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*Īśhāvāsya Upanishad -18*

*SUMMARY – Part – 1*

Īśāvāsya Upanishad is a small Upanishad, belonging to Śukla Yajurveda and consisting of 18 mantras only. Unlike the other Upanishads, here we don’t find the name of a guru, or the name of a disciple. It is not given in a dialogue form. The Upanishad straightaway gives the teaching. In the first two mantras, the subject matter is given in a nutshell.
It talks about the goals of a spiritual life in the form of Īśvara-jñānam. Īśvara is not a separate entity, different from the world: in fact, what we call world is none other than Īśvara. Therefore the Upanishad presents the message īśāvāsyaṁ idaṁ sarvam. The entire universe must be displaced from our perception by replacing prapañca-dṛṣti with Īśvara-dṛṣti. The goal of spiritual life is to change the very perspective. For this, Īśvara-jñānam is required because as long as the prapañca-dṛṣti of duality continues, there will be bhayam. Dvitīyādvai bhayam bhavati. [Bṛhadāraṇyaka upaniṣad 1.4.2]
So prapañca-dṛṣti is dvaita-dṛṣti which causes bhayam – fear, anxiety, worry, which is called samsara. Displacing prapañca-dṛṣti by Īśvara-dṛṣti is nothing but displacing dvaita-dṛṣti by advaita-dṛṣti. The observer is Īśvara, the observed is Īśvara, and the observing instrument is Īśvara.
When advaita-dṛṣti prevails, bhayam will be replaced by abhayam which is moksha. This is our goal. This is achieved through jñānam. Then the Upanishad says this jñānam goal can be accomplished by choosing one of two different types of life styles according to a person’s inclination. One is nivṛtti-mārga, otherwise saṁnyāsa-āśrama, a life of withdrawal and quietude. The other is pravṛtti-mārga or gṛhastha-āśrama, a life of vyavahāra and activity. There is no seclusion here.
In the Īśāvāsya Upanishad, saṁnyāsa-āśrama is indicated by the expression mā gṛdhaḥ kasyasvid dhanam in mantra 1. Mantra 2,kurvanneveha karmāṇi jijīviṣecchataṃ samāḥ, indicates gṛhastha-āśrama. Thus there is a choice with respect to the life style but there is no choice with respect to the goal of replacing dvaita-darśanam by advaita-darśanam. The goal and two life styles – this is the introduction given in the first two mantras.
Then the rest of the Upanishad is the expansion of these two mārgas , of which the nivṛtti-mārga or saṁnyāsa- āśrama, the jñāna-pradhāna-mārga, is given from mantra 3 up to mantra 8. It is otherwise called jñāna-yoga where one pursues ātma-jñānam.
In the vision of Upanishad, every human being should necessarily come to ātma-jñānam. All those people who avoid ātma-jñānam are strongly condemned. They live in Saṁsāra which is defined as spiritual darkness. Without self-knowledge, even if some people go to svarga-loka or brahma loka, they will be continuing as saṁsārīs.Having condemned those people by giving special title ātma-hanaḥ janāḥ – destroyers of self or suiciders [mantra 3], it talks about ātma-jñānam.
Eleven different features of ātmā are described in five mantras – 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. The first and most important description of ātmā is caitanya-svarūpa. The word used is śukram – śukraṁ akāyaṁ avraṇam – it is of the nature of pure consciousness [mantra 8]. The next description is śarīra-traya-vilakṣaṇaḥ – it is distinct from all the three bodies. What are the three bodies? Sthūla-sūkṣma-kāraṇa-śarīrāḥ. So it is given in the mantra 8 – saḥ paryagāt śukraṁ akāyaṁ avraṇaṁ asnāviraṁ śuddham; the third description is that Consciousness is not limited by the boundaries of the body. It is all-pervading consciousness. The word used in the Upanishad is saḥ paryagāt – paryagāt means all-pervading.

The fourth description ‘ Nityah’ extols that consciousness (caitanyam) will continue to survive even after the bodies disintegrate or perish.. So caitanyasya rūpaḥ, śarīra-traya-vilakṣaṇaḥ, sarvagataḥ and nityaḥ are the first four descriptions. Then what is the fifth description? Being all-pervading, ātmā cannot move from one place to another. Like the all-pervading space, which cannot travel from one place to another but everything travels in space.. Everything travels in consciousness but consciousness itself doesn’t move from one place to another.
Acalaḥ – tat ejati, tat na ejati, anejat ekam etc., are the expressions used [mantras 4, 5]. We may have a doubt that if ātmā cannot travel, how come we talk about the travel of the ātmā after death? The word ātmā in that context doesn’t refer to the real ātmā. Whenever we talk about travel, the word ātmā cannot refer to the real ātmā but to the sūkṣma-śarīram which alone can and does travel. So travelling ātmā always means travelling sūkṣma- śarīram. Acalaḥ is description no. 5
Then what is the next description? Being all-pervading like ākāśa, it is also pure and uncontaminated by pāpam – apāpaviddham is the word used [mantra 8]. It is also not contaminated by rāga, dveṣa, kāma, krodha. Therefore ‘śuddha’ is the sixth description [mantra 8]. Next, just as the all-pervading ākāśa can be only one, a second ākāśa is not possible, similarly the all-pervading consciousness, ātmā can be only ekaḥ – anejat ekaṃ manasaḥ javīyaḥ. Then how do we talk about several ātmās?

We talk about jīvātmā separately, paramātmā separately as though there are so many ātmās. The Upanishad says we are counting the bodies and we are thinking that the ātmās are also many. The plurality belongs only to the container body, not to the content – consciousness. Neither does jīvātmā-jīvātmā difference exist nor does jīvātmā-paramātmā difference because ekaḥ eva ātmā(7th description).

*To be continued (Part – 2)*