हिन्दी
Vajashravas, desiring (of the yajna sacrifice), donated his everything. And Vajshravas had a son named Nachiketa.
When the dakshinas were being taken, Nachiketa, who was still a boy, was filled with reverence and thought.
Cows which have drunk water, eaten grass, whose milk has been milked, which are becoming senseless, the donor of such cows goes to joyless worlds.
He said to his father, "O father! To whom will you give me?" For the second time, and again for the third time, he said the same thing, and the father replied, "I give you to death".
(Nachikêtas thought) Among many I walk the first, among many I walk the midmost. What could be that thing, which Yama (lord of death) wants to do, which they will accomplish today through me.
Look back as the first humans were, Look around you, other people have also come after them. A mortal man ripens and falls off like grains of food produced in the field, and is born again like grains of food in the field.
The Brahmin who enters people's homes as a guest, is actually Vaishvanar Agni-Swaroop (fire-like). People pacify, and please him with this gesture only. Oh! son of Vivasvan, you bring water to the guest.
That man of little understanding, in whose house a Brahmin dwells fasting, all his hope, and his expectation, and all he has gained, and the good and truth that he has spoken, and the wells he has dug, and the yajna he has offered, and all his sons, and his cattle are torn from him, by that guest unhonoured.
Yama says - O Brahmin! You are a respectable guest, I bow down to you, Brahminvarya! May I be well, you stayed in my house for three nights without eating anything, so you choose three grooms, one groom for every night. Yama, the presiding deity of death, is also the master of 'law' in this creation. Therefore, he is also the son of Surya, the 'luminous Lord' of Truth, from whom all 'law' is born.
Nachiketa says, O Yamraj! May my father Gautam become peaceful and happy, and his anger towards me should not be there. When you leave, they greet me with a confident heart, out of three grooms, I choose this first groom.
Yama says, your father, Audalaki Aruni, will be assured-hearted as before, and will be liberated by me. Seeing you freed from the jaws of death, their anger will subside, and they will sleep peacefully at night.
Nachiketa says, there is no fear at all in heaven, O Lord of the dead! You are also not there, and neither is old age, nor is there fear of it. Crossing both hunger and thirst like rivers, transcending sorrow, the soul rejoices in heaven.
That heavenly power (fire), which lies subconsciously in man's mortality, by whose illumination and due arrangement, man transcends his earthly nature; It is not the physical fire of the external Yajna, for which these deep-serious words are inappropriate. Therefore, O Lord of Death, you who study this heavenly fire, preach it to me, the devotee. Those who attain heaven, they are partakers of immortality. This for the second boon I have chosen.
Yama says, O Nachiketa! I describe that heavenly fire to you, because I know it. You listen to me and understand. Know this to you as the attainment and prestige, of the eternal worlds, infinite existence, and the element contained in the cavity of our being.
He (Yama) told him everything about fire, the root cause of the worlds, and what the bricks are, how many there are, and how they are arranged for it. Nachiketa also counter-narrated as he was told. Yama, the god of death, was satisfied and said further to him.
Pleased with the loving gesture, Mahatma Yama said to him, I again give you one more boon today. This fire will be called by your name in future. And you also accept this many-form garland. The divine power that is hidden in the subconscious, is the same power that has created and created the worlds. In the superconscient, on the other hand, it manifests itself as the transcendental Supreme Being, the Supreme Lord and the All-Knowing One who has manifested Himself from Brahman. Many forms are Mala Prakriti, that creative nature, which becomes subservient to the soul that has attained the divine.
He who kindles the three Nachiketa-fires, unites with the three, performs the threefold action, transcends birth and death, for he knows the adorable God who is born of Brahman, the knower. He is, and having seen him, he attains supreme peace.
When a man, having obtained the three Nachiketa-fires, knows that they are triadic, and knowing this, when he sees Nachiketa-fires, then he casts off the entanglements of death from before him, Transcending sorrow, he rejoices in heaven.
Hey Nachiketa! This is the heavenly fire, which you have chosen as the second boon. Everyone will say about this fire, this is your fire. Hey Nachiketa! Now select the third groom. Possibly the divine power used to raise the threefold being of man into divinity. Probably the three Purushas, the three spiritual states of the divine essence or the three divine personalities denoted by the three syllables 'A U M'. The Supreme Brahman is beyond the three syllables of Omkar sound. The self-sacrifice of the lower being to the Divine, which takes place on the three planes of man's physical, vital and mental consciousness. The Purusha or divine essence, the knower of the field, who resides within all, and for whose enjoyment, Prakriti completes the cosmic pastimes.
Nachiketa says, regarding the departed man, this sceptical controversy, some say that "this" is not, and some say that "that is". Let me know this by taking instruction from you, this is my third groom among grooms.
Yama says - In the past, there was a doubtful dispute in this matter among the Devganas also. It is not easily known, because its dharma is very subtle. Hey Nachiketa! You choose any other groom, don't beg me for this groom, don't request, leave it.
Of course, there was a sceptical debate in this matter even among the gods, and you yourself said that, this fact is not easily known. Speaker like you; I will not find anywhere else, nor is there any other boon equal to this boon.
Yama says, Yamraj is the knower and protector of that cosmic law, by which the soul has to ascend to the freedom of immortality through birth and death. Choose centenary sons and grandsons, choose many animals (cows, etc.), elephants, gold, and horses, choose vast tracts of land, and live as many years as you wish.
If you consider it as your groom, then choose wealth and eternal life. Hey Nachiketa! You take possession of the vast land. I fulfil the wishes of all your favourite things.
The wishes whose fulfilment is rare in the mortal world, you ask for all those wishes with pleasure. See! With their chariots and instruments, these are beautiful delights, such delights are rare for humans, I will give them to you. Hey Nachiketa! (Given by me), accepting them as your attendants, live happily with them. But don't ask about death.
Nachiketa says, O Antak! (God of the Death), all these enjoyments of mortal man are going to remain till tomorrow, all these make the senses dilapidated, and their sharpness, the whole life is also just a dream. These chariots are for you only, these dances and songs of the delightful are for you only.
Man cannot be satisfied with money, and if we see you, then we will get money, and as long as you have dominion over us, we will continue to live. He is the only one who is worthy of my choice.
Who that is a mortal man and grows old and dwells down upon the unhappy earth, when he has come into the company of the ageless Immortals, and becomes wise & when he looks very close at beauty, enjoyment and pleasure, can take delight in overlong living?
Oh god of death! He, about whom all sceptics argue, and he who is in great flight (travel to the other world), tell me that. Nachiketa chooses no other boon except this boon, which enters into that deep mystery, which we do not know.
