Chapter 1
Story Analysis
Verse 11
Yama says:
“Beyond the great Self is the unmanifest. Beyond the unmanifest is the Purusha. Nothing is superior to the Purusha. That is the final limit; that is the supreme goal.”
In the previous verse (verse 10), he had not yet mentioned one important link, which he now adds:
From the jīvātma, stronger than it, is Māyā, the unmanifest power of God. And stronger than Māyā is the Supreme Purusha, the Supreme God. Nothing is beyond Him. He alone is the final state, the ultimate goal.
Here two important points are made:
Earlier he said the intellect is overpowered by the Self (jīvātma).
Now he adds: even stronger than the jīvātma is God’s Māyā, because no matter how much we try, Māyā does overpower us. A little attachment arises and we surrender to it.
But the one who is beyond Māyā—who controls Māyā—is the pure Self, the Supreme Atma.
When we rise from jīvātma (covered by ignorance) to śuddha ātmā (pure Self), then Māyā no longer overpowers us; rather, it comes under our control.
So this verse also indicates a sequence of spiritual practice:
First gain control over the senses.
Then over the mind.
Then awaken the intellect.
With a purified intellect, Māyā loses its grip.
When Māyā is transcended, one naturally abides in the pure Self.
This is verse eleven.
Verse 12
Yama continues:
“This Self, the inner Self of all beings, remains hidden by the veil of Māyā. It does not appear to everyone. Only those with a very subtle, keen intellect can perceive it.”
The word used in the verse is gūḍhotmā—meaning “the hidden Self.”
Though the Self is present in this very body, we do not experience it because the veil of ignorance—Māyā—covers it. That veil is simply our mistaken identification with the body.
When we stop thinking “I am the body” and begin to know “I am the Self,” the veil of Māyā falls away. With a subtle, sharp, refined intellect, we can then perceive our own true nature.
So the verse is repeating the same idea as earlier, but with different terminology.
This is verse twelve.
Verse 13
The verse describes a sequence:
“The wise person should merge the senses into the mind, the mind into the intellect, the intellect into the great Self, and the great Self into the peaceful Supreme Self.”
This is the same order explained earlier, expressed again in another way.
A wise seeker:
withdraws the senses into the mind,
rests the mind in the intellect,
dissolves the intellect into the inner Self,
and finally merges the inner Self in the Supreme peaceful Self.
This is the thirteenth verse.
Verse 14
Yama now gives a powerful instruction:
“Arise! Awake! Approach the great ones and learn from them. The path to the Supreme is sharp and difficult to tread—like the edge of a razor—say the wise.”
After explaining so much, Yama now gives a call to action:
Wake up from spiritual sleep. Go to the great teachers whose consciousness lives on a higher plane. Sit with them. Learn from them. Only then can one know the Supreme.
Why is this necessary?
Because knowing the Supreme is as difficult as walking on the sharp edge of a sword. The real knowing is not intellectual but experiential—living it in conduct and behavior. Even practicing a simple truth like “I will always speak the truth” requires constant effort and discipline. How much more effort is needed to realize the Supreme!
True knowledge means accepting the entire existence exactly as it is.
A saintly person and a wicked person both belong to the same existence. The Supreme pervades everything. To see the world as it is—without rejecting any part of it—is true realization. That is as difficult as walking on a razor’s edge.
So Yama says:
Wake up to your true nature.
This is the fourteenth verse.
Verse 15
Yama describes the Supreme:
“That which is without sound, without touch, without form, without taste, without smell; eternal, unchanging, without beginning, endless, higher than the great Self, and forever true—that Supreme, knowing which a person becomes free from death forever.”
All the qualities of the Supreme are described:
soundless, touchless, formless, tasteless, scentless, eternal, without beginning, infinite, beyond even the great Self—absolutely real.
Whoever realizes This becomes free from the fear of death.
The body is perishable; the Self is imperishable.
One who abides in the imperishable no longer fears the destruction of the perishable.
This does not mean the person stops taking births immediately; birth continues until all impressions are exhausted. But the fear of death is gone forever.
That is verse fifteen.
Verse 16
Now the Upanishad begins to conclude the Vallī:
“A wise person who narrates or hears this eternal story of Nachiketa as told by Yama becomes glorified in Brahmaloka.”
Brahmaloka here does not mean a physical heaven.
It means the higher level of consciousness one lives in while still in this human world.
Brahman means “vastness.” As consciousness expands, the person becomes inwardly elevated, without seeking prestige, yet naturally respected.
This is verse sixteen.
Verse 17
Yama ends the Vallī:
“One who, having purified himself, explains this secret teaching to a gathering of the wise, or even to those assembled during a śrāddha, attains infinite merit. Such teaching gives endless fruit.”
In ancient times, the terms “brahman assembly” or “śrāddha gathering” were appropriate.
Today, the meaning simply is:
Whoever has truly absorbed this knowledge and shares it with sincerity and purity gives a teaching that produces infinite benefit.
Because real teaching is possible only when one has first absorbed it within oneself.
If not absorbed, one must rely on a written text. But when the truth becomes part of your living experience, you speak it effortlessly, in your own words, with depth and clarity.
Thus the seventeenth verse completes the third Vallī of the first chapter.