A Brief overview of

Kathopanishad
Dialogue about the truth of life with the Lord of Death

Kathopanishad is an Upanishad found in the Yajur Veda. It is in the form of a story &
dialogue between a young Brahmin boy called Nachiketas and the Yamaraj - the Lord of
Death. The Upanishad has two chapters, and each of the chapter has three section each
called Vallis. So in all the Upanishad has six sections. In the entire Upanishad there are 120
mantras. The Upanishad has commentary on it by Bhagwan Sri Adi Sankaracharya.

The story goes that there was a pious Brahmin called Vajasravas who decided to
perform a special ritual in which the person is supposed to give all his property & wealth to
others. With great fanfare the ritual was announced & subsequently performed. When he
was finally giving out his cows to various people then his attachment towards his son made
him give only old & unproductive cows and was keeping back good cows for his son. This
was not liked by the son, who could see that because of the attachment of the father to his
son he was compromising with his vow. The son approaches his father and puts forward a
question that 'O Father! To whom will you be giving me'. Indicating therein that attachment
for me should not come in the way of performing this great ritual which he himself had
desired to do. The father obviously did not like the question and ignored the boy. But the
persistence of Nachiketas made him very angry, and he said that 'I am going to give you to
Yamaraj'. This was more in the tone of 'Get lost', or 'Go to hell'. But the boy took the words
very seriously and retreated from there. He started thinking, Why is my father giving me to
Lord of Death, Is it that I was not a good boy or a good student? Have I not performed my
duties properly? Etc. He finally decides to go & meet Yamaraj - in person. The story does
that the boy manages to reach the palace of Yama, who was incidentally out. The boy
decided to sit outside and without partaking any food or water kept on waiting for three
days. When Yama finally came he was very happy to see the austere decision of the boy
and decided to give him three boons.

As a first boon the boy asked for the well being of his father & others at home. He
asked that 'when I finally go home my father should not only recognize me but also forgive
me'. As the second boon he asked for the the knowledge of attaining heavens. The third
boon forms the real basis of the entire Upanishad. He asked Yamaraj as to what happens
after death, some say that there is existence after death & some say that it is not. You
being the Lord of death are the best person to help me eliminate this doubt. Before
answering the boy the Lord Of Death tests the boy a lot to see whether the boy is really
interested in this question pertaining to this secret of life. When he got satisfied then he
starts his great discourse which forms the crux of this immortal scripture. The thrust of the
discourse is not to tell about the journey & lokas of the jiva, but to reveal the immortality to
the Self. The Self is revealed as the timeless, transcendental divinity which if realized ends
this cycle of life & death.