A Discussion on Isavasya Upanishad : ( 07/02/2013. )

"Upanisad is an answer to the eternal doubt as to whether a 'life of action or a life of meditation' is the ideal way of living":- --------------------------------------------------/ 'Knowledge versus action' has been the eternal problem with every generation of thinkers that had come to observe life closely as a theme for their scientific investigation. E ven today, we find, off and on, controversies over "the religious versus the secular," etc which are all nothing but new epithets used in expressing this eternal problem in the mind of every generation. In this 9th mantram,  the Rishi has opened up the problem and he is to summarise his conclusions in the following three manrams. "Outward activity versus inward contemplation ( avidya and vidya)":- -------------------------------------------------------------------/ Vidya and Avidya have been used also to connote upasana ( vidya ) and karma ( avidya ). In that general

Fourth wave-8th (last mantram) of this wave:- This mantram is all about Atma (Self):- 1. Atma - all-pervading, extends beyond limitations, light-giving principle in our intelligence. 2. Atma- is bodiless, it has no connection with  with the matter envelopments, it is no more a prisoner in the body; all its identifications ended for ever. 3. Atma- scatheless and without muscles, this expressions clearly points out that it has no physical body. Where there is no body, no diseases can come there.  4. Atma- pure, this indicates that the Atma has no causal body since it is untouched by sin. The greatest sin in us is our own ignorance of our real nature, which in turn creates all the animal passions in us, goading us to more and more inhuman and animalistic action. The Atma is Immaculate ( unpierced by evils). 5. Atma- is wise and the Seer. None of the activities of perception, feeling or thinking  can experienced by us if we are not charged by the Life-principles( Ch

Fourth wave and 7th mantram:- ----------------------------------------/ " More emphasis and practical assertions":- -----------------------------------------------------/ In the 6th mantram the Rishi explained to us the glory of Self-realisation in a language of negative assertions and not in the language of positive declarations. But here in this 7th mantram the same idea has been explained to us by the Rishi with more emphasis and practical assertions. He, who has thus realised his oneness with the entire, can no longer have the ordinary tossing of the mind arising out of the ordinary psychological tensions created through delusion ( moha ), or through grief ( soka ). Here the mantram indicates that beyond the shores of sighs and sobs, lies the land of realisation where the Knower experiences in his own Self, the entire universe to be one, which is nothing but his Real Nature.    

Fourth wave and 6th mantram:- -----------------------------------/ This mantram explains more vividly than in any other Upanisad about the state of perfect tranquillity gained by a Self-realised sage. This mantram is very important one in this Upanisad. One sees everywhere all existence in the Self:- ----------------------------------------------------/ To realise the one's own Self (Atma) is to realise at once its oneness with the ALL-SELF( All--Atmas ). Example:- To realise the nature of a wave is to realise not only the nature of all the waves, but the very nature of the Ocean. Similarly Life being one and unbroken, to experience the Life-center within us is to experience at once the Life-center EVERYWHERE. Self in all beings and forms:- The one who has realised the core of all beings as the core in himself, and his own Self in every name and form, he is a sage, a prophet, a God-man, a true leader of the people, and a guiding power in the universe.

Fourth wave and the 5th mantram:- "It moves and It moves not":- The idea of the 4th mantram is repeated here to make it more elaborately clear. The attempt of the Teacher is only to make the students understand the vital fact that the Supreme Consciousness is 'all-pervading.'  It is to introduce us to the entire significance of the term 'all-pervading and to facilitate us in experiencing the pregnant import of the term, that the teacher is repeatedly giving different phrases to convey the same idea. The snake shows up ( it moves)  in the dark for a rope  at the deluded;  but the 'rope' which is reality behind  the the 'snake' 'that moves not.' The [pure Awareness or Consciousness, the Life-principle in all beings, in its all-pervading, essential nature neither moves or acts. "It is distant and it is near":- This alone can be the definition of the ALL-pervading. USA is not only here,  not in New york and Washi

The fourth wave starts from here, in 4 continuous mantras:- ----------------------------------------------------------/ Though the Eternal has no quality of its own, since the language can explain only in terms of its gunas (nature)  or experiences, the qualities of the Self are indicated here, which are not to be taken literally. Certainly, it is a futile attempt to try to explain the infinite in terms of a finite language. The inability of the language to express the Inexplicable is found enlarged and clearly expressed in the very language in which the Upanisad is trying to explain the Self in these four mantras. "The Atma or the Self is motionless":- --------------------------------------------/ The word 'motionless'is only an indication of all-pervasiveness of the Supreme Realty. An all pervading Reality cannot and need not  move anywhere  because  there is no spot wherein it is not already existing. This idea is indicated in the epithet 'motio

Those reluctant  to follow either paths:- The destiny of those who are not following either the 'Path of Meditation (renunciation) or the 'Path of Action'? The Upanisad declares that, having born as man, an individual [ or society or community or nation] who refuses to live either the life of meditation or the life of intense and continuous activity, is to be considered as a suicide.  Such nation must necessarily come to fall into an abyss of darkness and despair. The individual {or community} should thereafter, certainly, come to experience a terrible fall in its cultural and spiritual eminence. "Sun-less-world":- This fall into decay and death is hinted at here by the term 'the sun-less-worlds'. A land where sun never seen, there will not be any life. When those people who do not follow either path straight away thrown into these lands, there they will decay and meet death at the end. If a nation is full of these type of people, the n

Second wave- Mantram:-2. "Life-of-Action":- In the first wave the advice to follow 'Path of Renunciation' or Knowledge. But, many have ample desire for wealth, for relationships, and for glory and recognition. Some find difficult to renounce because of clinging attachments and unfulfilled desires. Those, who have these inclinations towards a life in the world, are to practice sincerely and diligently, the life of action, says the Upanisad here.  "Living a hundred years":- The master says: 'Performing, well and verily, work alone in this world, should one wish to live a hundred years,' In the previous Mantram, we were told that the 'Path of Dhyana' can be pursued efficiently only by those who have no more desires of wealth, progeny or glory. But the Rishi at once realises that all the members of a generation cannot and will not  maintain this ideal attitude of discrimination and detachment. To them the Eternal Preacher pr

First wave :- Mantram:-1. All this:( whatever moves in this universe, including the universe, itself moving, is   indwelt or pervaded or enveloped or clothed by the Lord: is the meaning of first line of mantram. Well, the entire world of perceptions, feelings and ideas exist only in the Supreme Reality. Example:- Just all kinds of waves, bubbles, froth and whirls exist only in the ocean, we cannot have a wave but in the ocean. Waves are but expressions of strength, might and power of the ocean.  Similarly whatever names and forms are there in the universe, all of them are but expressions of glory of the Eternal Truth, in themselves they are nothing other thal the 'Spirit.'  The world-of-matter-   acts as a veil covering our vision   the "Divinity within us" and therefore we are unable to perceive  everywhere around us, within and without. Changes relative:- Without reference to some thing fixed, changeless, imperishable, we cannot ever reco