Yama

The good and the pleasant are two different things. Both serve different purposes and can bind a person. A person who chooses the good will prosper, but one who chooses the pleasant will miss out on what is truly important.

Both good and pleasant things are available to a person. A calm and composed person examines them carefully and makes a distinction. They prefer the good over the pleasant, but a foolish person chooses the pleasant due to greed and selfishness.

Ignorance and knowledge are two separate paths that lead to different destinations. I consider you, Nachiketa, to be someone who desires knowledge, because even many pleasures could not distract you from your goal.

Fools who live in darkness but consider themselves wise and knowledgeable, wander around in circles, following twisted paths, like blind people being led by other blind people.

The afterlife is not revealed to someone who lacks discernment, is careless, and is deluded by wealth. They think, 'This world is all that exists, and there is no other.' Such a person repeatedly comes under my control.

Yama said, 'The self-existent Supreme Lord created the sense organs with outward tendencies, thereby imposing a limitation on them. As a result, humans can only perceive external objects with these sense organs and not their inner Self.'

One who has acquired purity of mind through frequent giving should then give cows as gifts.

There are two things that affect a person: what is good and what is pleasant. They have different meanings, and the person who chooses what is good will be better off, while the one who chooses what is pleasant will miss out on their life's purpose.

A thoughtful person considers both what is good and what is pleasant, and then distinguishes between them. A wise person chooses what is good over what is pleasant, while a dull person chooses what is pleasant and misses out on what is truly good for them.

Nachiketas, you have carefully examined the objects of desire, the pleasant and beautiful things, and you have rejected them. You have not fallen into the trap of wealth that leads many people to destruction.

These two things are very different and opposite: one is known as ignorance and the other is knowledge. Nachiketas, I believe you truly desire knowledge, because despite being surrounded by many desirable things, you have not been swayed by them.

Those who live in ignorance, thinking they are wise and knowledgeable, are actually confused. They wander around, stumbling and unable to find their way, like blind people being led by other blind people.

The wise one is not born and does not die. He did not come from anywhere, and he is not anyone. He is unborn, eternal, and ancient. He is not killed when the body is killed.

Consider the body as a chariot, the soul as its master, reason as the charioteer, and the mind as the reins.

The self-born has set the body's doors to face outward, so the soul of a person looks outward, not within. Rarely, a wise person seeking immortality turns their eyes inward to see the Self within.

The one who is not devious-minded and is unborn has a city with eleven gates; when they reside in it, they do not grieve, but when they are freed from it, that is their liberation.

This is an eternal Ashwattha-tree whose root is above, but its branches are downward. It is He that is called the Bright One, Brahman, and Immortality.

All this universe of motion moves in the Prana and from the Prana also it proceeded. A mighty terror is He, yea, a thunderbolt uplifted. Who know Him, are the immortals.

For fear of Him the Fire burns, for fear of Him the Sun gives heat, for fear of Him Indra and Vayu and Death hasten in their courses.

Choose sons and grandsons who will live a hundred years, choose elephants, horses, cattle, and gold.