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

Mantrm-18. (Last mantram in Isavasya upanisad)- 1. In this concluding mantram of this Upanisad, which represents the seventh and the last wave-of-thought in it, both the Guru and the Sishya pray together to guide them by the right path towards the great goal -- the "wealth", it is not the money you mean, but it is "the riches of the spiritual seeker", the mukti or anandam. 2. Prayer proceeded further to remove the crooked attraction of sin from them. 3. Prayer ends in surrender of all false conceptions in them. It is an active dynamic spiritual giving up and a becoming into the NEW AWARENESS. ENDS. 

Mantram-17. 1.Let my Vayu ( Prana) to be freed to the air  and Amritutvam (immortal). 2.Now let this body be burnt  in the fire, reduced to ashes 3.So the death is not a tragic culmination (as normal man thinks), but in fact it is Joyous beginning of an immortal existence. 4.Hence everyone of us should welcome death, that his prana should merge with the the air ( Brahmam ) and his body must go back to (Panchabhudham) dust from which it had come. 5.As regards, then his mind asks : "O my mind! remember what you did in the past" meaning, the Great achievement, the Supreme experience.  

Mantram-16. 1. Addressing Lord Sun -  O Nourisher, O Sole Seer, O Controller of all. ( without the Sun, there will not be any nourishment to living things, he is seer as he removes darkness ( ignorance), he controls means his presence regulate everything) 2. Rishi after  praising Lord Sun:- call, Surya, Son of Prajapati, disperse your rays and gather up your burning light....... I could behold your glorious form. 3. Rishi looking at the Sun 'I am indeed He (the Sun)  the Self.'    

Mantram-15.  "This is a prayer raised to Lord Sun invoking his grace and blessings so that the seeker may have the strength to remove the golden veil that hides the vision of Truth. And this is the prayer of the dying personality on his death-bed-----------the meditation-seat." 

1. They , who worship the Unmanifested ( Prakrti ) (impersonal Gods) ( Bhakti) (Avidya)- fall into blinding darkness. 2. Those who devote themselves to the Manifested ( Hiranyagarbha) (personal Gods) ( Jnanam) ( Vidya) enter to greater darkness. 3. Mantras 12,13,14, stress the same idea described earlier mantras  9,10,11. This repetition  has brought out for the purpose of better classification. The point is very subtle, to be understood on first reading. It is possible only after several readings only the essence is grasped. 4. Upanisad here is giving  us enough thoughts in its truth declarations to make us understand that our controversy is meaningless and baseless. Just we have seen that there is no controversy between vidya and avidya and that they are complimentary to each other. 

Mantram-11. 1. "Theory of action in inaction and both vidya and avidya are guiding us to the dark ages" condemns Rishies. 2. "One who knows how to combine both vidya and avidya together , would over come death by avidya and obtains immortality by vidya." 3. Avidya is selfless dedicated work prepares one for contemplation. 4. Through contemplation vidya is fulfilled. 5. Thereafter the perfect one undertakes karma (action) towards spiritual experience. 6. The ego ends where Godhood-experience starts. 

Mantram-10. Our Upanisadic culture does not accept any purely intellectual idea as a philosophy just because some reverend saint or sage happened to declare it . However great the individual may be, nobody has been given the authority or the prerogative to declare a philosophical truth and thrust it down the understanding and appreciation of the laymen. A truth that has been tested and found fit upon the touch-stone of life by repeated generations alone is accepted by the Bharatheeya devotees. Both vidya and avidya, in fact, are bondages.