Commentary on the Isavasya Upanishad - 19. Swami Krishnananda.

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Thursday, 11 Jan 2024 06:30.

SCRIPTURES

UPANISHADS

ISAVASYA UPANISHAD

Post-19.

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Mantram - 3.

Devilish are the worlds covered over by dense darkness, which are reached by those who have killed their Self. The regions experienced by the destroyers of the Self, i.e., those who are ignorant of the Self, are devilish or godless because they are destitute of purity and light, devoid of sattva-guna, cut off from the knowledge of Truth. They are devilish because experiences there are extremely painful and antagonistic to the Divine Presence. People who reject the Divine Self and love the undivine matter, which is subjectively called the body and objectively the world, have such experiences as are characterised by extreme repentance for having committed the evil of not knowing the Self. The asuras or the devils are those who have deserted the One Immutable Being.

In this sense all individuals are asuras in different degrees, because they experience the material sheaths or the bodies. These realms of these unfortunate beings are enveloped by dense darkness in the night of the Self. A desire that is a desertion of Truth takes a form later which gives very unpleasant experiences to the desirer, because his experience is opposite to Absolute-Experience. Such people grope in spiritual darkness or blindness, which is the mother of sorrow. Into such dark regions do these who are untrue to their Self enter. They get bad births. A bad birth is a condition of life where craving is the ruler, where mistake is the governing law, where confusion and delusion are the factors controlling life, where evil is perpetrated and intense sorrow is experienced. This is the fruit of not knowing Truth and catching untruth, the result of the wandering of the jiva in the waterless desert of samsara, the effect of eating the forbidden fruit, the fruit of mental and sensuous contacts which sow the seed of the torture of transmigration.

A world or a region is called a loka, which means etymologically a condition of experience where everything that is sown is reaped, whether sweet or bitter. A person can experience the fruits of his actions even in this very life. Only extremely powerful actions that give rise to such intense results as cannot be experienced by this present body are reserved for future births. Many times a very intense desire is fulfilled at once. Mild desires are fulfilled later on. Therefore a world of experience is not so much an independently real objective mass of matter as a field of experience where individuals find the required atmosphere to manifest and experience the results of their thoughts and actions.

Destroying the Self means not to be aware of the Self, to feel it as non-existent and consequently reject it. Since, however, it is not possible to reject the Self completely, – for it is not essentially different from him who rejects it, – this rejection takes the form of sense-contacts accelerated by mental desires. Sensuousness being an undivine condition the experiences consequent upon it are devilish and tormenting. The mantra teaches therefore that knowledge of the Self is absolutely necessary in order to transcend the recurring pains of birth, life and death.

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Next

Mantram - 4.

To be continued

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