Opening Katha Upanishad — The Upanishads in Plato Scroll… Continue →
The Upanishads · F. Max Müller (1879–84)
VÂGASRAVASA, DESIROUS (of heavenly rewards), surrendered (at a sacrifice) all that he possessed. He had a son of the name of Nakiketas. When the (promised) presents were being given (to the priests), faith entered into the heart of Nakiketas, who was still a boy, and he thought: ‘Unblessed, surely, are the worlds to which a man goes by giving (as his promised present at a sacrifice) cows which have drunk water, eaten hay, given their milk, and are barren.’ He (knowing that his father had promised to give up all that he possessed, and therefore his son also) said to his father: ‘Dear father, to whom wilt thou give me?’ He said it a second and a third time. Then the father replied (angrily): ‘I shall give thee unto Death.’ (The father, having once said so, though in haste, had to be true to his word and to sacrifice his son.) The son said: ‘I go as the first, at the head of many (who have …
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