An old story of creation narrates that after the heavens, all the stars, the earth, the air, the waters, the sky, and all the creatures on land and in the sea were made, God created humankind. When the first human awoke and became conscious of worldly life for the first time, he looked around at the lakes and rivers, the mountains and forests, at the leaping fish, the flying birds, and the great herds of animals. He was silent. He looked to the heavens and the sun and moon and the great blackness of space with its millions of stars. He was silent. He looked then at God. He was silent. When he had taken in everything around him, including the Lord himself, this first human on earth looked finally at himself and said, “Who am I?”
This first human did not look at the animals or stars and say, “What are they?” He did not ask, “Where am I?” He did not even ask of God, “Who are you?” His first words, his first wondering thoughts and first curiosity were to know his own identity.
That is the question that drives all human beings. Everything a human being does and wants involves that question. People want happiness and peace. Instinctively they know that the acquisition of happiness and peace rests with the answer to the question, “Who am I?”
To consciously realize this as the question of life is the first big step on a sacred journey. The next big step is to find the answer.
Nachiketa of the Kathopanishad knew that the answer lay hidden in the great circle of life and death and demanded that Yama explain its mystery. Nachi-keta had the strength, patience, and perseverance necessary not to take Yama’s no for an answer, nor to take anything less than knowledge as the boon.
Atman is the answer. I am Atman. You are Atman. I and you are One. That is the answer.
As Yama told Nachiketa, it is not enough to hear of Atman. Atman must be reached, penetrated, and known by experience. Yama explained that learning does not suffice to reach Atman, nor does simply the use of the intellect, nor sacred teaching.
To reach Atman requires choice and action.
That is the message of the Kathopanishad and the meaning of life and death. Nachiketa was given a choice. He was offered all the greatest things there are in worldly life—wealth, power, sensual pleasures. He chose otherwise. To have chosen worldly attractions would have meant another round in the endless cycle of death and birth. In each attraction there would be a flash of pleasure, followed by a stream of pain, followed by fear of loss, and finally death. Each worldly thing would change and die. People feel the pain from these attractions, but nonetheless they continue to believe that these things will next time, ultimately, bring peace and happiness. This belief, as Nachiketa knew, brings people back to the plane of attractions again and again, to live, desire, fear, and then die again.
The Kathopanishad says, “The foolish run after outward pleasures and fall into the snares of vast-embracing death.”
The old God of Deuteronomy in the Bible says plainly:
“I have set before you life and death, a blessing and a curse. Therefore choose life.”
Choose what does not die. That’s the solution to the mystery. Atman is the answer. The challenge is to find Atman.
The things of the world are meant to be enjoyed. It is unwise to be attached to them because they do not last. Enjoy the things of the world, then let them go. Let them pass through your life. Embrace all of life, take in all of life, but do it with wisdom and move toward knowledge. Worldly life is a means, not an end.
To live life well is an art. It requires not only wisdom but courage. “This bondage of the human being to a non-eternal reality,” said Shankara, “cannot be broken by weapons, or by wind, or fire, or by millions of acts. Nothing but the sharp sword of knowledge can cut through this bondage. It is forged by discrimination and made keen by purity of heart, through divine grace.”
Life is brief and precious. Don’t waste your time here in the rat’s cage of objects and temptations. Don’t run after pleasures. Use the things of the world for spiritual growth.
That is choosing life.
The goal is Atman. The message of the Upa-nishads is that there is only One. All is One. Having desires for the things of the world translates the One into many. Yama told Nachiketa, “Who sees the many and not the One, wanders on from death to death.”
The choice is God or mammon, permanent or transitory, many, Atman, or the desires of the world. One means life and the other death. That is the mystery.
Reprinted from “Sacred Journey: Living Purposefully and Dying Gracefully,” by Swami Rama