Kathopanishad: Conversation between Lord Yama and Nachiketa
They regard the firm control of the senses; one should be alert as in Yoga. Then the Yogin becomes free from all vagaries of the mind; for the Yoga is subject to rise and fall.
Yoga is when you have firm control over all the three transactions of life, i.e., the stimuli which enter through organs of perception, reaction within, and response through organs of action. In any action, there is receipt of stimuli from the world and response back to the world. In between these two elements, there is reaction within us. The reaction happens depending on the quality of the mind and intellect, which processes the stimuli received from the world. So the response will depend on the quality of mind and intellect.
Eg: Making of fabric in a factory, the three aspects raw material – fibre, the machinery and the quality control must be of the highest order to get a good quality fabric.
Similarly, you must have the best input of stimuli, a pure mind and intellect processing the stimuli and check the response back into the world.
It cannot be reached by speech, nor by eye, nor even by the mind. How can it be realised other than from those who declare that, “It exists”?
Lord Yama is conveying to Nachiketa that Brahman can only be realised from those who have declared it.
In Mantra 9 we learnt that God, Atman, is not an object of perception, emotion or thought. Speech is an organ of action, the eye is an organ of perception, and the mind is the subtle body. All these tools are redundant and cannot reach Atman. It can only be realised by shabdha pramanam, the authority of the Guru who has realised it. The only source of knowledge of Self is shabdha pramanam. No amount of mere intellectual or metaphysical argument can take the seeker to Atman.
A seeker should start his spiritual journey with utmost courage and faith in his own Guru. You need not blindly accept the Guru and become fanatically attached, but exercise your intellect in reasoning and understanding the teachings. You don’t reason to a point to challenge the Guru. You don’t question the very edifice of the teaching, which is arrogance.
The intellect should process everything received, though it is from an authority. You are protecting yourself from developing blind faith, fanaticism, and also understand the rationale behind the teachings. Your intellect should not dislodge your faith. A true Guru will encourage you to exercise your intellect and question. Substantiate his teachings with rationality. If a student has become attached to the Guru, then he becomes an impediment in the growth of the student. A Guru is everything in your life, but you should not develop attachment.
You should use your intellect to question the knowledge, but not to the extent it dislodges. You should have faith in Guru but not develop blind faith. Thus, you must practice a middle path. In the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6, verse 16, Lord Krishna says, ‘This knowledge is not meant for those who eat too much or eat too little or sleep too much or sleep too little’. It is not meant for extremities of rajasic or tamasic. It is meant for a person who maintains absolute balance of sattva. The ability to moderate in the spiritual field with faith is sattva.
Having no faith is Tamas
Develop Fanaticism is Rajas.
Having faith and not developing attachment is Sattva.
The Self is to be realised as existing and then as It really is. Of these, the real nature of the Self that has been known as existing reveals itself.
Atma Chaitanya: the glory of the Self is existence itself. Tatva bhava, the essential being, is mere existence. The true nature of Atman is existence and reveals itself. Atman reveals itself when the impurities are removed.
The impurities are clarified in the next mantra.
