Nachiketa and Death
The young seeker who questioned Yama.
Nachiketa, a boy given to Death by his father, asked Yama (Death personified) about the mystery of death and the Self. This dialogue forms the Katha Upanishad.
Tell me what lies beyond death - that is my request.
Nachiketa's fearless inquiry represents the ideal seeker.
Katha Upanishad
Written about in
- What the Upanishads say about the purpose of life
The Katha Upanishad opens with a boy asking Death what lies beyond death. The tradition's central question is put by someone young, not by someone finished with living.
- What the Upanishads say about grief
The tradition's central text on death is a dialogue with Death, begun by a boy whose father had given him away in anger. Nachiketa is offered wealth, sons and long life in exchange for dropping his question, and refuses all of it. The Upanishads make the grieving questioner, not the consoler, the hero.