The guidance of Kata Upanishad is on a different level. Isavasya and Kena ask us to look into the structural aspects of life and experience of the world out there. Both the Upanishads try to make us realise how we are conniving against us by leading ourselves into our own atomic corner. Kena Upanishad reminds us to be ourself. But Kata Upanishad is taking us to the end questions of life. It knocks at the door of our atomic corner and comes straight into it much to our shock to take us out of the hole. Already we are in the heart of our hearts shivering at the idea of death. Whereas Kata Upanishad asks us to go and encounter death right at its face. To become the uninvited guest of death is not so bewitching a theme to us. Our wrong identification is like a virus. Anything that will stop it, it will abhor. And create a fear and anxiety in us so that we will never go for anything that will remedy the virus from us. Kata Upanishad is the best anti-virus available. This virus of misidentity has to disappear when Kata approaches. But the virus can tweet into your head various alarm messages, 'don't read.. don't understand... thinking about death is abominable,, don't do it.. rather do some pleasant things instead..' But just remember, the virus is desperate to sustain itself. Apply the anti-virus cool and see for yourself what happens afterwards. So much energy, so much wide and panavision, so much universal reach that was all yours all the while, deprived just because, by mistake you lent yourself to the shrinking virus.
And Kata Upanishad does apply the anti-virus in a poetical way or a cinematic way rather. Just like a beautiful Malayalam film, it settles down into your personality, alters the jammed coordinates back to originals. The uninvited guest at the door of death, Nachiketas asks Yama the question, 'Hi Death! you know well whether there is any soul after the point of death. Tell me what is the truth.' The dodging death finally has to come around to reveal the eternal truth. Of course Nachiketas took the first step of coming out of his atomic corner. Coming out of it, it was but natural to him to interrogate any hidden truth, anywhere. Death pleads with him to return back to his cubby hole. But no. Once you wake up there is no deluding you again.
Srirangam Mohanarangan
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