Nachiketas

The small amphitheatre in the Matrimandir Gardens was once again the site of a dramatic exploration of a spiritual search. A few years ago Aryamani staged excerpts from Sri Aurobindo’s Debate of Love and Death, from Book Ten of his epic Savitri. This time she had chosen the dialogue of Death with Nachiketas, the subject of the Katha Upanishad, as translated by Sri Aurobindo. For three evenings in the second week of March, Aurovilians and guests, seated in the open air, could listen to Death granting three boons to Nachiketas. The first was the boon of tranquility for Nachiketas’s father, who agonized after cursing his son to be given to Death. Then, as a second boon, he answered Nachiketas’ questions about the heavenly Flame.

“Hearken to me and understand, O Nachiketas; I declare to thee that heavenly Flame, for I know it.”* Death then explained that the heavenly Flame is the Divine force concealed in the subconscious which has originated and built up the worlds and which is also concealed subconsciously in man’s mortality, by the kindling of which man sacrifices his lower existence to the divine and transcends his earthly nature. “Know this to be the possession of infinite existence and the foundation and the thing hidden in the secret cave of our being.” 

But Death was reluctant to grant Nachiketas the third boon he craved, the answer to the question of what happens to a man who passes over into death. “Even by the gods was this debated of old, for it is not easy of knowledge, since very subtle is the law of it.” He asked Nachiketas to choose another boon, and offered him riches and other objects of desire, but to no avail. “This boon and no other is for my choosing,” replied Nachiketas. 

Death then explained the difference between the good and the pleasant that come to man, and that the wise choose the good and not the pleasant, but the dull soul chooses the pleasant and live in ignorance. “They who dwell in the ignorance, within it, wise in their own wit and deeming themselves very learned, men bewildered are they who wander about round and round circling like blind men led by the blind. The childish wit, bewildered and drunken with the illusion of riches, cannot open its eyes to see the passage to heaven; for he that thinks this world is and there is no other, comes again and again into Death’s thralldom.”

But those who thirst for the good are led to the realization of God by spiritual yoga, having entered deep into that which is hidden in our secret being and lodged in the cavern heart of things. “Know the body for a chariot and the soul for the master of the chariot: know reason for the charioteer and the mind for the reins only.” Death then explained to Nachiketas the Self-born. “The Purusha that is within is no larger than the finger of a man. He is like a blazing fire that is without smoke, He is lord of His past and His future. He alone is today and He alone shall be tomorrow. This is the thing thou seekest.” And Death concludes, “The Purusha, the Spirit within, who is no larger than the finger of a man is seated forever in the heart of creatures; one must separate Him with patience from one’s own body as one separates from a blade of grass its main fibre. Thou shalt know Him for the Bright Immortal, yea, for the Bright Immortal.”

Srimoyi, as Death, gave a fine performance declaiming the stanzas from the Katha Upanishad with great intensity, while Nachiketas, played by Vivekan, listened in intent concentration – as did many in the audience. The chorus of two men and three women narrated from a book on the topic written under the auspices of late Kireet Joshi, and recited lines from Sri Aurobindo’s poem Savitri. 

The small amphitheater in the Matrimandir Gardens was eminently suitable for this otherwise rather static drama performance. Aryamayi is to be recommended for creating this play.

* All quotations have been taken from Sri Aurobino’s translation of the Katha Upanishad, in Volume 18 of his Complete Works, Kena and other Upanishads.

The performance was filmed and subtitled by Manohar and can be seen on You Tube at https://youtu.be/-Z5sGNClyzM.