Book Title: Satapatha Bramhana Part 05
Author(s): Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford


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Page 1569
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I ADHYAYA, 4 PÂDA, 6.
361
made of three things only as objects of knowledge-the three standing to one another in the relation of means, end to be realised by those means, and persons realising, and questions are asked as to those three only. There is no mention of, nor question referring to, the Unevolved.Nakiketas desirous of Release having been allowed by Death to choose three boons, chooses for his first boon that his father should be well disposed towards him-without which he could not hope for spiritual welfare. For his second boon he chooses the knowledge of the Nakiketafire, which is a means towards final Release. Thou knowest, O Death, the fire-sacrifice which leads to heaven; tell it to me, full of faith. Those who live in the heaven. world reach Immortality—this I ask as my second boon.' The term 'heaven-world' here denotes the highest aim of man, i.e. Release, as appears from the declaration that those who live there enjoy freedom from old age and death; from the fact that further on (I, 1, 26) works leading to perishable results are disparaged; and from what Yama says in reply to the second demand 'He who thrice performs this Nàkiketa-rite overcomes birth and death. As his third boon he, in the form of a question referring to final release, actually enquires about three things, viz. 'the nature of the end to be reached, i.e. Release ; the nature of him who wishes to reach that end; and the nature of the means to reach it, i. e. of meditation assisted by certain works. Yama, having tested Nakiketas' fitness to receive the desired instruction, thereupon begins to teach him. “The Ancient who is difficult to be seen, who has entered into the dark, who is hidden in the cave, who dwells in the abyss; having known him as God, by means of meditation on his Self, the wise one leaves joy and sorrow behind. Here the clause having known the God,' points to the divine Being that is to be meditated upon; the clause by means of medi. tation on his Self' points to the attaining agent, i.e. the individual soul as an object of knowledge ; and the clause "having known him the wise ones leave joy and sorrow behind' points to the meditation through which Brahman is to be reached. Nakiketas, pleased with the
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