Retold from the Katha Upanishad 1.1–1.2, in Max Müller’s translation (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 15) · ages 6–9

Nachiketa and Yama

A boy is sent to Death, waits in Yama’s house, and turns down wealth, sons and a long life to hear one answer.

A man hoped for a reward, so he gave away everything he owned. Some of his gifts were cows that had drunk their water, eaten their hay and given their milk. They could give no more.

As the gifts were given, faith came into the heart of the man’s son, Nachiketa. He was still a boy. “Gifts like these bring no blessing,” he thought. Then he asked, “Dear father, to whom will you give me?”

He asked a second time, and a third time. Then his father, Vajashravasa, said, “I shall give you to Death.”

Death is also called Yama. Nachiketa said, “What will Yama do with me today? Look back at those who came before, and ahead at those who come after. People ripen like corn, and like corn they spring up again.”

Nachiketa came to the house of Yama. No one was there to receive him. A voice called out, “When a guest enters, bring water, O Vaivasvata!” Nachiketa waited. One night passed. Then two. Then three. Still Yama did not come.

At last Yama came home. “Honoured guest,” he said, “you have stayed in my house three nights without eating. So now choose three boons. Hail to you!”

“For my first boon,” said Nachiketa, “let my father be calm and kind to me, and free from anger. Let him know me and greet me when you let me go.”

“Through my favour,” said Yama, “your father will know you. He will be towards you as he was before. He will sleep peacefully through the night, free from anger, when he sees you again.”

“In heaven there is no fear,” said Nachiketa. “People leave hunger and thirst behind, and sorrow cannot reach them. Teach me the fire-rite that leads there, for I am full of faith. This is my second boon.”

Yama told him the fire-rite. He told him which bricks the altar needs, how many, and how to set them. Nachiketa said it all back, just as he had been told. Yama was pleased with him.

“I give you another boon now,” said Yama. “This fire-rite will be named after you. Take also this many-coloured chain. All people will speak of your fire. Now choose your third boon.” Nachiketa had one boon left.

“There is a doubt,” said Nachiketa. “When a person’s life on earth is over, some say that person still is. Others say that person is not. Teach me to know this. It is my third boon.”

“Even the gods doubted this long ago,” said Yama. “It is not easy to understand. Ask for another boon, Nachiketa. Do not press me.”

“Even the gods have doubted, and you say it is not easy to understand, O Death,” said Nachiketa. “But no other teacher like you can be found. No other boon is like this one.”

“Choose sons and grandsons who will live a hundred years,” said Yama. “Choose herds of cattle, elephants, gold and horses. Choose the wide earth, and live as many harvests as you wish. Be king, Nachiketa. I will let you enjoy everything you wish for.”

“Ask for whatever is hard to get, as you wish,” said Yama. “Take these chariots and this music, which people cannot easily get. But, Nachiketa, do not ask me about dying.”

“These things last only until tomorrow, O Death,” said Nachiketa. “Keep your horses and your music. Wealth cannot make anyone happy. I have seen you. What would I do with wealth? Tell me what comes after this life. I choose no other boon.”

Yama had offered gold and elephants, and Nachiketa had asked for an answer. Now Yama began to teach him. “The good is one thing,” he said, “and the pleasant is another. Both of them come close to a person.”

“The wise one goes right round them and tells them apart,” said Yama. “The wise one prefers the good to the pleasant.”

“Not knowing and wisdom are far apart,” said Yama, “and they lead to different places. Nachiketa, I believe you are one who wants to know. Many pleasures did not tear you away, not even chariots and music.”

“The wise one who thinks deeply on his Self,” said Yama, “knows the Ancient One. The Ancient One is hard to see. It is hidden in a cave.” The Ancient One is not a second thing. It is the Self, inside a person.

Nachiketa had asked whether a person still is, or is not. Yama answered: the Self hidden in a person’s heart does not die. “The knowing Self is not born,” said Yama. “It does not die. The Ancient One is eternal and everlasting.”

Yama said, “The Self is smaller than small and greater than great. A person free from wishes and sorrow sees how great it is.”

The boy whose father said, “I shall give you to Death,” was an honoured guest in Death’s house. He asked about the end of life. Yama spoke of the Self inside a person, the Self that does not die. A fire was named after him.

For grown-ups

Where this story comes from

This story is drawn from the Katha Upanishad: Adhyaya 1, Valli 1 (verses 1-7, 9-13, 15-16, 19-27 and 29, with the cuts named below) and Valli 2 (verses 1-2, 4, 12, 18 and 20). The Katha Upanishad belongs to the Yajur Veda. It is a conversation between a boy, Nachiketa, and Yama. Verse numbers follow Max Müller’s translation, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 15 (The Upanishads, Part 2, Oxford, 1884). Müller spells the boy’s name Nakiketas and the father’s name Vagasravasa. We use the spellings of our Upanishads guide. In 1.1.10-11 the father is also called Gautama and Auddalaki Aruni. The story uses only Vajashravasa. On the page, Vajashravasa is said VAH-jah-SHRAH-vah-sah. It is a faithful simplification. We shortened and skipped lines, and we name them below. We did not add events, and we did not change anyone’s reasons. Nine lines need a note. 1. Page 5 follows Müller’s brackets and verse 1.1.7. His bracket says Nakiketas “enters into the abode of Yama Vaivasvata, and there is no one to receive him.” His next bracket says “one of the attendants of Yama is supposed to say” the call for water. The verse does not say who speaks, so the story says “a voice”. The verse reads “Fire enters into the houses, when a Brahmana enters as a guest. That fire is quenched by this peace-offering;—bring water, O Vaivasvata!” The story keeps the guest, the water and the name Vaivasvata, which Müller notes is a name of Yama. It tells “Brahmana” as “guest”, and it leaves out the fire. The call comes before Yama’s return, as in Müller’s order. Yama’s return (page 6) is Müller’s bracket, “returning to his house after an absence of three nights”. Page 5 tells the three nights as they pass, in plain words: Nachiketa waits, one night, then two, then three, and Yama does not come. That rests on Müller’s bracket (“after an absence of three nights”) and on Yama’s words in 1.1.9 (“hast dwelt in my house three nights”). Page 5 names no hunger and shows no food. On page 6 Yama names the three nights once more, “without eating”, as his reason for the three boons (1.1.9). 2. “Death is also called Yama” (page 4) joins two names for one person. The verses use both names for him. The father says “Death” (1.1.4). Nachiketa says “Yama” (1.1.5), and later calls him “O Death” (1.1.26). 3. Page 3 shows no anger in the father. The father says “I shall give thee unto Death” (1.1.4), and the verse names no feeling. Müller adds “(angrily)” and “though in haste” in brackets. The story shows neither. The verses name the father’s anger only in the first boon, where Nachiketa asks that he be “free from anger” and Yama says he will sleep “free from anger” (1.1.10-11, pages 7 and 8). The line “I shall give you to Death” is told on page 3, and page 24 recalls it. 4. Page 4 tells the look-back sentence and the corn verse in plain words. Müller has “Look back how it was with those who came before, look forward how it will be with those who come hereafter. A mortal ripens like corn, like corn he springs up again” (1.1.6), and Nachiketa speaks it. Page 4 tells it as “Look back at those who came before, and ahead at those who come after. People ripen like corn, and like corn they spring up again”. “Mortal” becomes “people”. The look-back sentence gives the corn its meaning: people come before us and after us, and they return like corn. Verse 1.1.6 can also be read as a picture of rebirth. The story gives the picture and leaves the reading to you. 5. Yama is a host who honours a guest (pages 6 and 15). The verse has no shame and no bow, so the story has none. On page 6 Yama’s greeting “Hail to thee! and welfare to me!” is told as “Hail to you!”, and “and welfare to me” is left out. On page 15 “Be king” is Müller’s bracket: “Be (king), Nakiketas, on the wide earth.” Hume reads “A great one on earth, O Naciketas, be thou.” We kept Müller’s bracketed word. “I make thee the enjoyer of all desires” is told as “I will let you enjoy everything you wish for”. 6. Page 21 says the Ancient One is the Self (1.2.12). Müller’s note on 1.2.12 reads the Old, “i. e. the Self in the heart”, and the verse names “his Self” just before. So the page says the Ancient One is not a second thing: it is the Self inside a person. That reading rests on Müller’s note, not on a word of the verse. The story keeps “hidden in the cave”. It leaves out “has entered into the dark”, “dwells in the abyss”, “as God” and “leaves joy and sorrow far behind”. 7. Pages 22 and 23 say “a person” where Müller has “creature” (1.2.20). In 1.2.20 Müller has the Self “hidden in the heart of that creature”. The verses we use name no creature before that line, so the pages say “a person”, the word they already use. That narrows “creature”, which can mean any living being. Page 22 says the Self is “hidden in a person’s heart”, and page 21 says it is “inside a person”. Both rest on 1.2.20 and on “his Self” in 1.2.12. The verses we use do not define the Self further. 8. The first two sentences of page 18 and of page 22 are ours. Page 18 says Yama had offered gold and elephants (two of the gifts of 1.1.23), Nachiketa had asked for an answer, and Yama now began to teach him. Page 22 says Nachiketa had asked whether a person still is, or is not (1.1.20), and that Yama answered: the Self hidden in a person’s heart does not die (“hidden in the heart”, 1.2.20). The verses do not say that 1.2.1 begins the answer or that 1.2.18 gives it. Between them lie 1.2.5-11 and 1.2.13-17, which the story does not use. In 1.2.14 Nachiketa asks Yama to tell him of what is “neither this nor that”. We make the link because our Upanishads guide anchors this dialogue at 1.2.18 and 1.2.20 and calls it the secret of dying. Page 18 also puts the gifts and the question side by side before the good and the pleasant. It does not say which is the good. The verses do not sort the gifts. The last words of page 20, “not even chariots and music”, are ours too. They name two of the pleasures Yama offered on page 16 (1.1.25), which 1.2.4 says did not tear him away. 9. Page 24 gathers earlier pages and adds no event. “Honoured guest” is 1.1.9 (“a venerable guest”, “hast dwelt in my house”). “Asked about the end of life” is 1.1.20, as page 12 puts it. “Spoken of the Self inside a person, the Self that does not die” is 1.2.18 and 1.2.20. “A fire was named after him” is 1.1.16. It does not say that the third boon was granted, and it does not say that Nachiketa went home.

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Three things this telling leaves out, and why

  1. Why the father says “to Death”. The verse gives no reason (1.1.4). The story shows no anger and no haste there. The verses name his anger only in the first boon (1.1.10-11).
  2. Whether Nachiketa goes home. The verses used here do not say. In the first boon he asks that his father greet him “when I shall have been dismissed by thee” (1.1.10), and Yama says the father will know him (1.1.11). The story stops at 1.2.20, with the last page looking back, and Nachiketa is still in Yama’s house.
  3. What the fire in the voice’s call means. The call for water in 1.1.7 begins with “Fire enters into the houses, when a Brahmana enters as a guest.” The verse does not say what the fire is. The story keeps the guest and the call for water.
  4. The worlds called “Unblessed” (verse 1.1.3). The verse says “Unblessed, surely, are the worlds to which a man goes by giving… cows which have drunk water, eaten hay, given their milk, and are barren.” The story keeps the boy’s reason as “Gifts like these bring no blessing” and leaves out the worlds, which are hard for this age.
  5. The “first, at the head of many” clause (verse 1.1.5). Nachiketa says, “I go as the first, at the head of many (who have still to die); I go in the midst of many (who are now dying).” It is left out. It has no picture a child can hold, and it leans on death. Page 4 keeps his question about Yama, the look-back sentence (1.1.6) and the corn.
  6. The warning to a host (verse 1.1.8). The verse says a Brahmana who stays in a foolish man’s house without food destroys that man’s hopes, his sons and his cattle. It reads as a curse, so it is left out.
  7. Parts of the second boon (verses 1.1.12-13). “Thou art not there, O Death”, “no one is afraid on account of old age”, “all rejoice in the world of heaven” and “Those who live in the heaven-world reach immortality” are left out. The first sets up a fear the story does not use. The second adds nothing a child needs. The third would need a picture of heaven. The fourth is a promise about heaven the story does not make. Page 9 keeps the fear that is not there, the hunger and thirst left behind, and the sorrow out of reach.
  8. “Hidden in darkness” and “the beginning of all the worlds” (verses 1.1.14-15). In Müller’s 1.1.14 Yama says the fire-sacrifice is “the attainment of the endless worlds, and their firm support, hidden in darkness”. Hume reads the same line as “set down in the secret place [of the heart]”, so “hidden in darkness” is Müller’s reading only. In 1.1.15 “the beginning of all the worlds” is Müller’s narrator, not Yama’s words (Hume: “as the beginning of the world”). The first is a dark image and the second is a worlds-idea, both hard at this age. Page 10 keeps that Yama told the rite and said which bricks the altar needs, how many and how to set them. The verse gives no number, and neither does the story.
  9. The rewards of the fire (verses 1.1.17-18). The rewards for one who performs the rite three times, and “having first thrown off the chains of death”, are ritual detail for adults and lean on death. Page 11 keeps the fire’s name and the “many-coloured chain” (1.1.16). Müller’s note on 1.1.16 says of the word: “This arises probably from a misunderstanding of verse II, 3.” Hume renders the same word as “multifold garland” in 1.1.16 and as “garland of wealth” in 1.2.3, and his note says its meaning is obscure and only conjectural. Müller’s note on 1.1.16 also says verses 16-18 “seem a later addition”. The story uses 1.1.16 as the verse stands.
  10. Wealth and long life, and the first sentence of verse 1.1.24. Verse 1.1.24 begins “If you can think of any boon equal to that, choose wealth, and long life.” Page 15 keeps “Be king” (Müller’s bracket) and tells “enjoyer of all desires” as “enjoy everything you wish for”. It leaves out “wealth” and “long life” as separate gifts, because the verse before has already offered him a life of as many harvests as he wishes. Müller has “live thyself as many harvests as thou desirest”, which counts the years of Nachiketa’s own life. Hume has “autumns”. Page 15 says “live as many harvests as you wish”.
  11. The maidens (verse 1.1.25). Yama offers “fair maidens with their chariots and musical instruments” and says “be waited on by them whom I give to thee, but do not ask me about dying”. Page 16 keeps the chariots, the music and “do not ask me about dying”. It leaves out the maidens and “be waited on by them”, which do not suit a book for ages 6-9. Page 17 keeps “song” from 1.1.26 and tells it as “music”. It leaves out “dance”, because page 16 names no dancers.
  12. “Shall we live, as long as thou rulest?” (verse 1.1.27). The second question is left out. Page 17 keeps the first question, about wealth. It leaves out “Only that boon (which I have chosen) is to be chosen by me”, and keeps “I choose no other boon” from 1.1.29.
  13. The question about the long life (verse 1.1.28). Nachiketa asks what mortal who knows the freedom from decay of the immortals would delight in a long life, “after he has pondered on the pleasures which arise from beauty and love”. It has no object a child can see and it leans on the maidens, so the whole verse is left out. Page 17 also leaves out “Even the whole of life is short” (1.1.26).
  14. The hidden world (verse 1.1.29). Nachiketa says again, “tell us what there is in that great Hereafter. Nakiketas does not choose another boon but that which enters into the hidden world.” Page 17 keeps the asking again, told as “Tell me what comes after this life”, and keeps the refusal in Nachiketa’s own mouth as “I choose no other boon” (in Müller he names himself in the third person). The clause “but that which enters into the hidden world” is left out as too hard at this age.
  15. What follows the good and the pleasant (verses 1.2.1-2). In 1.2.1 the two “chain a man”, and “he who chooses the pleasant, misses his end”. In 1.2.2 “the fool chooses the pleasant through greed and avarice”. These are left out as a scolding tone. Pages 18-19 keep that the good and the pleasant differ, that both come close to a person, and that the wise go round them, tell them apart and prefer the good. The two marks and the dotted line on those pages are the Illustrator’s picture of “approach” and “goes round about them”, not objects of the story.
  16. The road to wealth, and “hast dismissed them all” (verse 1.2.3). “Thou hast not gone into the road that leadeth to wealth, in which many men perish” is left out. It speaks of men who perish. The first sentence of 1.2.3, “after pondering all pleasures that are or seem delightful, hast dismissed them all”, is also left out: page 17 has told the refusal, and page 20 does not tell it again. Hume’s 1.2.3 reads “garland of wealth / In which many men sink down”.
  17. The fools and the careless child (verses 1.2.5-6). Yama speaks of fools “dwelling in darkness”, and of the careless child who “falls again and again under my sway”. This is a scolding tone and the idea is hard at 6-9. It is left out. The first sentence of 1.2.4, “ignorance, and what is known as wisdom”, is kept on page 20.
  18. The Self is hard to teach, the treasure that is transient (verses 1.2.7-11). Yama tells how rare a teacher of the Self is and that argument does not reach it (1.2.7-9). Nachiketa says that a treasure is transient and that he laid the fire first (1.2.10). Yama says that, though Nachiketa had seen the fulfilment of all desires, he “dismissed it all” (1.2.11). The story leaves these verses out. Page 20 keeps Yama’s praise from 1.2.4, “even many pleasures did not tear thee away”.
  19. Parts of verse 1.2.12 and verses 1.2.13-17. From 1.2.12 the story leaves out “who has entered into the dark” and “who dwells in the abyss”, which are dark images, and “as God” and “leaves joy and sorrow far behind”. It also leaves out “The house (of Brahman) is open” (1.2.13), Nachiketa’s request for what is “neither this nor that” (1.2.14), and Yama’s words on Om (1.2.15-17). They are abstract and need words the book does not teach.
  20. Parts of verse 1.2.18, and verse 1.2.19. “It sprang from nothing, nothing sprang from it” is left out as too abstract. “He is not killed, though the body is killed” and the verse about the killer and the killed (1.2.19) are left out. Nothing in the story speaks of killing. Page 22 keeps that the knowing Self is not born and does not die, and that the Ancient is eternal and everlasting. “Unborn” is dropped there because “not born” is already said.
  21. What follows verse 1.2.20. Yama’s teaching goes on past 1.2.20, with the chariot picture in the third valli (1.3.3-9). The story stops at 1.2.20.

Page 1 says the man “hoped for a reward”. Müller adds “of heavenly rewards” in a bracket, so the story does not say heaven there. It does not name him; his name comes on page 3, where it is taught once. The gifts go to “the priests” only in a bracket (1.1.2), so no priest is named. Page 2 says “faith came into the heart” and “he was still a boy”, as 1.1.2 does. Page 4 tells “Look back how it was with those who came before, look forward how it will be with those who come hereafter” as “Look back at those who came before, and ahead at those who come after”. Page 5 tells “Brahmana” as “guest”, a widening, because the word Brahmana is not taught here. Page 6 does the same: Yama’s “O Brahmana, … a venerable guest” becomes “Honoured guest”. Page 5 tells Müller’s “absence of three nights” as “One night passed. Then two. Then three.”, and page 6 begins “At last Yama came home”. In Yama’s words (1.1.9), “Hail to thee! and welfare to me!” becomes “Hail to you!”. Pages 7 and 8 give the first boon and its grant (1.1.10-11) one page each. Nachiketa’s “pacified, kind, and free from anger towards me” becomes “calm and kind to me, and free from anger”. Yama’s promise that the father will sleep peacefully “after having seen thee freed from the mouth of death” is told as “when he sees you again”. Page 9 turns “Leaving behind both hunger and thirst, and out of the reach of sorrow” into “People leave hunger and thirst behind, and sorrow cannot reach them”. The third boon (1.1.20) is made gentle and plain on page 12. The verse says “when a man is dead,—some saying, he is; others, he is not”. The page says “When a person’s life on earth is over, some say that person still is. Others say that person is not.” Pages 13 and 14 give Yama’s 1.1.21 and Nachiketa’s 1.1.22 one page each. Page 13 leaves out “That subject is subtle” and “let me off that boon”. Page 14 tells “even the gods have doubted indeed” as “Even the gods have doubted”. Page 11 tells “That fire all men will proclaim” (Müller 1.1.19) as “All people will speak of your fire”, and ends with “Nachiketa had one boon left”, which is ours and counts the boons. Page 15 joins 1.1.23 and the end of 1.1.24 into Yama’s one offer. Müller’s “live thyself as many harvests as thou desirest” is told as “live as many harvests as you wish”; the harvests count years of life. On page 11 Yama says “another boon”, as the verse does. It is a gift beyond the three, and the third boon follows. Page 16 tells 1.1.25: “Whatever desires are difficult to attain among mortals, ask for them according to thy wish” becomes “Ask for whatever is hard to get, as you wish”, and “not to be obtained by men” becomes “which people cannot easily get”. Page 17 tells “last till tomorrow” as “last only until tomorrow”, and “Keep thou thy horses, keep dance and song for thyself” as “Keep your horses and your music”: “dance” is left out, because page 16 names no dancers, and “song” is told as “music”, the word of page 16. It leaves out “wear out this vigour of all the senses” and “Even the whole of life is short”. It tells “No man can be made happy by wealth. Shall we possess wealth, when we see thee?” as “Wealth cannot make anyone happy. I have seen you. What would I do with wealth?”, a plain reading of the rhetorical question. It tells “tell us what there is in that great Hereafter” as “Tell me what comes after this life”, and “Nakiketas does not choose another boon”, which is Nachiketa speaking of himself in the third person, as “I choose no other boon”. On page 18 “approach man” is told as “come close to a person”. On page 19 “goes round about them and distinguishes them” is told as “goes right round them and tells them apart”. On page 20 “Wide apart and leading to different points are these two, ignorance, and what is known as wisdom” becomes “Not knowing and wisdom are far apart, and they lead to different places”, and the page ends with “not even chariots and music”, which is ours (see the eighth note). On page 21 “by means of meditation on his Self” becomes “thinks deeply on his Self”. On page 21 the last two sentences are ours, and on page 22 the first two (see the sixth and eighth notes). On page 22 “hidden in the heart of that creature” becomes “hidden in a person’s heart”, moved up from the verse that page 23 tells. On page 23 “A man” becomes “A person”, “desires” becomes “wishes”, “grief” becomes “sorrow” and “the majesty of the Self” becomes “how great it is”.

The question children ask here

“Did Nachiketa go home?” Nachiketa asks for it, and Yama promises it. The verses used here stop before the journey home. We keep what the verses say:

  • In his first boon Nachiketa asks that his father “may know me and greet me, when I shall have been dismissed by thee” (1.1.10). Page 7 tells this as “when you let me go”.
  • Yama grants it. The father “will know thee, and be again towards thee as he was before”, and he “shall sleep peacefully through the night, and free from anger, after having seen thee freed from the mouth of death” (1.1.11). Page 8 tells the last clause as “when he sees you again”.
  • The story stops at 1.2.20, while Yama is still teaching. Page 24 leaves Nachiketa an honoured guest in Yama’s house. The verses used here do not tell the journey home, so the story does not tell it either.

“Yama promised that his father would know him and greet him when Yama let him go. The story stops before that day, while Nachiketa is still in Yama’s house.”

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