Limited karma can’t give unlimited

After introducing preyas as a pleasant path and śreyas as the ultimate good for human being, yamaraja brings up the importance of qualification of the student in the form of vairagyam - dispassion towards objects of enjoyment in this life and life after. He narrated his own experience as an example, even though he knew that impermanence can’t bring permanence, he didn’t assimilate well. Thus he performed the naciketa’s fire (with others supporting karma), and he attained the position of yama. He didn’t have the dispassion quality which naciketa has.

jānāmyaham śevadhirityanityam na hyadhruvaiḥ prāpyate hi dhruvam tat |

tato mayā nāciketaścito’gniḥ anityairdravyaiḥ prāptavānasmi nityam ||1.2.10||

I know that treasure (result of action) is impermanent because that permanent one cannot be attained at all by impermanent (means). Oh naciketa! Yet, the fire was invoked by me with impermanent materials (and) I have attained (this) permanence (in relative sense).

Even before becoming yamaraja, jānāmyaham śevadhirityanityam - he knew that the result of action is impermanent, na hyadhruvaiḥ prāpyate hi dhruvam tat - because that permanent result cannot be attained at all by impermanent means. This is a very important basis for our ascertainment that jñānena eva mokṣaḥ - freedom from bondage only can be attained by knowledge, otherwise the path of knowledge wouldn’t be valid for moksa pursuit. Why moksa only can be attained by knowledge? There are two things we need to understand here, one is moksa as the goal and another one is knowledge as the means. Moksa is freedom from bondage. Bondage means, my ease-ness is being limited by the things which are not desired by me. They can be in the form of illness, old age, people, situations, etc. But I am not just limited by the unpleasant people and situations, even my source of happiness is limiting me. One day when it changes or is gone, I become not at ease, which means I am limited by it. Therefore to get out of this sense of limitation, I have to be limitless. But how to become limitless when any effort and action is done by a limited person with limited resources? Limited plus limited will only result in limited. Therefore the only possibility is that limitless is my true nature, otherwise moksa is impossible.

Now we try to see what is knowledge from the point of view of being a means. Knowledge can’t produce the same result as how karma does. It only reveals what is already there, the fact which is yet not known by us. When moksa is attained only by knowledge, it means moksa which is my limitless nature is already there, yet needs to be known. Thus moksa pursuit is knowing my true nature which is always there, because of being covered by ignorance, it is missed by me. Therefore alone knowledge is the only means for moksa.

Even though this fact is known by yamaraja, tato mayā nāciketaścito’gniḥ anityairdravyaiḥ - yamaraja still performed the naciketa’ fire which is the means for happiness in heaven with impermanent materials, because his vairagya was still not that strong. From that ritual prāptavānasmi nityam - he attained qualification for the heavenly yama position which is relatively permanent, compared to human life, yet limitless.