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Yama replied: I know well that fire which leads to the realm of heaven. I shall tell it to thee. Listen to me. Know, O Nachiketas, that this is the means of attaining endless worlds and their support. It is hidden in the heart of all beings. Yama then told him that fire-sacrifice, the beginning of all the worlds; what bricks, how many and how laid for the altar.
May he know and welcome me when I am sent back by thee. This, O Death, is the first of the three boons I choose. He will sleep in peace at night. He will be free from wrath when he sees thee released from the mouth of death. Thou knowest, O Death, the fire-sacrifice that leads to heaven. They who live in the realm of heaven enjoy freedom from death. This I beg as my second boon.
The teacher, saying that the imperishable cannot be attained by the perishable, shows that no amount of observance of rituals and ceremonies can earn the imperishable and eternal. Although the Nachiketa fire-sacrifice may bring results which seem eternal to mortals because of their long duration, yet they too must come to an end; therefore this sacrifice cannot lead to the final goal.
This so pleased Yama that he granted him the extra boon of naming the fire-sacrifice after him and gave him a garland set with precious stones. Verses XVI-XVIII are regarded by many as an interpolation, which would account for certain obscurities and repetitions in them. Nachiketas said: There is this doubt regarding what becomes of a man after death.
When the Truth shines clearly in the heart of the knower, then he surmounts the apparent duality of his nature and becomes convinced that there is but One, and that all outer manifestations are nothing but reflections or projections of that One. May we be able to learn that Nachiketa fire-sacrifice, which is a bridge for those who perform sacrifice.
He who knows the three-fold Nachiketa fire and performs the Nachiketa fire-sacrifice with three-fold knowledge, having cast off the fetters of death and being beyond grief, he rejoices in the realm of heaven. O Nachiketas, this is thy fire that leads to heaven, which thou hast chosen as thy second boon. People will call this fire after thy name. Ask the third boon, Nachiketas.
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