The Second Boon
स्वर्गे लोके न भयं किंचनास्ति
न तत्र त्वं न जरया बिभेति ।
उभे तीर्त्वाऽशनायापिपासे
शोकातिगो मोदते स्वर्गलोके ॥ १२॥
स त्वमग्निँ स्वर्ग्यमध्येषि मृत्यो
प्रब्रूहि त्वँ श्रद्दधानाय मह्यम् ।
स्वर्गलोका अमृतत्वं भजन्त
एतद् द्वितीयेन वृणे वरेण ॥ १३॥
svarge loke na bhayaṃ kiṃcanāsti
na tatra tvaṃ na jarayā bibheti .
ubhe tīrtvā’śanāyāpipāse
śokātigo modate svargaloke .. 12..
sa tvamagnim̐ svargyamadhyeṣi mṛtyo
prabrūhi tvam̐ śraddadhānāya mahyam .
svargalokā amṛtatvaṃ bhajanta
etad dvitīyena vṛṇe vareṇa .. 13..
Nachiketa said: In the Heavenly World there is no fear whatsoever. You, O Death, are not there and no one is afraid of old age. Leaving behind both hunger and thirst and out of the reach of sorrow, all rejoice in Heaven. You know, O Death, the Fire-sacrifice, which leads to Heaven. Explain it to me, for I am full of faith. The inhabitants of Heaven attain immortality. This I ask as my second boon.
Commentary:
Nachiketas speaks. “I have heard, O Master, that there is a heavenly world of deathless beings. Na tatra tvaṁ: You are not there. It means that death is not there. And no one there is afraid of old age. The gods in heaven are said to be free from old age and death. There is birth, childhood and youth. There are only three conditions of life there—birth, childhood and youth—but no decay, no old age, no death. I have heard that such a realm exists. There is no fear in that kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is free from fear of every kind; this is what I have heard. Hunger and thirst do not torment people there. They are not actually people; they are called angels, gods. Freed from every kind of grief, the denizens of heaven enjoy life perpetually. What is this heaven? Where does it exist? What is its dimension, and what is the reason for the denizens, the citizens, the occupants of that region to be so happy, free from the sorrow of old age and death? Please instruct me in the knowledge of that particular sacrifice, the fire sacrifice, by the performance of which I shall be able to attain to that heaven where glory is the heritage of everyone. No sorrow of any kind will be there. Please instruct me into this vidya, the secret knowledge of a great unknown sacrifice, because it is difficult to imagine what kind of sacrifice it could be which can transform a mortal into a deathless being in the heavenly world. It is not known to people because had it been known to everybody, all would have performed that sacrifice. The world would have been depopulated and there would be overpopulation in the kingdom of heaven. That does not take place because no one in the world knows what it is.”
Now, when we read this, we should not be under the impression that we will get this knowledge merely by reading these two verses. The writer of the Upanishad has been careful to tell us that such a knowledge was granted to Nachiketas without telling us what that knowledge is.
“So great Master, you know this great vidya, this art, this science of this sacrifice. I am full of faith. I eagerly seek this knowledge. Please tell it to me, because one who attains to that heavenly world enjoys deathlessness. May I also be blessed with that boon. This is the second boon. Will you kindly give it to me?” asks Nachiketas.
Swami Vivekananda Says —
The next boon was that he wanted to know about a certain sacrifice which took people to heaven. Now we have seen that the oldest idea which we got in the Samhitâ portion of the Vedas was only about heaven where they had bright bodies and lived with the fathers. Gradually other ideas came, but they were not satisfying; there was still need for something higher. Living in heaven would not be very different from life in this world. At best, it would only be a very healthy rich man’s life, with plenty of sense-enjoyments and a sound body which knows no disease. It would be this material world, only a little more refined; and we have seen the difficulty that the external material world can never solve the problem.
So no heaven can solve the problem. If this world cannot solve the problem, no multiplication of this world can do so, because we must always remember that matter is only an infinitesimal part of the phenomena of nature. The vast part of phenomena which we actually see is not matter. For instance, in every moment of our life what a great part is played by thought and feeling, compared with the material phenomena outside! How vast is this internal world with its tremendous activity! The sense-phenomena are very small compared with it. The heaven solution commits this mistake; it insists that the whole of phenomena is only in touch, taste, sight, etc. So this idea of heaven did not give full satisfaction to all. Yet Nachiketas asks, as the second boon, about some sacrifice through which people might attain to this heaven. There was an idea in the Vedas that these sacrifices pleased the gods and took human beings to heaven.[Source]
