There is a city with eleven gates
Of which the ruler is the unborn Self,
Whose light forever shines.
They go beyond sorrow who meditate on the Self
And are freed from the cycle of birth and death.
For this Self is supreme!
The Self is the sun shining in the sky,
The wind blowing in space; he is the fire
At the altar and in the home the guest;
He dwells in human beings, in gods, in truth,
And in the vast firmament; he is the fish
Born in water, the plant growing in the earth,
The river flowing down from the mountain.
For this Self is supreme!
The adorable one who is seated
In the heart rules the breath of life.
Unto him all the senses pay their homage.
When the dweller in the body breaks out
In freedom from the bonds of flesh, what remains?
For this Self is supreme!
We live not by the breath that flows in
And flows out, but by him who causes the breath
To flow in and flow out.
Now, O Nachiketa, I will tell you
Of this unseen, eternal Brahman, and
What befalls the Self after death.
Of those unaware of the Self, some are born
As embodied creatures while others remain
In a lower stage of evolution,
As determined by their own need for growth.
That which is awake even in our sleep,
Giving form in dreams to the objects of
Sense craving, that indeed is pure light,
Brahman the immortal, who contains all
The cosmos, and beyond whom none can go.
For this Self is supreme!
As the same fire assumes different shapes
When it consumes objects differing in shape,
So does the one Self take the shape
Of every creature in whom he is present.
As the same air assumes different shapes
When it enters objects differing in shape,
So does the one Self take the shape
Of every creature in whom he is present.
As the sun, who is the eye of the world,
Cannot be tainted by the defects in our eyes
Or by the objects it looks on,
So the one Self, dwelling in all, cannot
Be tainted by the evils of the world.
For this Self transcends all!
The ruler supreme, inner Self of all,
Multiplies his oneness into many.
Eternal joy is theirs who see the Self
In their own hearts. To none else does it come!
Changeless amidst the things that pass away,
Pure consciousness in all who are conscious,
The One answers the prayers of many.
Eternal peace is theirs who see the Self
In their own hearts. To none else does it come!
Nachiketa:
How can I know that blissful Self, supreme,
Inexpressible, realized by the wise?
Is he the light, or does he reflect light?
The King of Death:
There shines not the sun, neither moon nor star,
Nor flash of lightning, nor fire lit on earth.
The Self is the light reflected by all.
He shining, everything shines after him.
The Upanishads are the mystical documents of the Vedas, the center of India's scriptural canon. The Katha Upanishad contains the instructions of Yama, the King of Death, to a sixteen-year-old seeker named Nachiketa. This passage has been translated for meditation by Easwaran and is published in his spiritual anthologies, “God Makes the Rivers to Flow” and “Timeless Wisdom.” The audio recording is by Eknath Easwaran’s wife, Christine Easwaran.