By Nachiketa- Yama Dialogue Part II
In the last article I discussed the second boon granted to Nachiketa by Yama. Before we go further, let us continue with our narrative. Nachiketa asked his father thrice, ‘to whom are you sacrificing me?’ Why? Because the ‘I’ has to be given up in three stages namely, the physical, subtle and causal. These are the three stages of what the psychologist describe as conscious, subconscious and unconscious.
Nachiketa fasted for three days before Yama came back home. Because if a soul has to ascend to God, it has to give up three things. Avidya, Kama and Karma. Unless you renounce all three, you cannot take ‘sanyasa’. Now Karma is of physical or ‘Sthool’ body, Karana is of subtle or ‘Sookshma’ body and ‘Avidya’ is of causal body. All these bind us in knots and we have to open these. To break free of these is very difficult. Note how Shiva has a trishul, a trident that destroys all three and takes one on the path of Ashtang yoga.
To fast is not just refusing the food. It is not taking anything that is not yours or what you don’t need. It is sacrifice of all desires and wants. As one progresses in the spiritual realm, the temptations are greater and much more attractive than the physical realm. The attraction of teaching to the masses and appealing to them is so great that many yogis don’t go beyond this stage. There is no harm in this but then you don’t enter ‘Hiranyagarbha’, the unknown.
The sacrifice of one’s ego is the internal yagya that we have to perform. Not claiming any merit is the fast one has to perform. Internalizing the universal fire, which is there in each one of us, is the ‘Tapa’, the penance. Just as drop has ocean in it, so each one of us has this Agni within us. We have to recognize it and internally make sacrifice to propitiate it. This has to be done constantly and diligently. There are ways to do it. We discussed the external yagya last time. But here we are talking about the internal fasting.
‘Tapas’, ‘Dana’ and ‘Yagya’ are three ways to do it. Tapas meaning the restraint of one’s passions; Dana the giving out of oneself to the world, thereby killing the ego; and yagya the sacrifice of one’s individuality. By sacrificing these one by one, we can realize the universal fire within us. This is the knowledge of Agni that Yamraj gave to Nachiketa.
The subject is very vast and I have tried to condense it to my ability. In the next part we will come to the third boon of Yamraj.
Till then, Jai hind and Jai Satya Sanatan Dharma
