[Advaita-l] Nachiketa-God Yama

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

That's true (did you see this in "The Jagadguru Replies"?) and also
happens to be the standard mImA.nsA position on "stories" in the veda.
I won't go into the reasons here. Sha.nkara also agrees with that. But
in story of nachiketa and yama, the position is that it was not an
actual happening which is being narrated in the upanishad. I.e., only
the historicity is denied. But the story does illustrate certain
points, namely that devas can be enlightened, necessity of
concentration, necessity of a guru, etc. That the stories can
**illustrate certain key points inspite of not being real incidents is
indeed accepted**.

Rama

On Apr 6, 2005 9:11 PM, Abhishek RK <rkabhi at gmail.com> wrote:
> Namaste,
> Sorry to interfere in this discussion. But according to HH Abhinava
> Vidyatheertha Swaminah, the stories in the entire Vedas are NOT to be
> construed as actual happenings. But only as illustrations/metaphor.
> 
> Dhanyavadah,