Contributed by Louella Harty

On Sunday mornings, ten to twenty students gather to learn from the timeless Yoga scriptures. Acharya Hersh Khetarpal guides us through these rich texts, helping us understand the deep teachings and applications to our daily lives. For the past several months, we have been studying the Kathopanishad.

The Kathopanishad recounts the encounter and subsequent dialogue between Nachiketa and Yama, the God of Death, which was the direct result of Nachiketa’s father’s angry response to a question asked by Nachiketa.  As a result of Nachiketa being a patient and honorable guest waiting for the arrival of Lord Yama, he was granted three boons by the God of Death.

Here the story unfolds as told in the Kathopanishad as Hersh lectures every Sunday morning. She recounts Nachiketa’s three requests and the Lord of Death’s response to each one of them.  She has her student’s undivided attention as the captivating story unravels and the real teachings of this great scripture are explained. In essence, the Kathopanishad teaches us that our soul is indestructible, while the body comes and goes. We have learned in this class that we must see ourselves as our aatma, not as our body, and act selflessly in order to reach moksha (liberation).

While the lessons in the Kathopanishad mirror what we’ve learned in other scriptures, such as the Bhagavad Gita and Yog Chudamani, the way Hersh leads the class is magical and leaves students spellbound, anxiously waiting for next week’s lecture.