Nachiketas

   In the BRAHMANAS, the explanatory portions of the ancient VEDAS, nachiketas was a special kind of fire. The word later became personalized as a character in the KAT H A UPANISHAD. There, Nachik-etas was a boy banished by his father’s curse to the underworld. He arrived at the house of YAMA, the god of death, but was not greeted as a proper guest. When Yama returned, he offered Nachik-etas three boons because he had neglected him.

   Nachiketas asked to return to his father, to be restored to life, and to learn the secret of death — or rather deathlessness. Yama tried to dissuade Nachiketas from the third request, but the wise young man persisted. Yama then gave him a teach-ing on the nature of the BRAHMAN, the ultimate real-ity, and the nature of the Self, or universal soul.

   Further reading: Eknath Easwaran, Dialogue with Death: A Journey into Consciousness, 2d ed. (Tomales, Calif.: Nilgiri Press, 1992); Mysore Sivaram, Death and Nachiketas (New Delhi: Vikas, 1981).