Katha Upanishad

is still If you remember,

the second boon which Yama gave to Nachiketas in the Kathopanishad, Nachiketas says, all these things, you keep it to yourself.

I am not interested in it because they are all impermanent.

That is how he answered it.

And that earned an attainment and then when the merit is exhausted, chene punye, punyalogam vishanti or martyalogam vishanti returns to bhuloka for another janma, for another birth.

This is mentioned in the Kathopanishad, Chandogya Upanishad and even in Bhagavad Gita.

In another place also it is being mentioned.

But Maam upetya tu, button means to.

There's a craftsmanship involved here and one can appreciate the different manifestations that appear within the same gold.

So when Advaita Vedanta using like Katha Upanishad, Chandogya Upanishad, when it uses these, mainly Chandogya, when it uses these examples of like ocean and clay and gold, notice what's happening.

The way Shankara interprets these examples, and you know these examples, he's sort of homogenizing.

He's saying, don't worry about the clay pots.

It is there

in the Kathopanishad also.

What does it say? We should understand that the ignorance

the capabilities of ignorance to hide or conceal even our own Swaroopa.

But this Atma is Nalabhya.

This Atma cannot be achieved by that.

This is from Kathopanishad.

Only when Atma decides to bless grace, that inner grace from our own inner grace,

This verse has markedly the Upanishadic structure.

It is echo of Katha Upanishad, where Katha Upanishad says, Anoraniyan Mahato Mahiyan.

In the Shwetadvaitara Upanishad says, Kavimpuranam Anusatidavyam.

And in the Muntaka Upanishad, Tapasaparastat.

That all these Katha Upanishad, Muntaka Upanishad, Shwetadvaitara Upanishad has mixed up to form this verse.

Therefore Krishna is condensing the Upanishadic Brahma Lakshana's tradition into a single meditative objectified specification.

And Sagaracharya Bhashya on this verse is a careful epistemology of each epithet, Nirukta, establishing their mutual non-redundancy and their collective function as a Dhyana Alambana means multifaceted support for meditation or Abhyasa

Probably the best correlation there is, but most people, they don't understand that when we talk about indriyas, the indriyas are your connection to reality.

In Katha Upanishad, they say the indriyas are like the horses of your carriage.

They are actually getting all the world.

You are the one guiding the chariot.

And they use the word Atman also.

In the beginning of Katha Upanishad, they say, So your sharira is the carriage.

Atman is guiding this carriage.

Indriya, your sense organs, are the horses.

If you remember that verse from

Kathopanishad, Paranchi Gani Vidranath Toimbu Tasmad Paranvasyadin Andaratman Kascid Dheeraha Pratyagatmananchat Aavrtha Chakshu Amrudat Vamichan That is exactly what here the two aspects of Brahman which is being explained by Krishna

in this 8th chapter.

The first aspect is from the Bihar Mukata that is outward facing.

The shift from a more renunciate approach to the body thinking the body is a problem it entangles us in worldly striving to get satisfied by stuff out there the yogic solution is to turn away from all that turn inwards and basically make do with nothing be content with one's inner bliss and that's pretty much what yoga practice consists of turning away from the world sit down don't do anything ever again There are variations on that theme, of course, but that's certainly where Patanjali was coming from.

He was echoing the earliest definition of yoga in the Katha Upanishad.

You see a lot of that in the Mahabharata.

And then suddenly, a thousand years ago, the influence of Tantra leads to a reappraisal of the body.

There is a very interesting observation.

I think it is a translation of Adi Shankaracharya, a commentary on Adi Shankaracharya on the Kathopanishad in which he says, what is the reason why these senses are misleading and taking us outward? And he says, because they are born from the five elements.

So he says they are born from the five elements.

The moment anything that has quote-unquote an independent existence from Brahman, they enter the field of duality.

So, lot of spiritual statements are also given in this support.

And one of the major statement is Neha Nanasthi Kinchita in Kathopanishad, which says there is no plurality.

Brahmaivam Atmarat Purastad, which is Mundaka Upanishad.

For a wise man, what is in front is Brahman, what is in behind is Brahman.