The Upanishads
Isa Upanishad
Upa (near) + ni (below) + shad (sit)
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These are the recorded notes of students
sitting “below” or “near” an illumined sage.
Knowledge cannot be transmitted through
books.
It is transmitted by example, by experience
and by life.
The principal Upanishads
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Isa
Kena
Katha
Prasna
Mundaka
Mandukya
Taittiriya
Aitareya
Chandogya
Brhadaranyaka
Svetasvatara
Kausitaki
Mahanarayana
Maitri
Mundaka Upanishad (1.1.3)
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What is that by knowing which everything is
known?
The core message of the Upanishads is that
there is an ultimate Reality or Universal
Awareness that they label as Brahman.
This word is derived from brih which means
that which is vast and expansive.
Tat tvam asi = You are That
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At a fundamental level, we are That which is
vast and expansive.
To indicate that dimension of the ultimate
Reality at the individual level, the Upanishads
use the term atman.
The English word “atmosphere” is derived
from the Greek atmos, which means vapor or
air. The Greek word is derived from the
Sanskrit word atman.
atman
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In many early translations, this word was
translated as “soul” which is inaccurate.
A more accurate English rendering is “Self” to
indicate background awareness bereft of any
idea, thought or feeling.
One should definitely not confuse this with
the ego.
Isa Upanishad
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This Upanishad consists of 18 verses and is
one of the smaller ones. We will study it in its
entirety.
Isa vasyam idam sarvam yat kinca jagatyam
jagat
Tena tyaktena bhunjitha ma grdhah kasya
svid dhanam.
Isa can be translated as “cosmic intelligence”
or “cosmic ruling force”
isa and asti
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These two words are related.
The English word “is” can be traced back as
follows:
ist (German)
est (French)
esti (Latin)
asti (Sanskrit)
The meaning of the first verse
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The ruling force dwells in everything.
In every bit of it,
Even in anything that is changing and
moving.
By that renunciation, enjoy.
Do not covet the wealth of anyone.
Spectrum of light
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The prism is space, time and causation.
tyaga = renunciation
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This is a recurrent word in the Upanishads
and means “to give up the sense of
ownership,” “to be detached,” “to give up the
sense of possession”.
It does not mean to give up everything and
walk away, nor does it mean that one should
be cynical and pessimistic.
Renunciation is a corollary of the main thesis:
All that exists is One, and by this realization,
enjoy.
Enjoyment (in the Upanishadic sense)
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Give up the mental idea of ownership.
It is not attained by outwardly becoming a
mendicant, but inwardly, by giving up all
ideas of possession.
“To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour” – William Blake,
Auguries of Innocence
Gandhi and the Isa Upanishad
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“Since Isa pervades every
fibre of my being, and all of
you, I derive from it the
doctrine of equality of all
creatures on earth … This
mantra tells me that I
cannot hold as mine
anything … and if my life
and that of all who believe
in this mantra has to be a
life of perfect dedication, it
follows that it will have to
be a life of continual
service of our fellow
creatures.”
Second verse of the Isa Upanishad
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Only by doing work should one desire to live
here a hundred years. Thus, and in no other
way, work will not stain you.”
Work, here, should be understood as “service
to our fellow beings” and if we work in this
way, we will not be attached to our work.
This is the seed form of the idea underlying
karma yoga, which we will take up later in
these lectures. It is a central theme of the
Bhagavad Gita.
Surya and Asurya
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Surya means “sun” or “light”.
Asurya means “without light”.
Third verse: Those who do not understand
this life principle, the isa are without light and
live in a world of blind gloom, as it were.
The fourth verse
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“Unmoving, the One is faster than the mind.
The sense organs cannot reach It. … It
moves, and It moves not. It is far and It is
near. It is within all this and It is also outside
all this.”
In these verses, “It” can be taken to mean
universal awareness or pure consciousness,
bereft of any idea.
“It” can also be taken as the principle of life.
matarisvan = mata + isvara
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isvara is derived from isa, and this signifies
the principle of existence, the principle of
“isness”.
The word mata brings the “mother aspect”
and so this word refers to the “life principle.”
The English word “mother” comes from the
Latin mater which in turn is derived from the
Sanskrit mata.
matarisvan is the matrix out of which things
evolve. (Aurobindo)
Matrix and mater
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What does the word “matrix” mean?
It is “that within which something
originates, takes form.” (Webster’s
dictionary)
In mathematics, it means a grid of
numbers or algebraic quantities.
The word can be traced back to the
19th century in the work of Hermann
Grassman, who wrote the first treatise
on matrices.
In fact, Grassman was a Sanskrit
scholar and was the first to compile a
German translation of the Rig Veda.
H. Grassman (1809-1877)
Aurobindo and matarisvan
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“Matarisvan seems to mean ‘he
who extends himself in the Mother
or container’ whether that be the
containing mother element, Ether,
or the material energy called Earth
in the Vedas and spoken of there
as Mother. It is a Vedic epithet of
the God Vayu, who representing
the divine principle in the Life
energy, Prana, extends himself in
Matter and vivifies its forms. Here
it signifies the divine Life power
that presides in all forms of cosmic
activity.”
The next four verses
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6. One who clearly perceives the atman in all beings, and all
beings in the atman does not separate oneself from the cosmic
principle.
7. What sorrow, what delusion is there for one who sees
intimately the unity of existence and knows all beings to be one’s
own Self (atman).
8. It is all pervasive, radiant, indivisible, without a body, without a
scar of imperfection, without sinews. It is pure and
uncontaminated by ignorance. The poet is the ruler of the mind,
the ruler of nature, and self-existent. It has assigned all things
properly.
9. They enter into blinding darkness who adore ignorance. Into
greater darkness, as it were, they enter who are devoted to
knowledge alone.
What is the meaning of the last verse?
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We must be cautious about the arrogance of
knowledge.
It also means, the more you know, the more
there is yet to be known.
The import of the next two verses is that this
“greater darkness” must be transcended.
Transcending the “greater darkness”
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10 & 11. One result they say is obtained by
knowledge, and quite another by non-knowledge.
Thus we have heard from the wise who explained it
to us. He who understands both knowledge and
non-knowledge, conquers death through nonknowledge, and attains immortality through
knowledge.
Non-knowledge refers to knowledge of the
changing.
Thus, we conquer death through knowledge of the
changing, but transcend both life and death through
knowledge of the ultimate Reality.
Verses 12 & 13
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Those who think That is beyond manifestation enter into blinding
darkness. Those who say That has form enter into greater
darkness, as it were. One result, they say is obtained from the
adoration of manifestation and quite another from the adoration
of the unmanifest. Thus we have heard it from the wise who
have explained it to us.
The human being is conditioned to think in forms and words.
Thus, if we are to grasp ultimate Reality without these methods,
we plunge into darkness. Without words, we have no support
and nowhere to stand on.
If on the other hand, we insist on thinking only in terms of words
and forms, then we plunge into greater darkness, as it were,
since we limit our idea of That through definitions.
The last five verses
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14-17: Like a lid, Thy shining golden orb covers the
entrance to Truth. Please remove it, O Supporter,
so that I who am devoted to Truth may behold That.
O Nourisher, the sole Seer, O Controller, O Sun, the
supporter of all. Gather thy brilliance, draw together
thy light. Through your grace, I behold That which is
beyond. I am That. Let my life force be merged in
the all-pervading Life. Let the body be reduced to
ashes. Om. Remember the goal. Remember the
goal.
18. O Agni, lead us by the goodly path. You know
all the ways. Prevent all distractions from the goal.
We salute you again and again.
The deeper stages of meditation
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It is possible to completely silence all mental
modifications so that one may “perceive” the
underlying awareness.
It cannot be objectified. It can be experienced. This
is the meaning of “I am That.”
There are various levels of concentration and this
can be compared to the trajectory of a multi-stage
rocket.
Om is the recurrent symbol of ultimate Reality that
occurs in the later Upanishads and the Bhagavad
Gita.