Upanishad

Up - Near
Ni - Nishchay Se - Undoubtedly
Shad - 3 dhaatu - gati, himsa, avsaran - Dheela karna -
This knowledge gives us strength to detach oneself from the Maya. The worldly woes stop bothering us once we have the knowledge. Agyaan is Apoorna gyan. No full knowledge about the world, self, God.

Half knowledge is more harmful. This knowledge is useful for those seeking knowledge.

Upanishad is not the name of a book, but the knowledge contained in the vedas.

White Yajurvedas contain the Upanishad and the 40th adhyay is Ishavasyam.


Karma is essential. What is the objective of Karma? We wrongly believe it is to better this world or helping someone, This is completely untrue. We are here for ourselves. Ego. I. is inseparable from us. Lack of Karma is heavy on the conscience. Objective of karma is the cleansing of the conscience.

om purnam adah purnam idam
purnat purnam udachyate
purnasya purnam adaya
purnam eva vashishyate

Adah- that
Idam - This
Purnam- Complete.

That as well as this both are complete.

Purnaat Purnam udachyate
Completeness or the whole emerges from the whole.

Pooransysa Poornam adaya
If you remove the whole from the whole..

Purnameva vashishyate..
The completeness or wholeness remains.

This is so visible from observing the Universe. Einstein proved that energy can neither be created not destroyed. It can only be transformed from one form to another.

“The Self is one. Unmoving, it moves swifter than thought. The senses do not overtake it, for always it goes before. Remaining still, it outstrips all that run. Without the Self, there is no life.”

ishavasyam idam sarvam

yat kincha jagatyam jagat

tena tyaktena bhunjitha

ma gridhah kasya svid dhanam

The Lord is enshrined in the hearts of all.
The Lord is the supreme Reality.
Rejoice in him through renunciation.
Covet nothing. All belongs to the Lord.

कुर्वन्नेवेह कर्माणि जिजीविषेत् सतं समाः
एवं त्वयि नान्यथेतोऽस्ति न कर्म लिप्यते नरे…

kurvanneveha karmāṇi jijīviṣet sataṃ samāḥ
evaṃ tvayi nānyatheto'sti na karma lipyate nare…

‘In the world, one should desire to live a hundred years, but only by performing actions. Thus, and in no other way, can man be free from the taint of actions.’

असुर्य नाम ते लोका अन्धेन तमसावृताः ।
तांस्ते प्रेत्याभिगच्छन्ति ये के चात्महनो जनाः ॥

asurya nāma te lokā andhena tamasāvṛtāḥ |
tāṃste pretyābhigacchanti ye ke cātmahano janāḥ ||

‘In to the worlds of the asuras, devils, enveloped in blinding darkness, verily do they go after death who are slayers of the Atman, the Self.’

In this verse we are warned as to what happens to us if we forget and neglect the Atman, if we ignore It, and live merely trivial lives. A deep philosophical truth is couched in mythical, symbolic language. Life lived without the consciousness of our divine nature is trivial; it is life of darkness and sorrow. The word ‘darkness’ used in this verse is not physical darkness, but the darkness of ignorance; it is spiritual blindness. The verse compares this darkness to hell. In myths, hell is abode of the asuras, the demons. An alternating reading is asurya, literally ‘without sunlight’, absolute darkness. Imagine a cavern which has been dark from the beginning of time, a place where the rays of the sun have never penetrated. What would be the condition of a man if he had to spend his whole life in such a cavern? Such is the condition of one who passes through life without the least awareness of his divine nature. It is this awareness that evolves the moral man, out of the given individual, to ignore this ever-present reality of the Self is to keep away from light and clutch at shadows.

The verse further tells us that those who prefer to live in such spiritual blindness are really killing themselves. Ātmahana means ‘people who kill themselves’. In ordinary suicide we kill only the body, which is something external to us, but here we kill ourselves, our real Self. The death of the body is not so serious as the death of the soul. By neglecting our true nature, by ignoring it by clutching at the shadows of the non-Self all the time, we commit suicide of the most serious kind.

अनेजदेकं मनसो जवीयो नैनद्देवाप्नुवन्पूर्वमर्षत् ।
तद्धावतोऽन्यान्नत्येति तिष्ठत् तस्मिन्नापो मातरिश्वा दधाति ॥

anejadekaṃ manaso javīyo nainaddevāpnuvanpūrvamarṣat |
taddhāvato'nyānnatyeti tiṣṭhat tasminnāpo mātariśvā dadhāti ||

(4th Mantra, Isha-Upanishad)

‘The self is one. It is unmoving: yet faster than the mind. Thus moving faster, It is beyond the reach of the senses. Ever steady, It outstrips all that run. By its mere presence, the cosmic energy is enabled to sustain the activities of living beings.’

तदेजति तन्नैजति तद्दूरे तद्वन्तिके ।
तदन्तरस्य सर्वस्य तदु सर्वस्यास्य बाह्यतः ॥

tadejati tannaijati taddūre tadvantike |
tadantarasya sarvasya tadu sarvasyāsya bāhyataḥ ||

(5th Mantra, Isha-Upanishad)

‘It moves; It moves not. It is far: It is very near. It is inside all this: It is verily outside all this.’

What profound ideas are contained in these and the next three verses! The more profound an experience, the more indescribable it becomes; language fails; thought also fails. What remains mere hint and suggestions. These verses are, therefore, a little difficult to understand. They are enigmatic and paradoxical. Yet it is here, in these profound ideas, that we get those intimations of immortality that guide us onwards towards truth.

यस्तु सर्वानि भूतान्यात्मन्येवानुपश्यति ।
सर्वभूतेषु चात्मान ततो न विजुगुप्सते ॥

yastu sarvāni bhūtānyātmanyevānupaśyati |
sarvabhūteṣu cātmāna tato na vijugupsate ||

(6th Mantra, Isha Upanishad)

‘The Wise man, who realizes all beings as not distinct from his own Self, and his own Self as the Self of all beings, does not, by virtue of that perception, hate anyone.’

यस्मिन्सर्वानि भूतानन्यात्मैवभुद्विजानतः ।
तत्र को मोहः कः शोक एकत्वमनुपश्यतः ॥

yasminsarvāni bhūtānanyātmaivabhudvijānataḥ |
tatra ko mohaḥ kaḥ śoka ekatvamanupaśyataḥ ||

(7th Mantra, Isha Upanishad)

‘What delusion, what sorrow can there be for that wise man who realizes the unity of all existence by perceiving all beings as his own Self?’

The Upanishad now confronts the aspirant with the consequences of the idea that the infinite Atman is his true nature, the true nature of every man and woman. The man who realizes himself as the Atman perceives also that he is one with all beings, that none is separate from him. Then who can hate whom? He, the Knower, the Self, is one with all; the only life expression of this vision is universal love and service free; love is a binding force, whereas hatred proceeds from a sense of separateness. This realization, according to Indian thought, modern as well as ancient, marks the highest point of human excellence. These two verses convey a message of the highest spirituality, where the highest vision becomes embodied as the highest character. All the great ones of India have reacted to these two verses with a whole-hearted response. The saints and sages, intellectuals and devotees, of our country accord the highest place to this spiritual attainment. Through this realization man realizes his basic oneness with all men, with all beings; through this he achieves life fulfillment.