Commentary on the Isavasya Upanishad - 25. ( ENDS) Swami Krishnananda.

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Friday 29, Mar 2024 06:30.

SCRIPTURES

UPANISHADS

ISAVASYA UPANISHAD

Post-25.

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Mantram-15:

The face of Truth is covered by a golden vessel. O Sun! Remove that for me whose law is to behold the Truth. The results achieved by human means and heavenly means end in the state of prakriti-laya. This is the end and the highest achievement in samsara. moksha is, however, different from and beyond this. It requires the total destruction of desires. Those who cannot attain moksha immediately attain it gradually through the passage of the Sun. This mantra and the next mantra are a prayer to the Sun for allowing one passage across to the Divine Being. Truth is veiled over by a vessel of gold. The essential consciousness within the Sun is hidden by the external disc which dazzles the eyes of the beholder. That which we see in the Sun is not what is within the Sun. That which is outside covers what is inside. Brahman within the Sun is covered over by the golden disc that alone is seen. It also means that the whole universe of creation with all its names and forms is a golden vessel. Gold shines and attracts the beholder. The world of names and forms attracts the mind, and the Truth within is not seen. My law is this Truth. My vision is based on Truth; it is the perception of Truth. This perception is not sense-perception but perception whose law is Truth, i.e., spiritual perception free from the processes of the seer, seeing and seen. Withdraw your rays, O shining God; do not tempt me with what you are not, allow me to pass through the present experiences to the true experience of the Spirit; let me behold what you are really.

Mantram - 16:

O All-sustaining Lord! O Wise One! O Controller of all! O Absorber of everything! O Son of Prajapati! Collect and remove your rays; let me behold that most auspicious luminous form of yours, for I am that purusha within you. The prayer implies that the realisation of the Self is not attained as a result of begging or borrowing, but it is the attainment of what belongs to oneself. It is the inheritance of one's right and becoming what truly befits oneself and in fact what oneself is. However much one may beg or pray, one cannot get what is not one's. Hence Self-realisation is knowing oneself.

Mantram - 17:

Let the breath go to the immortal prana. Let the body be reduced to ashes. O mind, remember your deeds. This is a prayer for the dissolution of the individual principle of breathing, i. e., the individual prana, in the cosmic immortal prana or Hiranyagarbha. The body is burnt and goes to the earth. The meaning is that the effects shall go to the causes. The subtle body purified by karma and upasana rises to the Sun in order to pass through it. The word kratu means sacrifice or the divinity of the sacrifice or upasana or the divinity of upasana or the mind that performs the upasana. Kratu is a sacrifice, and upasana also is a sacrifice, because it is an act. The actions done by a person are witnessed by the divinity presiding over the sacrifice. The prayer is to this divinity so that He may remember what fate is to befall this person after death in accordance with his actions. Here Agni is prayed to as the chief priest of the sacrifice and the witnessing divinity of the sacrifice. It may also be a prayer to the mind to remember its deeds like upasana, etc., for the time of remembering has now come. 

Mantram - 18:

O Agni! Lead us along the right path for the sake of the attainment of the Supreme. O God! You possess universal knowledge; destroy our crooked sins. We offer to you our best salutations. This is a prayer to the witness of all actions done by an individual, for taking him along the bright path of the gods, after passing along which there is no return to mortality. Agni here stands, for the principle of intelligence which guides all thoughts and actions; it is the gateway to universal knowledge. Agni is like a torch that illuminates the path of krama-mukti. There are several guardians of this path, who become greater and superior as one advances along, until at last an immortal person guides the soul. Agni is one of the guides on the path.

Salutation to Agni means the offering of the best tribute and homage to Agni. Salutation to another signifies the desire to unite with another. Salutation is that which pleases one the best. Instead of offering physical objects, that which gives immediate satisfaction is offered. 

Conclusion

The Isavasyopanishad advises the combination of action with objective knowledge and not with Absolute knowledge. The Absolute is always opposed to objectiveness. Action and Absolute knowledge differ from one another in their causes, natures and results. Action is caused by the sense of imperfection. Its nature is distraction and its result is perishable. Knowledge is caused by perfection. Its nature is peace and its result is eternal. Hence action and knowledge are different from one another. It is not possible to say that action can be combined with knowledge in the beginning, though not in the end, because the moment there is the dawn of knowledge there is the cessation of action. It is not possible for fire to be hot and cold at the same time. Knowledge cannot co-exist with its opposite, viz., action that is characterised by motion. Knowledge is motionless. When the cause of action, viz., ignorance, is removed, all its effects also are removed.

Further, if the Upanishad had propounded the combination of action with Absolute knowledge, there would be no meaning in the aspirant's asking for a passage through the Sun after the attainment of Absolute knowledge. Absolute knowledge gives rise to immediate realisation or Sadyo-mukti. The fact that the prayer is for passing through a passage shows that the dying person has not yet attained Absolute knowledge. Hence the combination of action is only with relative knowledge, for, in Absolute knowledge there is no passing to any region, and there is no motion, whatever. Absoluteness means existence merely, and not changing or moving.

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Next

KENOPANISHAD

Introductory

Continued

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