Death Is a Lie — The Self Is Eternal

The 19th mantra from the Dviteeya valli of the first chapter of Kathopanishad -

हन्ता चेन्मन्यते हन्तुँ हतश्चेन्मन्यते हतम् ।

उभौ तौ न विजानीतो नायँ हन्ति न हन्यते ॥

In the hushed stillness of the cosmic hall, where even the winds dare not whisper, Yama — the lord of death — leans forward. His eyes are old, and wise, and strangely tender. Before him sits a boy — Nachiketas — fearless, glowing with the fire of satya-jijñāsa, the thirst for Truth.

And Yama says…

'You think you can kill? Or be killed? Fools. Both the one who says “I have slain” and the one who believes “I have been slain” — neither understands reality. For this Self neither kills, nor is ever killed.'

What a thunderclap of spiritual truth! Yama isn't just talking about the body. He's talking about Ātman — that inner self which is...

• unborn,
• undying,
• untouched by time,
• unscarred by sword,
• and unshaken by sorrow.

This mantra cuts like a blade through our illusion of mortality.

You are not this body that withers or bleeds. You are not the ashes in the pyre nor the bones in the grave. The Self is unconquerable, indestructible. To fear death is to mistake the mask for the man!

What a marvel — that the true you has never been born, and will never die! The Self simply... is. Beyond breath, beyond heartbeat, beyond the edge of any blade.

No need to mourn. No need to fear. Whether the world erupts in war or crumbles in time, the Ātman remains untouched. Unshaken. Eternal.

Death may happen to the body.

Killing may happen to the form.

But the Self?

The Self just witnesses — never wounded, never slain.

This one mantra from the Kaṭhopaniṣad is enough to tear down centuries of fear around death and show us what we truly are — unborn, undying, limitless consciousness.

Nachiketas heard it once — and stood transformed.

Will we?

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi