Samayasara OR Nature of Self

SR No.: 011119
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A Chakravarti
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 406
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 38 MB

Page 62

Isi
INTRODUCTION asked his father "whom are you going to offer me to?” When this question was repeatedly put, the father got angry because of this disturbance during the sacrifice and he answered in a rage, “To Yama, thou shalt go; thou art offered to Death.” Before his father could revoke his command the boy started on his journey to Yama's land. Having reached that place he could not meet the Lord of Death, for he was not at home. The boy had to wait three nights without being attended to Yama returned on the fourth day, and he regretted very much for the neglect shown to the Brahman boy waiting as a guest at his door. As a compensation Yama offered three boons to the boy and he was asked to choose any three As his first boon the boy cleverly asked that he might rejoin his father and that his father should forgive and forget and welcome him to his household This was granted by Yama. Af his second boon the boy chose to be instructed in the well-known sacrifice Nachiketas leading to heavenly bliss. Yama initiated the boy into the mysteries of the desired ritual and honoured the boy by naming the sacrifice after him The boy had his third boon still left When Yama asked him to choose the third, the boy said “When a man is dead where is thus doubt about him—some say that he is and other that he is not. Let me know the truth and let this be the third boon.” When the boy asked Yama to lay open the door of Hereafter there was a good deal of hesitation and reluctance on the part of the teacher. Whenever the Great religious teachers of the world are asked about the Hereafter they offer only an evasive reply. Yama too wanted to avoid this question and tried to turn away the boy's curiosity from awful and sublime. He says "The Gods themselves have been perplexed about this. It is no easy thing to discover.” Hence he asked the boy .to choose an alternative boon The evasive answer only whetted the curiosity of the boy. Yama himself admitted that the problem to be of very important and subtle and that it perplexed even the minds of the Gods. Certainly such a thing is worth knowing and if knowledge is to be had at all it must be from the Lord of the Great Hereafter. The boy would not loose this golden opportunity. Hence he insisted on getting an answer.