Isavasya Upanishad – 3

Mantras 4 to 8 

Mantras 4 & 5, give Athma Swarupa lakshanam.  Since Athma cannot be objectified, a straight description of Athma is not possible.  So the upanishad speaks in paradoxes, which make one pause and think deeply about them.  In Zen Buddhism such types of paradoxes are employed to make one think and meditate on them, to arrive at the meaning intuitively rather than through logic and reason.  Now science also employs such paradoxes in its description of the nature of sub-atomic particles.  Mantra 4 reads as:

Anejadekam manasoh javeeyoh nainat devah apnuvanpoorvamarshat I

tat dhavatoh anyaanatyeti tishthat tasminapoh maatariswa dadhati. II (Mantra 4)

The Self is one and motionless, but is faster than the mind. The senses could not overtake It, since It had run ahead of them.  Remaining stationary, It outruns all other runners.  It being there, Prana sakthi supports all activities.

Athma is one and all pervading.  As it is all pervading, like space, it has nowhere to go and so It is motionless. As It is all pervading, wherever the mind reaches, Athma is already there and so it is ‘as though’ faster than the mind.  Further Athma is not an object or concept.  So mind cannot catch It.   The same with the senses and it looks ‘as though’ It had run ahead of them to reach the sense object.  Though motionless, as it is in all places, being all-pervading, nothing can overtake it.  Maatariswa, Vayu, stands for Prana sakthi.  Prana sakthi, at vyeshti, individual, level is kriya sakthi and at samashti, collective, level is Hiranyagarbha.  Both Hiranyagarbha and Prana function only in the presence of Athma, as Athma only lends sentiency to them, and by themselves they are insentient, being a product of Pancha bhuthas.  

Mantra 5 reads as:

Tat ejati tat na ejati tat doore tadhvantike I

tat antahrasya sarvasya tadhu sarvasyasya baahyatah II (Mantra 5)

The Athma moves and It moves not; It is far and It is near; It is within all this and It is also outside all this.

Athma is pure Consciousness.  Consciousness is not experienced in its pure form.  Consciousness experienced through the mind is called sophadhika Chaitanyam, while Consciousness in the pure form is called nirupadhika Chaitanyam.  As sophadhika Chaitanyam, it appears to move with the body; while nirupadhika Chaitanyam does not move. In a lighthouse the light seems to move while it is only the case around it with holes that moves and not the light.  Though Athma is Brahman, for an Ajnani, Brahman is far away from him, farther than the farthest, while for Jnani only It is very near, nearer than the nearest, being his own Self.  Brahman, that is Athma, is Sat, Chit and Anantha and it is realised inside as Chit and experienced outside as Sat. It is also outside for a searching person, ajnani, and inside for a knowing person, jnani.   Sri Krishna echoes these ideas in Gita (13-15), with the phrases “Bahirantashcha bhootaanaam, acharam charameva cha (Without and within (all) beings, the unmoving and also the moving)” while describing Brahman.  From these two Mantras 4 & 5 we understand that Athma is all-pervading, the one behind the many and the one sustaining the many.

Mantras 6 and 7, give the benefit of Athma jnanam.  Mantras 6 and 7 read as:

Yastu sarvani bhutani athmani eva anupasyati I

sarva bhutheshu cha athmanam tatoh na vijugupsate II (Mantra 6) 

He, who sees all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings, feels no hatred for any being.

Yasmin sarvaani bhutani athmaivabhoot vijaanatah I

tatra koh mohah kah shokah ekatvam anu-pasyatah. II (Mantra 7)

What delusion can there be to one who realizes all beings as his own Self?  What grief can there be to the one who sees oneness only everywhere?

We hate something we do not like.  We get deluded when we mistakenly see one thing as another.  We feel sad when we lose something we like or get something we do not like or we do not get something we like.  When you attain Self-realization, you transcend the pairs of opposites like good and bad, like and dislike, pleasure and sorrow etc. This comes from the attitudinal change which is the result of realization of oneness with all and disidentification with body-mind complex as Self.  Fear, hatred, dislikes all come only when there is another.  In the vision of Oneness, there is no duality, as there is no second being other than Self.  So the mind experiences a sense of unbroken tranquillity in all types of circumstances. Line 2 of Mantra 6 gives the first stage when one sees Athma in everything, Athma bahuthvam.  Here anathma is the container and Athma is the content.  The second stage is stated in the first line when one sees everything in Athma, Athma Ekathvam.  Here Athma is the container and all anathma are the content of this one Athma. The third stage is AthmaBrahmatvam given in Mantra 7, where Athma alone is there as Brahman and anathma in total is negated as mithya,.  This is the stage of Jeevanmuktha and his vision is called sarvathmabhava. This was seen as Iswara Drishti in the first Mantra.

Mantra 8 sums up the Brahmalakshanam, in its Nirguna and Saguna aspects:

Sah paryagaat shukram akaayam avranam

asnaaviragm suddham apapa-viddham I

kavih maneeshee paribhooh, swayambhooh

yaathaa-tathyatah arthaan vyadadhaat shaashwateebhyah samaabhyah.II(Mantra 8)

Brahman is all-pervasive, self-effulgent, bodiless, without wound, without muscles, pure, untouched by papa, omniscient, omnipotent, transcendental, self-existent.  He alone has allotted to the eternal creators (prajapathis) their respective duties.

He is self effulgent as in His light only, everything else, including sun, moon, stars and Agni are revealed, while no external source is needed to reveal Him.  Akaayam, bodiless, means He does not have sukshma sareeram.  Avranam, without wound, and asnaaviragm, without muscles, mean He does not have sthula sareeram. Suddham, pure,  means he does not have the karana sareeram which has the impurity of ignorance. In short He is free from sareera triam. As He is the karmaphala dhata, He is beyond karmaphala like papa and punya.  All knowledge emanate from Him and all power flow from Him. He is the causeless cause of all effects.   His is the power that is behind the entire natural phenomenon, the movement of the planets, the regularity of the seasons, the harmony in nature and the rhythm of life.  Of these; all-pervasive, self-effulgent, bodiless, without wound, without muscles,, pure, untouched by papa, transcendental, self-existent  describe Nirguna Brahman and the rest Saguna Brahman or Iswara.

With this the Jnana Yoga portion comes to an end and from next Mantra the commentary on Mantra 2 starts which we shall see in the next blog.

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