Page 1 - May-2025

If You are a

Nachiketas, it is Not!

SWAMI ADVAYANANDA

t was 1988. Gurudev was conducting the Vivekachudamani
IMarathon Camp at Sidhbari. Listening to these lectures on
Vivekachudamani, especially the end portions of the treatise,
it became evident that the doorway to Self-realization was
meditation. And Gurudev explained in his own inimitable style,
full of drama and humour, the Vivekachudamani (verses 359–360)
wherein Shri Sankaracharya exemplifies the kéöaka, the worm
(pupa), which by steadfast and single-pointed meditation,
transforms itself into the bhramara, the wasp, to illustrate
the “limited individuality metamorphosing into the infinite
sat–cit–änanda.” The practice of meditation is indeed the most
important spiritual discipline to be undertaken by a seeker who is
intent on Liberation.
Come 1989, it was the Cochin International Camp. Gurudev
was taking Kathopanishad in the mornings. Yama is the Guru,
and Nachiketas, the çiñya, is the protagonist. The Upanishad
details Nachiketas’s spiritual journey towards Self-realization.
Nachiketas requests Yama, his Guru, for the Knowledge
of Brahman, the supreme Reality beyond the pairs of dualities
such as good and bad, transcending time and causality.

Any little seva to others, at any
time, is a glorious chance that
K.G.B. GUPTHA & FAMILY the Lord has given us to serve
Him! Make use of every such
Bengaluru chance. It doesn't matter who
the other is.
Swami Chinmayananda

Tapovan Prasad 31 May 2025