Naciketa's Fire: a Tale from the Upanishads

Ancient India. It is the time of profound inquiry into the nature of existence and truth which culminates in the great works known as the Upanishads. And yet there is a great deal of focus on text, on formulas, on beliefs and externals. Naciketa is a child prodigy who sees this shallowness all round him. He wants to inquire into truth deeply and past all externals. His questions anger his father, and the power of his father's curse carries him into a meeting with Yama, Lord of Death and Time. Yama, however, is impressed with the boy's sincere and earnest approach to the questions of life and death...and the result is an amazing story symbolizing our search for truth, past all tradition and past all authority... The narrative of "Naciketa's Fire" is based loosely on the Katha Upanishad.