Nachiketa 11

Nachiketa had returned to the cottage after a busy day at the village-market after selling the medicinal herbs. He was busy counting the day’s earning when he became aware of the old man sitting next to him and looking at him contentedly.

Nachiketa looked at him fixedly for a moment. The old man said, “This was the day of the year when twenty years back providence had dropped you here at my doorstep to die.”

“But you did not let me die, “said Nachiketa.

The old man laughed. He watched the rugged, buoyant look on the young man’s face and said, “Your Guru would not let you die before you live out the span.”

Nachiketa did not look up from his counting but he paused for a brief moment. The old man seemed restrained. There was silence for awhile. Nachiketa was about to get up when the old man said, “I am glad to see that you have mastered all the secrets of my trade now. “

Nachiketa stared into the old man’s eyes and laughed.

“Not all, old man; I have yet to extract a lot more.”

The old man smiled mysteriously and said with a little laugh, “Do you believe that I have a treasure still hidden somewhere around here?”

Nachiketa’s mind floated over that little laugh and the restraint behind it. He said, “I know, and I still cannot forget. Providence apart, I had come here in search of something which I believed was held in the hands of Death alone. You were that to me: Yama, the highest Guru of mankind, hiding behind it all, holding all answers. But mankind would not have them from you.”

“The mankind would never have them because I would not dispense with them, not before I make them receive the initiation through fire which is life”, said the old man.

Nachiketa said, “But I want to go through fire with all the answers known to me. Those will be my shield. Why do you withhold them from me? Am I not dear enough to you?”

The old man was silent. He looked at him as if his silence was the answer.

He said, “Go back to the life you have left unlived. You will discover all answers.”

Nachiketa understood. The Highest Guru was there before him and yet he was being put to the hardest test of life.

There was a stone wall which he could not break. It was a moment which demanded the essence of his being.

The old man said, “Do not ask questions. Ask for boons and I have plenty to give. Ask for what matters to all living beings—the best of the life on this earth, wealth, longevity, love. I will give all that to you”

Nachiketa said, "And still I will not know what to do with all that. You know I am ill-equipped to put it to use.”

“You will learn. It’s not hard to find out how,” said the old man.

Nachiketa thought of his father and all those who surrounded his father at various levels of existence. He wondered if his father had found by now what he was seeking. He realized what his father sought and did not find. He was astonished at the simplicity of the answer. It was love he did not find. Nachiketa experienced all that anguish all over again.

The old man read all that was passing through Nachiketa’s mind as he thought of the boon of life.

Nachiketa turned to the old man who seemed to hold all the mysterious possibilities within his power at that moment.

“I have nothing to ask for myself, but I want my father to be happy,” said Nachiketa.

“And if you think that wealth and longevity was what would make him happy ask for it and you will have them for your father,” said the old man.

Nachiketa looked at the old man and saw compassion in his eyes but still not all that there was which he could give but would not unless asked for.

He said after a while, “Yes, I ask for wealth and longevity for him because that was what he was seeking and told me, that must be sought after by the wise.” After a pause he said, “But I want him to have peace. That is the reason I want his wish to be fulfilled.”

This time the old man was quick to answer. He said, “Will he have peace with all the wealth and the power that comes with wealth? No my son. He still needs you. Go back and find out why he needs you”