Oh Yama, I choose this blessing: that the fire never be satisfied.

Here begins formally the request for the three blessings. Naciketas, recognizing Yama’s rhetorical defeat, proceeds to formulate his first petition. Curiously, he seems to choose something he just rejected: the fire that never is satisfied.

However, the context indicates that Naciketas refers to the specific ritual agni known as Naciketa-agni or Naciketagni. This is not a worldly blessing but technical knowledge of sacrifice. The “fire that never is satisfied” is the fire of spiritual knowledge, not the fire of material desire.

The structure vṛṇe (I choose, I select) is in first person present, indicating firm and immediate decision. Naciketas does not hesitate; he knows exactly which blessings to ask for and in what order.

This first blessing — knowledge of the Naciketa fire — is considered by commentators as a bridge between external Vedic sacrifices and internal knowledge of the Ātman. It keeps Naciketas within the Vedic framework while pointing toward transcendence. It is prasaṅkhyāna (meditation) on the cosmic fire as symbol of the Ātman.