Katho:panishad - VI

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhagavthas,

 

Adiye:n's humble prana:mam. Jai Sri:manna:ra:yana.

Jeeyar Thiruvadigale: Sharanam.

 

The wisdom of Katho:panishad is unique. If one is

willing to follow the teachings of greatly learned

personalities like Yamaraja’s instructions in

Katho:panishad, one is sure to please Lord

Sri:manna:ra:yana.

 

In the last mail Nachike:thas convinces his father

Va:jasravas and sets out for Yamalo:kam to serve

Yamara:ja on the word of his father.

 

In this part, our Swamiji delineates the steps in

welcoming a bramhana and the dangerous consequences of

neglecting a Bra:hmana guest.

 

Nachike:thas in Yamalo:ka has been very eagerly

waiting for the arrival of Yamara:ja for 3 days. He

has neither eaten any prasa:dam nor enjoyed any other

facility that Yamakimkara:s might have offered him. On

the fourth day Yamaraja returns to Yamalo:ka. He could

sense some confusion and disturbance spread in his

abode.

 

Upon enquiring, the Yamakimkara:s reply

 

"Vaishva:nara Pravishanthi Athithi: Bra:hmanah

Gruha:n..."

 

"Hey Yamaraja! A Brahamana with great effulgence in

his face has graced our Yamalo:kam as guest. But he is

refusing to entertain anything we offered him for the

last 3 days. As we are not qualified to receive that

Bra:hmana boy with all Vedic manthra:s chanting

(arghyam), we were waiting for your arrival."

 

A qualified Bra:hmana is compared to fire or

"agniho:thram". If we carefully use it the way it

should be used, we can get immense benefit from it,

but if we negligently try to keep it somewhere, it

will cause chaos by burning the whole place down to

ashes.

 

Similarly Bra:hmana should be very respectfully

received, offered sweet words, some nice eatables and

then should be served with great attention.

 

Yamara:ja quickly understood everything and ordered

them:

 

"Haravaivasvatha Udakam"

 

Yamaraja is a very great personality having a perfect

understanding of scriptures, demonstrates an important

principle here.

 

If a Bra:hmana arrives as guest, irrespective of his

age, he should be received and honored with all due

respect. One should learn to serve them nicely without

any hesitation.

 

So Yamara:ja personally went to the boy and welcomed

him with all the due respect and honor (Vaivasvatha

udakam etc).

 

Vaishnava's dealings always reflect his touching

humility. No matter what one's external designation

is, one should properly respect Brahmave:ttas. Though

Yamara:ja is such a powerful personality whom even

Brahma fears, he personally goes with all the

paraphernalia to receive Nachike:thas, a seven year

old Bra:hmana boy. And this speaks of his pure

Vaishnava consciousness.

 

Ahanka:ram or false ego is the root cause of one's

downfall. True intelligence is to curb this false

sense of prestige by subjecting ourselves to the

menial service of great devotees. Swamiji very clearly

explains here the result of improperly treating a

Bra:hmana guest.

 

One accumulates pa:pa or punya by the kind of

actions one performs. If we don't properly receive a

Bra:hmana guest we lose all the "punya" that has been

made. Not only that, all the favorable things we

expect to happen in future along with the auspicious

things we wish to happen in future will be destroyed.

 

More importantly, all the knowledge and

understanding acquired by associating with great

devotees and saints would be totally lost; meaning it

becomes ineffectual in our case. And also, all the

good name and fame we achieved that would promote us

to the higher planets would be unproductive. The good

things one did in one's life time like charity and

social service etc won't reap any benefit.

 

So, who else but an "alpa me:dhas" (person with less

intelligence) would not receive a learned Brahman

guest properly?

 

In the next part we shall see Yamaraja conversing

with Nachike:thas.

 

Kindly forgive adiye:n's mistakes because of

adiye:n's great ignorance.

 

Jai Sri:manna:rayana,

adiye:n.

 

REVIEW QUESTIONS

----------------

1. One’s improper behavior with Vaishnava provokes

one to become more and more sinful. How can we

understand this in the light of today’s teaching?

 

2. Enumerate the consequences of improperly receiving

a spiritually elevated personality.

 

3. What is the best way to cultivate humility?

 

4. Why should Brahma fear Yama? Is Brahma not the

greatest of all in this material world? (Bagavadh

Geetha 8.16; Also Yamaloka is above Brahmaloka!)