Commentary on the Isa Vasya Upanishad: 18. Swami Krishnananda.

Chinmaya Mission:

On 6th Sept, at Chinmaya Mission New Zealand, a special Youth Workshop was conducted under the guidance of Swami Aprokshanandaji on the theme of Self-Image. The session shed light on the powerful truth that one’s self-image is not defined by external factors but is consciously created by the individual. Swamiji emphasized how the choice of perspective plays a vital role in shaping this image and how a shift in outlook can transform the way a person relates to themselves and the world. Through engaging explanations and practical examples, participants were encouraged to reflect deeply, reframe their thinking, and embrace a healthier sense of identity. The atmosphere was filled with enthusiasm, openness, and thoughtful discussions, making it a truly interactive learning space. The Mission expressed heartfelt gratitude to Swamiji for his invaluable wisdom and guidance and extended appreciation to the youth participants for their eagerness to learn and their contribution to creating an environment of growth, reflection, and inspiration.

======================================================================================

Sunday 14, Sep 2025, 05:30.
Article
Scriptures
Commentary on the Isa Vasya Upanishad: 18.
Part-3.
Swami Krishnananda
POST: 18.

======================================================================================

In that manner, live in this world. Thus the world will free you from its clutches. Mrityu, death, will not any more harass you because death, which goes together with birth, is a consequence of the karmas of the past. As long as the karmas of the past germinate into action, life in this world and the body will continue to exist, with all its involvements in life. Knowing this, one has to discharge the debt through the body in respect of the world – but be not attached.

The knowledge which is referred to here as the counterpart of action, resorting to which entirely, unconnected with action, is supposed to lead one to greater darkness, is theoretical knowledge. It is imagining in the mind, like building castles in the air: I am not this body, I have no connection with this world, I have no connection with anybody, I have no relation to any person in the world, this body is not me. There are people who chant mantra-like statements of this kind, which cut no ice because what is the use of merely saying “I am not this body”, when we know we are the body? That knowledge, which is mere adumbration of a false notion entertained conceptually – not actually a freedom from the body that is realised, but a mere thought in the mind together with the entanglement in the body – such a knowledge will take us to greater darkness because it is hypocrisy. It is hypocritical contemplation to imagine theoretically “I am the Atman”, while we know that the body pinches with every kind of pain in this world. We have hunger and thirst, and terror of every kind in this world. The body experiences them. As long as this consciousness of the existence of the body is with us, we cannot say that we are not the body. Merely saying, or chanting a mantra-like type of conceptualisation that is theoretical, scriptural, will make a person go to greater darkness, because the bondage will not cease. They will take birth once again, and because of the egoism with which they started this kind of theoretic contemplation – a hypocrisy, as it were – they will entangle themselves once again in rebirth, and continue to do the same work to which they were subjected earlier.

What is the solution? The solution is also mentioned in the Upanishad. We have to work with knowledge, and not simply work without knowledge. We should not only have knowledge, minus work. Both should be known together as a blend.

Here, in these mantras of the Isavasya Upanishad, we seem to have a seed of the gospel of the Bhagavadgita, where Sri Krishna hammers into the mind of the student Arjuna that karma should be based on buddhi, or sankhya. Yoga is an expression of sankhya. Yoga is action, sankhya is knowledge. Arjuna knew what action was, but he did not know what knowledge was. He was considering the pros and cons of activity. The gains and losses, the loves and the hatreds involved in action, were before his mind's eye. But he did not know; he had no sankhya. He had no knowledge as to why he had this sentiment of love and hatred inside, and the idea of gain and loss outside. Sri Krishna reprimanded Arjuna, “You are lacking sankhya.” Sankhya buddhi was not there. Here in a little passage, in a two-line instruction of the Isavasya Upanishad, we have a premonition, as it were, of the great gospel of the Bhagavadgita.

*****

Continue

===============================================================================================