Isavasya Upanishad – 2

Mantras 1,2 & 3

The upanishad starts with the following Mantra, after the Shanthi Mantra:

 Eesa vasyam-idagam sarvam yat kim cha jagatyam jagat I

Tena tyaktena bhunjeetha ma gridhah kasya svit dhanam. II (Mantra 1)

 Everything in this changing world must be covered by Iswara.  With that feeling of renunciation, enjoy the world.  Do not covet anybody’s wealth.

The opening two words of the first Mantra, Isa vasyam, is used to give the name for the Upanishad as Isavasya Upanishad.  The Upanishad is also referred to as Isa Upanishad using the first word alone.  This Mantra talks of the path of knowledge and inner renunciation. Iswara is Brahman with karanam status for the creation of this Jagat, the constantly changing universe. So the universe is the karyam and karyam is only karanam plus nama, rupa, i.e. name and form.  As karanam pervades the karyam, and nama, rupa have no substance, the real nature of the universe is only Iswara. So the Mantra asks us to look at the Universe as pervaded by Iswara, and this vision is called Iswara Drishti.  This Iswara Drishti is what is meant by ‘covering the world with Iswara’.  So everything revealed by our senses is Iswara and Iswara only with different names and forms.  ”Yad kincha Jagatyam Jagat” in Mantra means everything in the universe without exception.  Sri Krishna echoes this idea only in the first line of Gita (6-30) where he states: “Yo maam pasyati sarvatra sarvam cha mayi pashyati (He who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me)”   As everything is Iswara, there is no ‘my’ or ‘mine’ and this mental renunciation is called inner renunciation.  With karya dhrishti i.e. jagat dhristi, you see the universe and not Iswara. Only with karana dhrishti i.e. Iswara dhrishti, Iswara can be seen as pervading everything in and of the Universe. With this Iswara Dhrishti only you enjoy the world treating whatever you partake of the world as a blessing of Iswara and with a sense of gratitude to Iswara. As everything is of Iswara only, don’t entertain any sense of possession with regard to persons and things. Tena tyakthena means with a sense of detachment.  You function in this world without getting attached to objects or persons.  As a corollary you do not have a desire for other’s possessions as well, whatever that may be.  Dhanam stands for all possessions. This teaching is for persons with vairagyam and Jnanam.  The person may be involved in worldly karmas but then his attitude will be one of detachment and inner renunciation. This is called Jnana marga, which is also called Nivritti marga.

If the first Mantra talks about Nivritti marga, the second Mantra talks about Pravritti marga or karma marga.  The second Mantra is:

Kurvan eva iha karmaani, jijeevishet shatagm samaah I  

evam tvayi na anyathaa itah asti, na karma lipyate nare. II (Mantra 2).

By doing one’s ordained karmas, one should desire to live for hundred years.  For a man such as you (who wants to live for hundred years) there is no other way.  By living thus, karma does not cling to you.”

The second Mantra is for others who cannot follow the Jnana marga but who lead a dharma pradhana life and the path prescribed is called karma marga or pravritti marga.  You do whatever duties prescribed for your station in life namely pancha maha yajnas, without swerving from dharma and without seeking worldly benefits i.e. nishkama and desire to live well your allotted span of life.  Here hundred years stands for one’s allotted span of life and Nishkama is seeking chiththa suddhi only, through Iswara’s Grace.  The pancha maha yajnas are: Deva yajna, worship and prayer; Pitru Yajna, karma for forefathers; Brahma Yajna, study, chanting and teaching of scriptures; Manushya Yajna, service to fellow-men, society and family duties; Bhutha Yajna, service to all non-human living beings like animals, plants.   This way the karma phala does not attach to him.  He is addressed as nare to show he has no vairagya or Jnanam and though he is not free from attachments, he leads a dharma pradhana life, interested in moksha purushartha.  This idea Sri Krishna conveys in the first line of Gita (18-45) which runs as: “Swe swe karmanyabhiratah samsiddhim labhate narah (Each man, devoted to his own duty, attains perfection)”.

The first two Mantras contain the essential teaching of the upanishad.  Mantras 3 to 8 are said to be a commentary on Mantra 1 and Mantras 9 to 18 a commentary on Mantra 2.   Of these two Mantras (Mantras 1&2), Mantra 1 is interpreted as addressed to persons in Sanyasa ashrama and Mantra 2 to persons in Grahastha ashrama.  In the first Mantra, the first line and part second line i.e. “Eesa vasyam-idagam sarvam yat kim cha jagatyam jagat I Tena tyaktena bhunjeetha” is to be treated as addressed to Vidwat Sanyasi, Sanyasi  with Jnanam, and  the rest, “ma gridhah kasya svit dhanam”  to Vividhisha Sanyasi, Sanyasi seeking Jnanam.

The next Mantra i.e. Mantra 3, is a criticism of Athma ajnanam through criticism of Athma ajnani.  In this Mantra we cannot take the literal meaning. The Mantra with the literal meaning is as below:

Asuryah nama te lokah andhena tamasa avritaah I

tam te pretya abhi-gachanti e ke cha athma hanah janah II (Mantra 3)

The worlds of asuras are covered by blinding darkness.  Those people that kill their Athma go to these worlds after death. 

Those who are ignorant of Athma as their true self do not have the feeling of Purnathvam, which comes with the knowledge that Athma that is Purna, eternal and not subject to changes like birth, and death, disease and old age is their real Self.  Consequently they imagine that the body-mind complex is their real self, and suffer samsara with its corollaries of insecurity, non-fulfilment, fear of disease, old age and death.  It is as if Athma does not exist for them and they are figuratively described as killers of their Athma.  Atmahana can be translated also as suicide.  Here it is spiritual suicide.  In ordinary suicide one kills one’s own body, which is external to one’s real Self while in spiritual suicide it is as though one kills one’s real Self itself.   Since they do not gain AthmaJnanam in this birth, they do not get liberation and at death go to one of the fourteen worlds and suffer samsara there. Sri Krishna states in Gita (8-16): “Aabrahmabhuvanaallokaah punaraavartino’rjuna (O Arjuna, all the worlds together with the world of Brahma are subject to return)” i.e. all worlds from Brahma Loka downwards are subject to return and one who goes there is not free from the cycle of birth and death.  So all these worlds are called the worlds of asuras.  Asurya can be also interpreted as where sun does not shine and so there will be total darkness as in the interior of a cave.  Here the darkness is darkness of Ajnana, spiritual blindness.  As they cannot attain liberation, even in Brahma Loka where to qualify for krama mukthi they must acquire Brahma Jnanam there, these worlds are called worlds of blinding darkness.  So the meaning for this Mantra 3 is to be interpreted as: - Death is no relief for the ones who do not gain Athmajnanam, as they will be reborn to suffer the pangs of samsara again and again until they acquire AthmaJnanam. 

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