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Once this is achieved, one should be watchful, as “Yoga” comes and goes. He approached his father and asked three times to whom his father would give him away. Martine Buttex, Les 108 Upanishads (traduit de l'anglais), Dervy, 2012, p. 243-254. When the mind and the five organs of perception are stilled, and the intellect is no more active – that is known to be the highest state. The one who will reflect on this truth will find the source of true joy. The boy asks to be able to return safely to his father, to learn the fire sacrifice of immortality and, most importantly, to know what happens after death. Upon death, the consciousness will have to go through one of the paths of the heart. Is it Brahman? Foolish ones dwelling in ignorance yet thinking themselves very wise, go round and round this wheel of births and deaths. Yama granted this wish also, explaining the ritual needed to get to this dimension. Ignorant ones pursue external pleasures; because of that they are slaves to the laws of death. Once freed, one may more easily concentrate on self-actualization.
Although spirit is one, it assumes different shapes in different living beings. What’s in the visible world, is also in the invisible. As a result of this sacrifice a son was born to him whom he named Nachiketas. Katha Upanishad. The wise one stops and thinks about both options before selecting one. The Upanishads developed from the religious-philosophical system of Human beings could recognize in these gods the inherent nature of Brahman but, in order to have a direct experience, they were encouraged to pursue a relationship with their higher self – known as the Self-actualization is achieved with the understanding of the phrase The following 13 Upanishads are presented in the order in which they are believed to have been composed. Nachiketas even refused a long life, since life, no matter how long, will finish. A man by the name of Vahasrava made a sacrifice by giving away all that he had so as to gain heavenly pleasures. In recognizing the essential oneness of existence, one is liberated from fear, grief, loneliness, bitterness, and other negative emotions. So Nachiketas refused such a boon of earthly pleasures, and instead stuck to his decision to know about the soul’s destiny after death. They were written somewhere between 1500 BCE and 1000 BCE during such times when the Indian society started to raise their doubts about the traditional Vedic practices. This seeker may not always know that he or she is seeking such truth and, in some Upanishads, a disembodied voice speaks directly to an audience who then becomes the speaker’s interlocutor in the dialogue or, in other words, the seeker.The purpose of the works is to engage an audience directly in spiritual discourse in order to raise one’s awareness and assist one in the goal of self-actualization. The wise one knows that the soul is seated in the cave of one’s heart. By what live? If one’s mind is chaotic and one hasn’t yet turned away from evil ways, it would be impossible to control the senses and peacefully be, and such one would never be able to behold the Self. All the other hundred paths lead downwards to different worlds. Nachiketas’ second wish was to know how to get to the realm of heaven, where there’s no death or suffering, and no attachments to food and similar things. He asked the god of death to remove all the worry from his father, and also asked to make his father recognize him once the boy is sent home. These two have totally different effects. When Nachiketas was just a boy, he saw the father making another sacrifice – he was about to give away his cattle. There are hundred and one of them, and only one leads to liberation, going up and penetrating the centre of the head. Îshâ, Kena, Katha.
Seeing that the cattle were old, he offered himself to be given away as a gift instead, for the father to receive greater blessings. What power governs the duality of pleasure and pain by which we are driven? Notes et références. The ignorant think the Self can be known by the intellect, but the illumined know he is beyond the duality of the knower and the known. Some souls enter wombs to be embodied; some enter immovable forms depending on their past actions and knowledge. Thinking of that which is Unborn, one grieves no more; and being freed from ignorance, one attains liberation. Please support Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation. The father, having listened to his son, agreed to keep his word and allow the boy to visit Yama, the god of death. It means that there should be proper attunement of spirit between the Guru and disciple before they begin the study, for only then will the teaching be fruitful: “May we both be protected. Obedient to his father’s will, he does so but there is no one home when he arrives in the underworld. Who, having gotten a glimpse of the immortal plane, would wish to live long anyway, seeing how decayed the current plane is? In general, in Indian sacred literature it’s very usual to present universal truths in the framework of some sort of interesting story, whose likely purpose is to make the mind more alert to the truths that follow.