Isavasya Upanishad – 1

Introduction & Shanthi Mantra

Upanishad means BrahmaVidya, knowledge of Brahman, the Cosmic Supreme.  The word upanishad primarily refers to the knowledge of the Brahman, and secondarily to the book that contains the knowledge of Brahman.  Upanishads form the end portion of Vedas, Veda anta bhaga, and so are called Vedanta as well. Since this portion deals with the knowledge of Brahman and its realization and gives the knowledge of jiva, the individual, jagat, the universe and their relationship with each other and with Brahman, this is the philosophical portion of Vedas and is called the jnana khanda.  The earlier portion of Vedas, Veda purva bhaga, deals only with karmas and upasanas and is called the karma khanda.

Vedas are divided into sakhas. Each sakha contains an upanishad.  Originally the Vedas had 1180 sakhas, of which many are lost now.  So we are now having 108 upanishads instead of 1180.  Out of these 108, Sri Sankara Bhagavatpada had written commentaries for 10 upanishads.  These ten upanishads are also referred to in Brahma Sutras of Veda Vyasa.  So these ten upanishads are considered as mukhya upanishads.  There is a sloka connecting these ten which runs as:

Isa Kena Kaṭa Prasna Munḍa Mandukya Thiithri I

Aitareyanca Chandokyam Brihadharaṇyakam tatha. II

Isavasya Upanishad belongs to Shukla Yajur Veda.  Kathopanishad, which was discussed in an earlier series of blogs belongs to Krishna Yajur Veda. Krishna Yajur Veda and Shukla Yajur Veda are two schools of Yajur Veda and there is an interesting story regarding the origin of the two schools in Vishnu purana.  The story is as follows.

After Veda Vyasa compiled the mantras of the Vedas, he taught the Yajur Veda to his disciple Vaishampayana Vyasa who further compiled and taught it to twenty-seven disciples one of them being Yajnavalkya who was distinguished for his brilliance and great piety.  Once Vaishampayana Vyasa committed the sin of Brahmahatya (killing of a Brahmin) by accidentally killing his nephew.  He asked his disciples to perform the necessary penance for seven days to expiate his sin.  Yajnavalkya strongly argued in order to be allowed to do the penance all by himself angering Vaisampayana in the process who found his tone disparaging of his other disciples. 

An angry Vaisampayana asked Yajnavalkya to give back all he had learned from him and go away from the ashram.  Obeying the guru’s command Yajnavalkya threw up the Yajur Veda he had learnt from Vaisampayana in the form of black vomit stained with blood.  As the Veda are sacrosanct, Vaisampayana did not want the vomit to hit the ground and asked the other disciples to take the form of partridges (tittiri) and gulp it up. These pupils in the form of the tittiri birds swallowed up the Vedas as they came out of Yajnavalkya’s mouth. As it came out in the form of black vomit, it came to be known as Krishna (black) Yajur Veda.

Yajnavalkya then worshiped the Sun God strenuously in order to get back the possession of the knowledge of Yajur Veda. He requested Sun God to teach him even the parts of the Yajur Veda that were not known to his guru, Vaishampayana. The Sun God agreed to his request and taught him the Yajur Veda by assuming the form of a horse. While the Krishna Yajur eda that Vaishampayana had taught him had the Samhita and Brahmana portions jumbled together, the Yajur Veda that Surya taught him had them clearly separated. As this version of Yajur Veda was revealed by the Sun, it is called the Shukla Yajur Veda. 

Isavasya upanishad is a small upanishad containing 18 Mantras.  The upanishad derives its name from the first letter in the text.  The svaras for this upanishad are available now also and it is a popular upanishad for chanting in various modes viz, Krama, Jata, Gana etc.  This upanishad is considered as Mantropanishad or Samhita upanishad as it occurs in Mantra Bhagha.  The Brihadarnyaka upanishad that also occurs in the Sukla Yajur Veda occurs in Brahmana portion and is called a Brahmana Upanishad and this bigger upanishad is said to be an elaboration of this small upanishad. 

This is one of the ten upanishads coming under Dasopanishad for which Sri Sankara Bhagavatpada and other acharyas have written commentaries.  In fact enumeration of Dasopanishad starts with this upanishad as we saw earlier.  Though it is a small upanishad it is a very difficult upanishad for the words used in the upanishad do not follow the straight dictionary meaning and is open to different interpretations.  Without Sri Sankara Bhagavatpada’s interpretation it will be difficult to make sense out of them.  So though it is small it is not taken up first for study and taken up only after one or two other Upanishads which familiarises students with the Vedantic ideas and the way the Upanishads present them. 

This upanishad also opens with a Shanthi Mantra which is unique to Shukla Yajur Veda upanishads. This Shanthi Mantra is also very confusing when read as such.  But when interpreted we understand it contains the vedantic idea of Brahma Satyam, Jagan Mitya. The Shanthi Mantra with the straight meaning is as below:

Om Poornamadah Poornamidam Poornaat Poornam-Udachyate I

Poornasya Poorna-maadaaya Poorna-mevaa-vasishyate.I

Om shanthi, shanthi, shanthi II                                       

That is Whole; this is Whole; from that Whole this Whole becomes manifest. From the Whole when the Whole is taken out what remains is the Whole only. (Purnam here means not limited by time, space and object which means it is whole, infinite.) 

What it means is: - The invisible Brahman is whole, infinite; the visible world is also whole, infinite.  From the whole that is Brahman, the whole that is the visible universe has come.  Even after this whole that is the visible universe has come out of that Whole that is Brahman, the Brahman remains still the same Whole.  Idam, This, is a demonstrative pronoun, involving an effort to point out something which is within the grasp of sense experience.  It stands for this manifested universe of space and time and change. The totality of the external world in its impact upon the human mind is what is meant by the word Idam.   Adah, That, stands for the Brahman that transcends the space and time and does not undergo any change.  ‘This’ is correlative of ‘that’; ‘this’ is the changeable aspect of reality; ‘that’ is its unchangeable aspect.  If ‘this’ refers to something given in sense experience, ‘that’ refers to something transcendental, beyond the experience of the senses. The visible Universe is only an appearance, having only transactional reality, valid for experience only and does not stand investigation into its true nature and so creation is also a notion. Brahman is the only absolute reality, Satyam, and Universe is only mithya, apparent reality is the essence of this Shanthi Mantra.  The Shanthi Mantra ends with the traditional appeal for peace from the three types of obstacles, which are:

1)    Adhyathmikam – Obstacles arising from within oneself like one’s personal ill-health, negative mood etc. i.e. obstacles arising from oneself.

2)    Aadhi bauthikam – Obstacles arising from other known sources or external situations like ill-health of a family member, noisy neighbourhood etc. i.e. obstacles arising from one’s environs.

3)    Aadhi daivikam – obstacles arising from unseen sources like floods, storm etc. obstacles arising from nature.

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