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What Lies Beyond Death?
We have the famous story of the Upanishads. It’s called the
Kathopanishad, where a young boy of eight manages to reach the abode
of death, the God of death. He has been made to wait three days because
the Lord of death wasn’t there. So the Lord of death, when he returns
says, “For each day, you must have a boon. Please ask me whatever you
like.”
The first two are rather trivial. The third one, is “What
lies beyond death?” Yama says, “You are a boy. Ask for things suited
to your age. Ask for pleasure, ask for fun, ask for knowledge; anything
you want I will give you.” He says, “No. This is what I want. You are
the Lord of Death. You should know what lies beyond.” Lord of death
says, “My son, don’t ask for these things. These are mysteries beyond
the comprehension of even the gods. The great Rishis who have been doing
tapasya, they don’t know. So, what will you do with this knowledge?”
He says, “If they don’t know it, if even the gods don’t know it, all
the more reason why I should know it. I won’t go until you tell me.”
Then he tries to bribe this youngster, “I will give you ten thousand
years of life, and ten thousand grandsons who will each live ten thousand
years, and all the beautiful women of heaven, anything you want, you
see, untold wealth.”
So the boy asks Yama, “Tell me one thing. If after all these
ten thousand or hundred thousand or two hundred thousand years that
I can ask for, and you are sure to give, have I not ultimately to come
face to face with you again, and then go beyond?” He says, “Yes.” “Then
why should I wait all those years? Do it now. I want to know it now.”
Very wise, and there the text stops. Unfortunately, the text stops there.
It doesn’t say what happened after that.
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