A great deal of sacred knowledge has been lost. That knowledge was lost because people stopped cultivating the right relationship to fire. You see, fire is everything. Fire is the Divine itself. Fire is the Sun.
Fire is lightning.
He still knew. His father performed a big sacrifice in which many cows were offered. Naciketas, sensitive to the cosmic law, understood that one should always offer only the best part of anything. He was offering himself as a fit sacrificial offering, so that his father might enjoy the fruit of a proper sacrifice. Yama is the ruler of the realm of the dead.