Katha Upanishad — The Teaching on Death
The Katha Upanishad's dialogue between the young Nachiketas and Yama (the god of death) on the nature of the deathless Self is the Vedantic tradition's supreme teaching on the relationship between consciousness and mortality.
The Katha Upanishad presents the dialogue between Nachiketas — a Brahmin youth who has been sent by his father in a moment of anger to the god of death (Yama) — and Yama himself. Yama initially tries to dissuade Nachiketas from asking about the nature of the Self after death, offering instead wealth, pleasures, and long life. Nachiketas refuses all these and insists on the knowledge of the Self. The teaching Yama gives is the essence of Advaita: 'This Self cannot be cut by any weapon, cannot be burned by fire, cannot be wetted by water, cannot be dried by wind' (2.19). The famous verse: 'The wise one who knows the Self as unborn, eternal, ancient — does not kill and is not killed when the body is killed.' The Katha also contains the chariot allegory (the body is the chariot; the Atman is the owner of the chariot; the intellect is the charioteer; the mind is the reins; the senses are the horses) — one of the most influential analogies in all of Indian philosophy.
The Self is not born and it does not die. It has not come from anywhere and it has not become anyone. It is unborn, constant, eternal, primeval. It is not killed when the body is killed.
The Bhagavad Gita's famous parallel verse (2.20 — almost identical to Katha 2.19) demonstrates the Katha Upanishad's foundational role in the entire tradition of Vedantic teaching on the deathless Self — making it one of the most influential spiritual texts in the history of Indian thought.
Katha Upanishad
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- What Advaita Vedanta says about illness and the body failing
The teaching is given to Nachiketas, a boy sent to Yama by his father in a fit of anger, who turns down the wealth, pleasures and long life Yama offers first and asks only what survives. The Self, Yama answers, is not cut by weapons, burned by fire, wetted by water or dried by wind.