9/18/2017 Intensity on the Spiritual Path The Story of Nachiketa

Intensity on the Spiritual Path The Story of Nachiketa

The following excerpt is from the legendary Wholeness program at the nascent Isha Yoga Center in
1994. Here, Sadhguru tells the story of Nachiketa from the Upanishads, and discusses intensity, a
fundamental aspect of spirituality.
Sadhguru: Nachiketa is supposed to have been the first seeker in the world, maybe the first significant
one. One of the Upanishads starts with him. Nachiketa was a small boy. His father took a certain vow to
perform a yaga, a sacred ritual where all the material possessions that you have including your wife,
your children, your house, your everything you have to give it away as dana to all the rishis, the
brahmins and the other people. Then youll attain to spiritual bliss. This is a device somebody has set up
in the tradition.

So a few people take this vow for spiritual attainment. Nachiketas father took this vow and he gave away
all the sick cows, the useless property and everything that he didnt want, which was a burden in one way
or another, and made a big show of it, but he kept everything else that he really needed, including his
two wives and children. Nachiketa saw this and he was very hurt. He saw that his father was not being
sincere. His father made a vow that he will give away everything and attain spiritual bliss, but that man is
playing tricks like everybody else. So Nachiketa went to his father and started talking about this to him. A
small boy about five years of age, physically he was five years of age, but the boy had tremendous
maturity.

When you are like Nachiketa, there is no need for a path for you. It is already here. There is nowhere to
go. It is very much here.
Nachiketa told his father, What you have done is not right. If you didnt want to give away everything,
you shouldnt have taken the vow. Once you took the vow, you better give it away. You have to give away
everything. You tell me to whom are you going to give me? His father got angry, and he said, I am going
to give you to Yama. Yama is the Lord of Death. So the boy took it very seriously and he prepared
himself to go to Yama, and he went. Dont start thinking in terms of, How could he have gone, with the
body or without the body? Thats not the point. He went.

Yama was not there. He had gone visiting. He makes house calls. So he had gone visiting. For three
days Nachiketa waited. A small boy, without food, without water, he waited at Yamas doorstep. After three
days Yama came back and he saw this little boy totally famished and tired, but fully determined. He was
just sitting there not moving. He had not even gone searching for food here or there. He was just sitting
there waiting for him. So Yama was very moved by this boys determination, waiting for three days without
anything. So he said, It is great youve been waiting for three days. What do you want? Ill grant you
three boons. What do you want?

The first thing Nachiketa said was, My father is in extreme greed. He wants material possessions right

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now. So you bless him with all the material possessions that he can have. Let him become a king. Okay,
it was granted. The second boon he asked for was, I want to know what kind of karmas, what kind of
yagas I have to do to attain. The Vedic literature always talks in terms of yagnas and yagas. The whole
literature is like that; everything is in terms of yagas and yagnas. So Yama taught him what he had to do.

Then Nachiketa asked him, What is the secret of death? What happens after death? So Yama said,
No, this question you take back. You can ask me anything you want. You ask me for a kingdom, if you
want. Ill give it to you. Riches if you want, Ill give you. All the pleasures in the world, Ill give you. He
goes on offering, What do you want, you tell me; all the pleasures in the world, Ill give you. You take
them but this one question, you withdraw. Nachiketa says, What will I do with all of them? Youve already
told me, all these things are transient. I have already understood that all activity, everything people are
involved in, is meaningless. Simply it seems to be there. It is not the reality. So what is the point in you
giving me more riches? It will just be a trap for me. I dont want anything, you just answer my question.

In many ways Yama tried to avoid this question. He said, Even the gods do not know the answer for this
question. I cannot give it to you. Nachiketa said, If that is so, if the gods do not know this answer and
only you know, then you must definitely give me the answer. He wouldnt leave him. So once again Yama
left him there and went visiting for months. He just wanted to avoid this boy somehow. He wanted to get
rid of him, but the boy just stuck around for many, many months; and they say, right on the doorstep of
Yamas domain, he attained to his full enlightenment. He got the answers for everything he had to know
in the existence and dissolved himself. He was the first seeker. And he is always used as the best
example. A five-year-old boy with that kind of determination, who didnt fall for a chocolate or a visit to
Disneyland or anything. He wanted that and thats all it is.

When a person is like that there is no need for a path for him because the end is here itself. It is not on
the top of Velliangiri Hills. Only when it is not here, it is on Velliangiri Hills and we have to slowly climb it.
When you are like Nachiketa, there is no need for a path for you. It is already here. There is nowhere to
go. It is very much here. Now the whole purpose of doing everything that we are doing here is to create
the intensity. That craving should become so strong, so powerful, that God cannot stay away, and the
Divine cannot avoid you anymore. It is not that the Divine tries to avoid you, but this mind and ego tries to
screen the reality from your eyes in so many millions of ways. Millions of tricks are played.

No Intensity, No Transformation

Whether you walk the path of karma, gnana, kriya, or bhakti, it is your intensity which keeps you going,
not the path itself. No practices or kriyas will do anything when there is no intensity. In turn, when there is
intensity, the practices have the power to move you into a different dimension.

It is not the kriya as such which will transform you it is your intensity. When you have this intensity, the
kriya is a tremendous support that enhances it more and more. That is the whole purpose of doing the
practices. Whichever path you walk, by itself, the practice is not going to make you realize anything
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unless you have intensity.

If you half-heartedly love someone, there is no love. It is either 100% or zero. If you think you can love
someone 99%, you have not known love at all. The same goes for any kind of action. If you do not
perform your action 100%, it is meaningless. It is not going to produce anything great. At the most, it will
earn you food. Unless your action is 100%, it cannot transform you. Unless your kriya is 100%, it cannot
transform you. Unless your love is 100%, it cannot transform you. It may be a device to get something,
like a barter system, but in existential terms, nothing happens.

The ebook, Encounter the Enlightened, includes more from the Wholeness Program. Get it at Isha
Downloads.Editors Note: This article is based on an excerpt from the December 2014 issue of Forest
Flower. Pay what you want and download. (set 0 for free). Print subscriptions are also available.

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