What do you think?
Rate this book
Isavasya Upanishad Swami Sarvananda Sanskrit Text With Transliteration And Word To Wrod Meaning English Translation
This Upanishads constitutes the supreme achievement of Hindu thought. The sublimity of their soaring meditation, the infinite range of their outlook on life, their fearless exposition of Soul-consciousness, their determined assertion of the verities of Existence and lastly their broad synthesis of Knowledge and experience have all joined to evoke towards in the Hindu heart a feeling of profound awe and respect, and made it love them as Divine Revelations from the immemorial past. Moreover, to an aspirant of spiritual truth, this Upanishads shed a light unseen in any other scripture or literature of the world.
Paperback
First published January 28, 1949
1 person is currently reading
15 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 11, 2014
Certain facts..
Classified by Deussen as a poetic Upanishad,this forms the final chapter of Shukla Yajurveda. It is the shortest of all Upanishads and much popular among the laity. Many commentaries are available on this and the one I've read is by Mridananda Swamy,a disciple of Sree Ramakrisna Paramahamsa. Being a member of a group brings its own presuppositions(both positive and negative) and the same was the case here. Most of the interpretations are colored. But the importance of this interpretation(or more of a translation along with personal notes) lies in the fact that it was this series(this book along with interpretation of other Upanishads by the same author) that made Upanishads accessible to the common man of Kerala.
On the text..
The Upanishad starts with the popular verses,
isa vasyam idam sarvam
Yat kincha jagatyam jagat
Tena tyaktena bunjeeta
Ma grda kasyaswidhanam
It translates as,
Enveloped by the Lord must be This All — each thing that moves on earth.
With that renounced enjoy thyself. Covet no wealth of any man.
(Ralph.T.H.Griffith)
The notion that the world is filled with the presence of God isn't new to Indian and western philosophy. Nor is the concept of yajna which asks man to renounce everything. The third line,tena tyaktena bunjeeta,is the backbone of the concept of yajna. Gita says that all actions except those of yajna bounds you to the world.
yajnarthat karmanonyatra
Lokoyam karmabandhana
(3.9)
The Upanishad moves on from the concept of yajna to the nature of Atman or Brahman. It says,the one who sees the world in himself and himself in the world doesn't hurt anything. Nor is he worried by sensual desires or mental disturbances. The concept of the existence of the self in nature and nature in the self,that everything is one,is a notion which we can find throughout Vedas and Upanishads. It is also there in Gita which describes it beautifully as,
sarvabhutasthamatmanam
Sarvabhutanichatmani
Ikshate yogayuktatma
Sarvatra samadarsina
(6.29)
The Upanishad says that indulging in actions or gaining earthly knowledge(paravidya) won't take you to enlightenment. One has to crave for it like a lost child craves for his mother. This craving is what's called mumuksatvam,one of the four characteristics(sadhanachatustaya) of a seeker of wisdom. A similar craving can be found in Spinoza too,though in a different level. He says,
"..as a sick man struggling with a deadly disease,when he sees that death will surely be upon him unless a remedy be found,is compelled to seek such a remedy with all his strength,in as much as his whole hope lies therein."
(Improvement of the understanding. Trans. Elwes)
When one has this craving,the door of wisdom will be opened to him. The face of Truth is covered by a golden plate.
hiranmayena patrena
Satyasyapihitam mukham
But through training oneself in the right path and intense craving for it,one can surely attain enlightenment. And according to Vedanta,knowing Brahman is becoming Brahman.
brahmavid brahmaiva bhavati
Classified by Deussen as a poetic Upanishad,this forms the final chapter of Shukla Yajurveda. It is the shortest of all Upanishads and much popular among the laity. Many commentaries are available on this and the one I've read is by Mridananda Swamy,a disciple of Sree Ramakrisna Paramahamsa. Being a member of a group brings its own presuppositions(both positive and negative) and the same was the case here. Most of the interpretations are colored. But the importance of this interpretation(or more of a translation along with personal notes) lies in the fact that it was this series(this book along with interpretation of other Upanishads by the same author) that made Upanishads accessible to the common man of Kerala.
On the text..
The Upanishad starts with the popular verses,
isa vasyam idam sarvam
Yat kincha jagatyam jagat
Tena tyaktena bunjeeta
Ma grda kasyaswidhanam
It translates as,
Enveloped by the Lord must be This All — each thing that moves on earth.
With that renounced enjoy thyself. Covet no wealth of any man.
(Ralph.T.H.Griffith)
The notion that the world is filled with the presence of God isn't new to Indian and western philosophy. Nor is the concept of yajna which asks man to renounce everything. The third line,tena tyaktena bunjeeta,is the backbone of the concept of yajna. Gita says that all actions except those of yajna bounds you to the world.
yajnarthat karmanonyatra
Lokoyam karmabandhana
(3.9)
The Upanishad moves on from the concept of yajna to the nature of Atman or Brahman. It says,the one who sees the world in himself and himself in the world doesn't hurt anything. Nor is he worried by sensual desires or mental disturbances. The concept of the existence of the self in nature and nature in the self,that everything is one,is a notion which we can find throughout Vedas and Upanishads. It is also there in Gita which describes it beautifully as,
sarvabhutasthamatmanam
Sarvabhutanichatmani
Ikshate yogayuktatma
Sarvatra samadarsina
(6.29)
The Upanishad says that indulging in actions or gaining earthly knowledge(paravidya) won't take you to enlightenment. One has to crave for it like a lost child craves for his mother. This craving is what's called mumuksatvam,one of the four characteristics(sadhanachatustaya) of a seeker of wisdom. A similar craving can be found in Spinoza too,though in a different level. He says,
"..as a sick man struggling with a deadly disease,when he sees that death will surely be upon him unless a remedy be found,is compelled to seek such a remedy with all his strength,in as much as his whole hope lies therein."
(Improvement of the understanding. Trans. Elwes)
When one has this craving,the door of wisdom will be opened to him. The face of Truth is covered by a golden plate.
hiranmayena patrena
Satyasyapihitam mukham
But through training oneself in the right path and intense craving for it,one can surely attain enlightenment. And according to Vedanta,knowing Brahman is becoming Brahman.
brahmavid brahmaiva bhavati
June 30, 2018
The Isha Upanishad is the premier principal Upanishad of the Hindu canon. It consists of 18 verses and should not take one more than an hour to read, even with commentary.
It begins with the universal truth of God being within ourselves, the popular Eastern belief of the supremacy of renunciation, and then provides knowledge for people who cannot do the same, while maintaining that the former is a better life. However, it presents a quiet life of humble karma:
"You must seek to live a hundred years
Doing work(karma) here
There is no other way for you but this:
This way, bad karma may not cling to you"
It then goes on to describe the dark worlds of people who kill others/themselves — the difference between the two is ambiguous, if not irrelevant — either literally, or metaphorically by depriving themselves or others of knowledge or devotion.
Further, the anonymous collection of teachings describes this divine Self within all of us, using fitting contradictions:
"That moves, That does not move; That is far off, That is very near; That is inside all this, and That is also outside all this."
What follows from the above verse is a stoic realisation of the futility of man's grief and delusion. This man would then have conquered his own birth and death: and the Upanishad goes on to describe him as an Übermensch of the highest order. He is without body and mind, an eternal matter, for he resides within the laws of science and emanates, an element imperturbed, through the eons of the universe within and outside his mind.
" He has arranged objects according to their nature through eternal years."
So by verses 6-8, the Upanishad describes the nature and glory of the enlightened man. The ninth verse however produces an unexpected piece of wisdom, by criticising theoretical knowledge (understanding without action), and describing it as a deeper abyss than that of ignorance (action without understanding). Knowledge and work (vidya and karma) are more clearly separated from the other, and it is explained that neither of them forms a part of the other: they are both performed by different men for different results.
Knowledge here can also mean meditation and karma/work can mean rites, which opens the verses up to another interpretation. Then the Upanishad talks about the person who knows both knowledge and ignorance, he can achieve immortality by knowledge and overcome death by his ignorance.
In the twelfth verse and onwards, the knowledge-ignorance contradiction is used again for difference in worshipping the unmanifested nature (which will lead to a deeper darkness) compared to one who worships the manifested gods (confoundingly, a deeper darkness). The both achieve different results, and a proper enlightened individual must know both: this is derived by the verses using the same syntax as when describing the earlier knowledge-ignorance contradiction and ultimate balance.
Here, unmanifested and manifested can also be interpreted as life and death, or the unborn and destruction.
The fifteenth verse, one of my personal favourites, talks about the light, the vessel of enlightenment, the face of truth and escape from the material world:
"The face of Truth is covered by a golden vessel. Remove, O Sun, the covering, for the law of the Truth, That I may Behold it."
One is in oneself truth, and one can realise oneself to reveal ultimate truth.
To become one with the sun, to be one with its rays - the ancient desire of freedom, of walking on air.
" I see your light in its most beautiful person — that very person, I am he."
Glorious self-affirmations follow to bring this Upanishad(teaching) to an end in the same manner that it started.
Om, shanti shanti shanti.
It begins with the universal truth of God being within ourselves, the popular Eastern belief of the supremacy of renunciation, and then provides knowledge for people who cannot do the same, while maintaining that the former is a better life. However, it presents a quiet life of humble karma:
"You must seek to live a hundred years
Doing work(karma) here
There is no other way for you but this:
This way, bad karma may not cling to you"
It then goes on to describe the dark worlds of people who kill others/themselves — the difference between the two is ambiguous, if not irrelevant — either literally, or metaphorically by depriving themselves or others of knowledge or devotion.
Further, the anonymous collection of teachings describes this divine Self within all of us, using fitting contradictions:
"That moves, That does not move; That is far off, That is very near; That is inside all this, and That is also outside all this."
What follows from the above verse is a stoic realisation of the futility of man's grief and delusion. This man would then have conquered his own birth and death: and the Upanishad goes on to describe him as an Übermensch of the highest order. He is without body and mind, an eternal matter, for he resides within the laws of science and emanates, an element imperturbed, through the eons of the universe within and outside his mind.
" He has arranged objects according to their nature through eternal years."
So by verses 6-8, the Upanishad describes the nature and glory of the enlightened man. The ninth verse however produces an unexpected piece of wisdom, by criticising theoretical knowledge (understanding without action), and describing it as a deeper abyss than that of ignorance (action without understanding). Knowledge and work (vidya and karma) are more clearly separated from the other, and it is explained that neither of them forms a part of the other: they are both performed by different men for different results.
Knowledge here can also mean meditation and karma/work can mean rites, which opens the verses up to another interpretation. Then the Upanishad talks about the person who knows both knowledge and ignorance, he can achieve immortality by knowledge and overcome death by his ignorance.
In the twelfth verse and onwards, the knowledge-ignorance contradiction is used again for difference in worshipping the unmanifested nature (which will lead to a deeper darkness) compared to one who worships the manifested gods (confoundingly, a deeper darkness). The both achieve different results, and a proper enlightened individual must know both: this is derived by the verses using the same syntax as when describing the earlier knowledge-ignorance contradiction and ultimate balance.
Here, unmanifested and manifested can also be interpreted as life and death, or the unborn and destruction.
The fifteenth verse, one of my personal favourites, talks about the light, the vessel of enlightenment, the face of truth and escape from the material world:
"The face of Truth is covered by a golden vessel. Remove, O Sun, the covering, for the law of the Truth, That I may Behold it."
One is in oneself truth, and one can realise oneself to reveal ultimate truth.
To become one with the sun, to be one with its rays - the ancient desire of freedom, of walking on air.
" I see your light in its most beautiful person — that very person, I am he."
Glorious self-affirmations follow to bring this Upanishad(teaching) to an end in the same manner that it started.
Om, shanti shanti shanti.
July 21, 2020
Cantor set right in the first verse
Fascinating appendix. Karma, action, and jnana, knowledge have been two ways to know the Brahman, through samihitas/brahmanyas and aranyakas/upanishads respectively. Only later these were identified as non-overlapping magesteria of mimamsa and vedanta. Isha seems like an effort to reconcile the two, literary history places it much later accordingly.
Ever-steady, it outstrips all that run: speed of light and space itself expanding faster than the speed of light.
Consigned to darkness those obsessed with avidya (not ignorance but pure ritual), but consigned to more darkness those obsessed with vidya (ritualistic philosophy)
Conquering death is not the same as immortality. Conquer death by knowledge of avidya (ritual), get amrutam or immortality by knowledge of vidya.
Krato smara, krutam smara. Translated as ‘mind! Remember deeds’, as the body turns to ashes at the time of death. Why not, as body turns to ash, remember the mind, remember deeds. Mind as internal record of existence, and deeds as external record? The entire line sounds meditative, om krato smara krutam smara krato smara krutam smara, I start with the Om and then I’m breathing in and out. Or I’m repeating this over and over, getting fainter and fainter until I disappear altogether. It is the last thing to go, after the body turns to ash, the mind and then deeds also fade out of collective memory?
Fascinating appendix. Karma, action, and jnana, knowledge have been two ways to know the Brahman, through samihitas/brahmanyas and aranyakas/upanishads respectively. Only later these were identified as non-overlapping magesteria of mimamsa and vedanta. Isha seems like an effort to reconcile the two, literary history places it much later accordingly.
Ever-steady, it outstrips all that run: speed of light and space itself expanding faster than the speed of light.
Consigned to darkness those obsessed with avidya (not ignorance but pure ritual), but consigned to more darkness those obsessed with vidya (ritualistic philosophy)
Conquering death is not the same as immortality. Conquer death by knowledge of avidya (ritual), get amrutam or immortality by knowledge of vidya.
Krato smara, krutam smara. Translated as ‘mind! Remember deeds’, as the body turns to ashes at the time of death. Why not, as body turns to ash, remember the mind, remember deeds. Mind as internal record of existence, and deeds as external record? The entire line sounds meditative, om krato smara krutam smara krato smara krutam smara, I start with the Om and then I’m breathing in and out. Or I’m repeating this over and over, getting fainter and fainter until I disappear altogether. It is the last thing to go, after the body turns to ash, the mind and then deeds also fade out of collective memory?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews