Isavasya Upanishad – 5

Mantras 15 to 18

Mantras 15 to 18 are prayers. These Mantras are prayers offered by one who is doing karma upasana samuchaya that was glorified in Mantras 9 to 11 and prayers are addressed to Surya devata.  These prayers are uttered in the final moments before death, what Gita calls in chapter 8 as ‘prayanakale’.  This Jiva is one who after death travels to Brahma Loka and attains krama mukthi at the time of next pralaya. His path to Brahma Loka, which is presided over by Hiranyagarbha, is given in Gita chapter 8 as Shukla gathi, and Surya devatha, the presiding deity over light principle, is the guiding devata for Shukla gathi along with Agni devata.  Shukla gathi passes through solar disc.  In Mantra 15, the samuchaya kartha requests the path be clear for him to travel to Brahma Loka. Mantra 15 is:

Hiranmayena paatrena satyasyapihitam mukham I

Tat twam pooshan apaavrinu satyadharmaaya drishtaye.II (Mantra 18)  

The face of the Truth is covered by a golden disc.  O Sun! remove it so that I may behold the Truth I am striving for.

Here also some words need interpretation before we can see the meaning. ‘Sathyam’, stands for Hiranyagarbha who presides over Brahma Loka and ‘mukham’ means gateway. So he prays that the path to Brahma Loka be free for him, one who has practised dharma and truth all his life.  The same Mantra can also be viewed as a regular prayer of a mumukshu by interpreting ‘Sathyam’ as Brahman and ‘hiranmayena pathrena’ as material attractions and possessions. Then it will mean” Take away the distraction of material attractions from me, one who is committed to Brahmajnanam, and let me have the mind to pursue the path to Moksha” 

The upaska has done Ahamgriha upasana, in which the upasana deity is invoked on upasaka’s body. So in Mantra 16, when Surya devata in response to his prayers tones down its heat gathering up its rays to enable him to see His benign form, he sees only himself as the Purusha in the Surya mandala.  This is only a bhavana, a mental visualization of samashti vyeshti Ikyam, arising out of the Ahamgriha upasana and not Ikya Jnanam.  In the case of mumukshu, this Mantra 16 can be interpreted to mean   “Please take away the veil of Maya and shower me with Your Grace to obtain JnanaNishta.”  So though the Mantras 15 &16 are the entreaties of the karma upasana samuchaya kartha in the final moments of life, it can be chanted by others also without reservations as they can be interpreted to suit others as well.

In Mantra 17, which is the first of the two prayers addressed to Agni devata, the samuchaya kartha reveals that he is not afraid of death, by saying ‘now let this body be reduced to ashes’; he only prays that his prana, vyeshti prana,  merge with Hiranyagarbha, samashti prana.  He states ‘kratho smara, krathagam smara’ twice, The first phrase is addressed to Agni devata asking him to remember all the vaidhika karmas done by him, as all the karmas are done in its presence only. The second phrase is addressed to his mind asking it to remember the upasana devata and not to be distracted by other things at the time of death.  Only by keeping the mind fixed on upasana devata without any distractions at the time of death, the upaska reaps the full benefit of the upasana.

In the second Mantra in the prayer to Agni devata which is also the last Mantra of the Upanishad i.e. Mantra 18, the samuchaya upaska prays for all such samuchaya karthas, taking a broad outlook eschewing the narrowness of praying for himself only. Mantra 18 is:

Agne naya supathaa raaye asmaan viswaani deva vayunaani vidwan I

Yuyodhi asmat juhuranam enoh bhooyishtam te nama-uktim vidhema. II(Mantra 18)

Oh Agni, lead us by the good path for the enjoyment of the fruit of our action. Oh God, You know all our deeds. Destroy our sin of deceit. We offer to You this, our best prayer.

We can interpret the prayer as: “O Agni devata, lead us along Shukla Gathi so that we can reap the fruits of our karma upasana samuchaya, i.e. krama Mukthi.  Please wipe off our crooked sins that will stand in the way.  We offer you our verbal salutations again and again.”  Since he is in the death bed he can only offer verbal prostrations. As one heavy with sins tends to gravitate back to earth, he prays for the cancellation of sins.  With this prayer the upanishad ends. Let us see a short summary of the Upanishad as almost all the Mantras needed interpretation.

The upanishad opened with a summary of Jnana yoga.  Jnana Yoga involves a shift in vision. This shift can be seen in three stages. The first stage is of world only vision.  With growing spiritual maturity, the vision shits to one of world and god. On realisation it becomes God only vision, which is called Iswara Drishti, the topic of first Mantra.  The second Mantra gave a synopsis of Karma Yoga.  This also can be seen in three stages; Material action only, material action and religious action, and religious action only.  In that third stage, referred to in the Mantra, whatever action is done it is done as an act of worship, dedicated to God. When thoughts, words and actions are dedicated to God, one is careful to perform dharmic actions only i.e. speak, think and act  good only.  In third Mantra, there is a warning that if one does not realise as in Mantra 1 or take steps to realise as in Mantra 2, one commits as if spiritual suicide. Mantras 4 & 5 speak of Athma lakshanam, Mantras 6 & 7 benefits of Athma Jnanam and 8 Nirguna, Saguna Brahma lakshanam. The first triad of Mantras 9, 10 and 11 glorifies karma upasana samuchaya over kevala karma and kevala upasana. The second triad of Mantras 12, 13 and 14 glorifies the samuchaya of two upasanas namely Hiranyagarbha upasana and Prakrithi upasana over individual upasanas. The last four Mantras i.e. 15, 16, 17, and 18 are prayers offered by karma upasana samuchaya kartha to Surya devata and Agni devata, the guardians of shukla gathi, the path to Brahma Loka for attaining krama mukthi. These prayers seek to keep the passage to Brahma Loka clear and smooth, free of obstacles due to any residual sin for the samuchaya kartha. This, in brief, is the summary of Isavasya Upanishad. 

Acknowledgement

While concluding the series of blogs on Isavasyopanishad I wish to record my deep debt of gratitude to the speeches and writings on Isavasyopanishad, of:

1)    Swami Paramarthananda

2)    Swami Gurubhakthananda

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