Isa Upanishad

CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. SUMMARY OF ISA UPANISAD

3. PERSONAL REFLECTION

4. CONCLUSION

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Introduction

Īśā Upaniṣad is one of the principal upanisads consisting of only eighteen verses. In all collections of the Upanishad it occupies the first place, owing partly because perhaps to the great spiritual significance of its contents. It focuses on the divinity of man and all manifestations in the nature. The subject matter of the Upanishad, as of all the Upanishad, is spiritual, profound, and all comprehensive. All the Upanishad including Īśā Upaniṣad exhaust them simply by determining the true nature of the self, and the Gita and the scripture dealing with moksa have only this end in view. “For the people who are versed in the science dealing with competence say that a man is qualified for karma when he hankers after the results of karma, be they of this world in the form of spiritual eminence etc., or of the thereafter in the form of heaven etc. and thinks of himself thus: I am a twice- born man and am free from such defects as being one –eyed which stand in the way of one’s competence for karma.”

Īśā Upaniṣad, commentary by Sankara, deals with the true form of inner god and how to discover that God. It also speaks about the paths by which that true God may be found. It speaks about the divinity of man as well as all manifestation in nature. It is the last chapter of sukla-yajur-Veda_samhita. This Upanishad is in verses so it is Mantroupanisads. The name Isa Upanishad is derived from its opening words of the first verse, ‘Īśā vasyam……..’ It tries to convey us to the knowledge of the seers who have had experienced the spiritual solidarity and unity of all existence.

Summary

The first verse of Īśā Upaniṣad explains that everything in this universe is changeable, nothing is real but they all seem to be temporarily real. Only God alone is changeless. Here God is none but our own indwelling self. Thus one needs to know the essence of own true self. In order to protect true self one need to renounce the worldly things, like desires and wealth. One can protect oneself through detachment and realization of true nature through the knowledge attained through discrimination and remuneration. This verse tries to explain that wealth is illusory but only our true self is our true lord. This verse is meant for those who are able to renounce three fold desires through knowledge and discrimination.

According to Sankara second verse refers to those who are incapable of complete renunciation and absorption in the self and have , as a consequence, to be  devoted to righteous works by which they can attain purity of mind, and thereby knowledge ultimately. Thus we find that highest knowledge can be attained by giving up all the worldly desires including karma and retiring to the forest or by doing karma in this world.

The third verse speaks about asuras or demons whose worlds are covered by blinding darkness. They are noted for their attachment to sensual enjoyment. Everyone who is indifferent to the realization of the Atman, his own essential nature, may be described as committing spiritual suicide.

Those who have not realized the self are therefore competent only for work, re-borne in different spheres, and this is the condition infinitely inferior to the realization of self.

The verses four, five and eight explain about the true nature of self as follows: the self is the unchangeable and eternal principle at the back of a hanging nature. Self is swifter than the mind, the swiftest of all things known to us. Mind is faster than senses but self is beyond the grasp of the mind. It is much more so beyond the powers of the senses. The self is never an object of perception, nothing can go beyond self. Self does really no action; it is the cosmic energies translates itself into all activities of life, mind itself being a manifestation of it.

In its real absolute state self does not move, it is immutable, but it appears to be ever-changing, even in motion. It is omnipresent. For ignorant it is very difficult to attain, but to wise it is very near, because they know it as their very self. It is beyond creation. It has two aspects, the conditional and the unconditional aspect.

The self has distributed all objects of universe rightly for all eternity. Thus the self existence is everywhere without body, without muscles, and without the tent of sin; radiant whole and pure:  seeing all, knowing all and encompassing all.

The verses sixth and seventh explain about a wise man that sees all beings in the self and the self in all beings, feels no hatred by virtue of such realization. Because hatred is born of self interest, when the unity of the self in all is realized, there is no room for hatred. There is no place for sorrow for the wise man that sees the unity of existence and perceives all beings as his own self.

The verses ninth, tenth and eleventh, describe the empirical knowledge as vidya and avidya. Here the world knowledge should be seen as worldly knowledge, for both vidya and avidya blind and delude the person from true reality. Both should be transcended to reach the highest state of knowledge.

Persons, who remain satisfied with the performance of the rituals only, and never strive to know the real significance of the works as explained in the scriptures, cannot attain sathvic state of life, but still worse are those people who remain controlled with the mere theoretical knowledge about gods and sacrifices and never stir themselves up for any action. goal can be obtained by vidya that is knowledge of ritualistic or can be obtained by avidya that is ignorance or pure rituals.

According to Sankara that mere conceptional knowledge of Brahman is not enough: it must be combined with practice of spiritual discipline. The mere theorization of Brahman is not the realization of Brahman for without combining practice with it, the theory will not able to countered the mental and physical tendencies that obstruct the downing of knowledge.

The verse twelve describe that those who worship non becoming(the unmanifested) enter into blinding darkness into darkness still greater than that, as it were, do they enter who delight in becoming.

The verse thirteenth explains about different results. One result can be obtained from the worship of sambhava (the becoming) and a quite another from that of asambhava. Sankara says that the result of worshiping sambhava is the attainment of eightfold yogic power: and of worshiping asambhava, absorption in Prakriti.

The verse fourteenth explains that one who knows these two-the unmanifest and destruction-together, crossing  death through destruction, attains  immortality through the unmanifest.

According to Sankara the upaniṣad explains from verse fifteenth onwards, by what path those who have been devoted all their life to scripture- enjoined works and the worship of lower Brahman, attain immortality  after death, this and the succeeding verses from the prayer of such a devotee.

One is advised to meditate upon Brahman as residing in the sun, the heart, and the eyes, because special manifestations of divine glory are associated with these regions. This particular verse is dying prayer for illumination of one who has been devoted all through his life to the contemplation of the deity as manifested in the sun. He wants to see the shining orb of the material sun.

As the course of departing soul entirely depends upon the predominant thoughts of the dying moment, the devotee is, at the time of death, asking the mind to fill itself with the memories of all the good deeds of his life, so that he may take the higher passage. Devotee asks Agni(the fire) to lead him by the fair path that he may reap the good he has sown. He tells god that god knows all his deeds. He asks lord to destroy all crooked-going sins in him. Then he remembers whatever work has been done from his childhood with solicitude.

In the last verse two paths are mentioned by which the departed souls may proceed to enjoy the fruits of karma done during their life in the earth. One is called ‘the path of gods’, the other is called the path of manes or path of darkness. The first one leads to the region of Brahma, known as Satya-loka. The second one leads to Candara-loka or the region of moon. One, who goes to Candara-loka, has to come back again in this world by rebirth. The verse also speaks about Jivan-mukti or direct salvation, even alive in the body which is attained only by the realization of the true nature of the self. None but one who obscures lifelong vow of sexual purity, one who leads retired life of worship and devotion in forest and the Grahastha are eligible for the direct salvation.

Personal reflection

As we know that Īśā Upanishad is a shortest Upanishad among all other Upanishads but each line of Upanishad carries a heavy spiritual significance. After reading this Upanishad I found that every word of this Upanishads filled with the great spiritual meanings. There is a kind of attraction in each word of Upanishad which fills you with spiritual insights. It has that power of quality which touches our inner self when we read it. Its spiritual insights strike both our minds and hearts. It has the power of attraction that if once we start reading; it does not allow us to leave on the way. Its heart touching words teaches us how to read from our heart. It makes us to think about our work, life and our inner self. It gives us a spiritual insight to evaluate our life and shows us a way to live our life meaningfully. Īśā Upaniṣad explains us meaningfully about god and how to find that hidden god. It seems that to find god is very difficult but Upanishad shows us an easy way to find that inner god.

In a way Īśā Upaniṣad opens our eyes to see our inner god who is changeless, omnipresent and all powerful. It teaches us something about our true self and how to find that true self who is god himself. It gives a way to find our true self and if we are not able to take one way it gives another way too. It tells that for wise, it is very easy to find god but for ignorant it is very difficult to find. Īśā Upaniṣad give an idea about god that how is he, where he is and how to find him. It tells that a person who has found his true self is sinless and free from sorrow, so he is the happiest man in the world. Īśā Upaniṣad strikes my mind and heart because it nicely explains about our entire life, god and how to see god in our life. In a way it explains about our all aspects of our life. At the end it enables us to remember all our good deeds and evil deeds and for good deeds be thankful to God and for evil deeds pray to God to destroy all our evil deeds. This line remind me something about the value of or Christianity which also teaches us to be thankful to God for all the good deeds and ask pardon from him for evil deeds. Īśā Upanishad speaks something about theoretical knowledge of rituals and God and the true knowledge and actualization. It reminds me about attending holy mass everyday in order to fulfill the daily routine. It also makes to think me about all those religious leaders including priests who who perform pujas and preach many good things in the temples, mosques, gurudwara and cathedrals but they themselves fail to practice those values.

Īśā Upaniṣad makes me to wonder why Hindus believe in so many gods. Why the make statues of gods and after pujas and celebration they throw it into the rivers. Īśā Upanishad clearly speaks about our inner God. It’s true that Hindus read and understand this, then, why they worship so many gods. In place of searching their inner God why they fight in order to build temples for gods. why they have different temples for different gods like hanuman temple, saraswati temple, ganesha temple, siva temple etc. thus we see that all the holy scriptures including Īśā Upaniṣad teach us only about good things but like us many other people read it, understand it but never practice it excluding few exceptions.

CONCLUSION
Īśā Upanishad consists of only eighteen verses but it is considered one of the principal Upanishad because of its great spiritual significance. This Upanishad is called Mantropanisad because it is in verses. It begins with the explanation of inner God. It tells us that everything in this world is changeable except God. In order to know the essence of our true self one needs to renounce the worldly things. Those who are not able to take the first path, Īśā Upaniṣad gives the other option also. They can attain purity of mind by doing righteous work. Īśā Upaniṣad speaks something about the people who are busy with the worldly things that their world will be covered with darkness. These are some people who have not found their true self. Our true self, which is changeless and omnipresent is beyond the grasp of the mind and powers of senses. Self is the cosmic energy translates itself into all activities of life. For those people who know their self is very easy to find but for ignorant it is very difficult to find. Self is beyond creation and limitation. Self has distributed well all the objects of universe and it itself if omnipresent everywhere. The wise people who have found their true self have no hatred in their lives. Thus, they are the happiest people in the world. The people, who are limited with the theoretical knowledge of rituals and gods, will never find the true God. Isa Upanishad speaks about the practical knowledge of rituals and gods in order to find the true God. It teaches us to thank and pray for our good and evil deeds. In Isa Upanishad two paths are mentioned in order to get salvation. First path is known as ‘the reason of Brahma’ and the second path is called ‘Chandra loka’. Those who go to the reason of Brahma find salvation and those who go to Chandra loka have to reborn in order to gain salvation.

Bibliography

1.      Eight upanisads, volume one, with the commentary of Śańkarācārya, translated by swāmi Ganbhīrānda.

2.      Isa, kena and mundaka upanisads and sri sankara’s commentary translated by S. Sitarama Sashi. B. A.

3.      Īśā Vāsyopānīsad by swāmi Sarvānda, Sri Ramkrishna Math Mylapore, Madras-4, India.1970

4.      www.maharajnisargadatta.com/Isa_upanishad.php