Kathopanishad - Story of Nachiketa Part 4 (Lessons from Previous page)

Previously:
Nachiketa confronts his father and tells him that his supposedly charitable actions are useless. 

Gautam, Nachiketa’s father found his remarks disrespectful and insulting.
And when Nachiketa asked: “To whom you shall give me?”
He became extremely angry and shouted “To death shall I give you”
                  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am sure everyone would feel that it was wrong for the father to speak such harsh words to his son. 

A Father is supposed to love and take care of all his children, even if they are at fault and never have any ill-wishes towards them. 

Nachiketa’s father loved his son and his outburst was out of anger, not from the heart.

At times, under certain circumstances, many people react out of momentary anger by shouting phrases like “I am gonna kill you” or “you are asking for your death warrant or “go to hell’ etc. If there is not a true understanding between the parents and children, then such dialogues can have serious consequences, pull apart relationships, and even split up families.

Therefore, we should never take anyone for granted. While talking to children or anyone for that matter, we should always be careful about what we say and how we say it. 

Young children have a curiosity to know everything around them.
The young adults want to know everything in detail - how things work - why we do things the way we do.
They want to know the reason behind everything - behind every ritual.
Usually, most parents, adults, and seniors - especially with Indian or Asian background, tend to ignore them. 

Instead of answering their questions and satisfying their curiosity, they tell them to follow their directions without asking any questions.
Or they simply ignore them. Like Nachikata's father did.
If we want our children to grow and progress - if we like to maintain a good relationship with them, then we must try to listen and understand them.

  
At the same time, children and young adults also need to understand where their parents are coming from. 

Maybe their frustration - the outbreak of their anger is circumstantial and temporary - and they do not mean what they said in the angry spur of the moment. The love and care that parents have always provided should never be forgotten. 

But we can understand from the previous observations- and will see more as the story unfolds - that Nachiketa was not an ordinary child. 

Even at such a tender age, he was very wise and had learned the scriptures also. 

He did not react in the same way - in anger, because he knew his father did not really mean what he said. He knew his father loved him very much and did not have any ill-wishes towards him.

Nachiketa loved and respected his father very much and considered him as his mentor and Guru. 

He wanted to obey his father. He wanted to do whatever his father wanted him to do. 

So he began to think, what did my father really mean when he said, ‘To death shall I give you’.  

It cannot be what it sounds like…there must be a deeper meaning to what he said.
He was too wise to take those words at the face value and began to ponder.

Since he had studied the Scriptures, he also knew that a learned man, such as his father, knows very well that ‘no one dies before their time'.
Perhaps by saying ‘to death shall I give you’, my father wants to send me somewhere - to find out and understand about Death, he thought.

Considering his father was too busy with his project of the Yagna, Nachiketa decided to embark on the journey on his own - to meet the Yam Raj - to find the meaning of ‘Death’.
                              ‘Rajan Sachdeva’
(To be continued)