Nachiketa and Yama: The Three Boons

The Katha Upanishad comes from the Krishna Yajurveda. The sage Vajashravas performed a great sacrifice in which one must give away everything one owns. But he was giving away old, weak cows: cows that had drunk their last water, eaten their last grass, and gave no more milk. His young son Nachiketa grew uneasy watching this. He felt such giving was not merit; it was a pretence.

Nachiketa asked his father, 'Father, to whom will you give me?' His father said nothing. He asked a second time, then a third. Then his father snapped in anger, 'To Death I give you!' Nachiketa took his father's word as true and went to the house of Yama, the god of death. Yama was away. The boy waited at his door for three nights without food or water.

When Yama returned, he was deeply sorry that a Brahmin guest had gone hungry. He said, 'For three nights, ask three boons.' For the first, Nachiketa asked: may my father's mind be at peace, may he not be angry with me, and may he recognise me and greet me lovingly when I return. Yama gladly granted it.

For the second, he asked about the sacred fire ritual that leads to heaven. Yama explained the whole ritual, and Nachiketa repeated it all back at once. Yama was so pleased that he said: from today this fire will be called the 'Nachiketa fire' after you. Then came the third boon, and Nachiketa asked the hardest question: 'When a person dies, some say he still exists, others say he does not. What is the truth?'

Yama put him to the test. 'Even the gods found this question hard. Ask for something else: a hundred years of life, sons and grandsons, cattle, elephants, gold, horses, a vast kingdom, lovely maidens in chariots, music. Take it all, but do not ask me about death.' Nachiketa did not waver. 'These things last only until tomorrow, and they wear out the senses. Keep your horses, your song and dance. No one is ever satisfied by wealth. I want only that boon.'

Yama understood that this boy was a true seeker. One whom no temptation can pull away from truth is worthy of this knowledge. And so the god of death himself began to teach a young boy the secret of the Self, which we hear in the next chapter.