Poem on the Katha Upanishad

[Guest guest]

SONG OF IMMORTALITY (Katha Upanishad)

Welcome to my humble abode,

 

Said the God of death to

 

The small brahmin boy.

 

You who have come of ur own,

 

Where the mighty fear to tread,

 

You who have spent three long days

 

In peace and tranquility

 

Patience and persistence,

 

Refusing food and drink,

 

After the long journey from the world of

 

Humans and the dimension of

 

The green planet,through the wastelands of death.

 

How may I serve you? How may i compensate

 

The austerity of ur three days of fast?

 

A boon for a day each may i grant.

 

 

May my father find favour in me,

 

May i know the path to heaven,

 

May i know the truth about life after death,

 

And the transmigeration of souls;

 

And never can i find a teacher more suitable

 

Than yourself o noble sir.

 

Beneath ur fearful and terrible appearance

 

Lies a compassionate heart and a timeless wisdom

 

Be thou my abode and solace

 

Quench this terrible thirst for knowledge

 

Which burns in me.

 

 

The first two consider it done and more;

 

The third is much too heavy a toll

 

That u ask noble child

 

For one so young as you,

 

Shall i grant the longest life possible

 

Full of sights and sounds

 

And belongings and power and control

 

Over vast worlds

 

May the world of living look upon you as lord and master

 

May your name and fame be

 

Made of the stuff of mythology for all time,

 

But release me oh merciful from the third boon

 

The truth of which escapes even Gods

 

 

Money and power and name and fame

 

Will i have of it none

 

That which is within time

 

Which has a begining and end

 

Is not what i have braved these

 

Troubles for to be by ur side

 

Pray tell me sir for i will not release

 

You from ur word and commitment

 

I will have the truth abouth death

 

And nothing short of it

 

 

So be it oh most qualified of enquiriers

 

Thou who have rejected the pleasant

 

For the good

 

That which thou seek is the vibration of om

 

And the silence fore and after

 

Which includes everything within time and space

 

And beyond

 

That which cannot be comprehended

 

Or experienced for it is the eternal knowing self

 

As against the transcient world of forms

 

The unexplainable death which thou enquire about

 

Is seeing the mulpiplicity in the one

 

Causing death and rebirth in different wombs

 

The one is the self within, which is the world without

 

And the bodies and subtler bodies

 

The one takes the shape of many

 

And also fills the space outside of the shapes

 

The one when realised as i am

 

In the expression of beingness

 

Causing all desires to fall away,

 

Leaving the self immortal

 

 

Hearing the eternal truth

 

From competant source,

 

The frail fearless boy

 

Contemplating on truth,

 

And absorbing it,

 

Becomes the truth

 

So may it be, the

 

Case of all sincere enquirers.