Beyond Life and Death (A Dialogue Between Yamaraja and Nachiketa)

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I preach only the Upanishads. If you look, you will find that I have never quoted anything but the Upaninshads. And of the Upanishads, it is only that one idea, strength. The quintessence of the Vedas and Vedanta and all lies in that one word, said Swami Vivekananda. And of all the Upanishads, Swami Vivekananda loved the Kathopanishad most. He once told his disciple, Sharat Chandra Chakravarty, to Memorize the Kathopanishad. In many of his lectures, Swamiji quoted from the Kathopanishad.

This book presents Swami Vivekananda's exposition of the kathopanishad. It is a compilation of Swamiji's reference to the ideas given in the Kathopanishad or the concepts referred to in teh Kathopanishad strewn over the nine volume The Complete works of Works of Swami Vivekananda. This Compilation Juxtaposes what of Swami said in different contexts references to the CW, are given in brackets with the original verses.

The Kathopanishad consists of two chapters, subdivided into 2 and 3 section and in all having 120 verses. Swamiji has referred to some 86 verses from different sections of the Upanishad in this compilation only those verses which could be related to Swamiji's words have been given: uncommented verses have been omitted. Transliteration of the Sanskrit verses has been added.

The book was serially published (from February 2011 to May 2012) in The Vedanta Kesari the spiritual and cultural monthly published from this Math, Swami Suprajnananda, the compiler, is a monk at Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai.

The sketches given in the book have been drawn by Sri Venkatesh, an artist at the Chennai Math.

Kathopanishad containing the dialogue between yama, the God of Death, and Nachiketa, the Young boy with intense spiritual aspiration, is a time honoured text dealing with the issue of death, life and what lies beyond it. It's simple and yet highly profound wisdom has guided the live of scores of spiritual aspirants down the millennia. We hope this book form of the well received attempt of studying the kathopanishad in the light of Swami Vivekananda's exposition will motivate our readers to take up the study of Upanishads further and enrich their spiritual lives.

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