hesitation and reluctance on the part of the teacher. Whenever the great religious teachers of the world are asked about the Hereafter they offer only an evasive reply. Yama too wanted to avoid this question and tried to turn away the boy's curiosity from awful and sublime. He says, "The gods themselves have been perplexed about this. It is no easy thing to discover."