Upanishads · Kaṭha 1.2
॥
Devanāgarī
तं ह कुमारं सन्तं दक्षिणासु नीयमानासु श्रद्धाविवेश ।
सो ऽमन्यत
Transliteration (IAST)
taṃ ha kumāraṃ santaṃ dakṣiṇāsu nīyamānāsu śraddhāviveśa /
so 'manyata
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तम्tamit; that boy
हhaindeed; truly
कुमारम्kumārama lad; young; a boy still
सन्तम्santamwho was; who was yet
दक्षिणासुdakṣiṇāsuamid the gifts; at the sacrificial gifts
नीयमानासुnīyamānāsubeing led away; being distributed
श्रद्धाśraddhāfaith (śrad-dhā — 'the setting of the heart'); a living faith; trust in the truth
आविवेशāviveśaentered (ā-√viś — 'to enter, to possess'); penetrated; took hold
सःsaḥhe; Naciketas
अमन्यतamanyatahe fell to thinking (from √man — 'to think'); he considered; he began to reflect
Translation
As the sacrificial cows were being led away, faith entered him, boy though he was, and he fell to thinking.
Version
2ace922c4d9c · published Jul 26, 2026, 9:13:03 PM UTC
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The decisive event of the Upaniṣad is not a thunderous vision but a quiet one: śraddhāviveśa — "faith entered [him]". The verb ā-√viś means "to enter, to take possession": śraddhā here is neither an opinion nor an assent of the mind but a living power that comes from above and takes hold of the heart. It enters not the sacrificing father but the boy standing aside — grace does not ask about age or merit, it looks for an open heart.
kumāraṁ santam — "though he was still a lad": the Upaniṣad stresses the disproportion between his years and his ripeness. And the first act of the faith that has entered is so 'manyata, "he fell to thinking". True faith does not lull the reason but wakes it: it makes the conscience sighted, and Naciketas is the first in the house to see what no one wishes to see — that his father's sacrifice is a sham.
The tradition of devotion calls śraddhā the seed of the whole path: ādau śraddhā — "in the beginning, faith" (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 23.14), and only out of it grow the company of saints, practice and love itself. The Kaṭha shows that seed at the moment of germination: faith has entered — and the boy can no longer live as before. All that follows — the bold question, the father's anger, the road to Death — is simply the sequence of an honesty born in that instant.