Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Mythology The Upanishads The Upanishads Understanding the Katha was at first a bit of a challenge for me, after I got through the first few paragraphs, I began to understand the deeper meaning that they try to convey. After I finished them I was filled with feelings of joy, understanding, complacency, and most importantly an overwhelming sense of unity. I know that to truly understand them in their entirety, it would require not only reading them countless times but also living every word of them. The first paragraph was interesting to me in the fact that Vajasrabasa believed he could get away with only sacrificing the most useless of his possessions. The fact that his son, Nachiketa was able to understand the sacred texts more than himself is simply beyond me. When Vajasrabasa gave Nachiketa to Death it was sad in the fact he seemed to do it so carelessly, but then again I don’t think that he should be growing up with someone of his father’s character. When the boy waited for three nights I could barely imagine what he felt during that time. When Death eventually arrived, I was shocked at its hospitality and willingness to offer such a magnificent gift as three “boons.” This made me think that one thing that I would truly like to be able to do, simply the chance to stand in the presence of any god. When I finished the story though I realized that god is nowhere and everywhere at the same time, and that it is everything and nothing. I have tried to find a way to explain many of my personal thoughts and beliefs, but I have always had an extremely difficult time trying to put them into words. When Death began to explain the secret of immortality, I was hooked from then on. Death speaks of “living in the abyss of ignorance yet wise in their own conceit, deluded fools go round and round, the blind led by the blind”, I paused for a few minutes to realize how true this was, and that this has increased drastically since the time of The Upanishads. Next Death speaks of being “taught by a teacher who knows the Self and Brahman as one, a man leaves vain theory behind and attains to truth.” This I find very interesting because, I to believe that all forms of life are different facets of the large diamond that Hindu’s would call Brahman. Knowing this is one of the first things that you must realize, as you begin your path to enlightenment. The Hindu idea of the Self, being separate from the body, doesn’t seem to be that hard of an idea to grasp. The human body is simply the form that the Self has been given to take in this little bleep of time. The mind though has a tendency to be overtaken by the senses and forgets the true Self. To find ones true Self again one must follow the path of meditation. OM is Brahman, know this and any man can obtain his desires. OM is the highest symbol, the supreme syllable. Just hearing this sound brings about a feeling of peace and serenity. What is it about OM that gives me that feeling? I can’t be sure I know that the deep vibrating brings calm but beyond that I can’t explain it. With the help of OM and meditation one can free oneself from desire, with his mind and senses purified, he beholds the glory of the Self and is without sorrow. It also talks about the Self being all-pervading and supreme, which to me makes perfect sense it is simply just reinforcing the idea that the self is separate from the body, and that there is no death for the Self or that there was no creation for the Self; it like Brahman is eternal. The Katha is sure to point out the fact that the Self is eternal and self-fulfilling, and that the body is only the shell in which we are confined. The mind is the strings that the intellect controls, and that the Self is simply along for the ride. The senses pull us along through our journey, and the roads that we travel are those of man’s desires. That the Self will continue on this path until he has learned to control his desires, and is united with them. Brahman is in essence the life force of all things in existence, weather it be in this realm of consciousness or any other. It is hidden deep with in them, but not hidden from them. To find it one must be pure in heart, and realize that the senses are controlled by the mind, the mind by intellect, the intellect obeys the ego, and the ego by the Self. One must find the balance along the path of life, and that only when they understand this in it’s truest form can you be freed from death. Long before I knew anything of Hinduism, I had already accepted many of their beliefs, including a very boiled down version of this one. Ever since childhood I had refused to believe what my parents were trying to teach me and in turn, I came up with my own ideas that reflect many of the same basic principals of Hinduism. The nature of man is to look outward, and ignore what is within. The keys to immortality lie within oneself. Only when you know the true nature of yourself can you be with out pain, suffering, and have true self-satisfaction. What is within us, we are also without. What is external is also internal. One must find it in their self or go forever more from death to death. The Self is Brahman and Brahman is the Self. The Self takes on the shape of every form it becomes. The forms that the Self can take are limitless; a blade of grass, a solar flare from the sun, or it could be that breath you just took. How does one find that blissful Self? Nothing points to him, he points at everything. The universe came from Brahman and in Brahman it moves. All of life is and all that is, is life. For those that find him death has no terror, because he is death and death is only for a moment. But for those that are with out him death kills, and your fears taunt you. You can find him when the senses are stilled, when the mind is at rest, and when the intellect wavers not. Yoga is the way to Brahman, when you can attain this you shall be freed from all illusions. In the moment of death the Self leaves the body radiating out from the heart, if when you come to die you ascend through one of the thousand-petaled lotus nerves in the brain you shall attain immortality, if one passes through another nerve in the body you move on to on of the other planes of mortal existence, and remain subject to birth and death. After reading this I came to truly understand the essence of reincarnation, I had a somewhat different view on it. I hadn’t ever considered the different planes of existence, it had never really occurred to me to question the realms of existence. Until, a few days ago I thought of life as only as the plane of mortals and the plane of the immortal. I was driving with a friend out to the beach, along the way I was thinking about it, and I realized that if I thought about Brahman as pure white light, and the different planes of existence being represented by the rainbow of colors that all blend together, but are still separate it made complete sense. The rainbow is simply made up of scattered white light that infinitely reflects and changes form, just as Brahman is moving and flowing in everything forever changing form. Bibliography: The Katha Upanashads of the Vedas Word Count: 1324
Copyright © 2005 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved.