ISHA UPANISHAD IN SIMPLE ENGLISH

 We begin the Upanishad with the invocation:

 AUMThat Brahm whole completeThis world whole completeThis world emerged from that BrahmEven though the world emerged from BrahmBrahm, undiminished, still remains whole complete as before.Aum Peace Peace Peace

Introduction

The Isha Upanishad is also called Ishavasya Upanishad and it derives its name from the opening word of the text of the Upanishad ‘Isha’ meaning God. The Upanishad belongs to the Vajasaneyi School of the Yajur Veda. The Vajasaneyi Collection consists of forty chapters of which the Upanishad is the last, chapter forty. The Upanishad consists of just eighteen verses and is one of eleven principal Upanishads of the Hindu religion. The main purpose of the Upanishad is to teach the essential unity of God and the world, of being and of becoming. It is not interested so much in the absolute in itself, in Parbrahm, as in the absolute in relation to the world, as Parmeswara. The Upanishad emphasizes the unity of God and the world and the union of the two lives, the contemplative and the active. We cannot have the contemplative life without the active life. The Upanishad teaches that life in the world and life in the Divine Spirit are not incompatible and that it is possible to lead a spiritual life while engaging with the world.

The Upanishad

1     All that moves in this changing world, all that exists in creation, is all enveloped by God who pervades everything in creation.Know and understand this and seek enjoyment in renunciation. Learn to renounce and enjoy life. Since God pervades each and every thing in creation, then how can any wealth or any luxury ever be ours?Therefore, do not covet anything, and especially, do not covet what does not belong to you.

2      Always doing selfless and righteous works, without ever desiring any reward or fruit of those works, and dedicating all works to God, wish to live for a hundred years.This is the only way by which karma, by which acts and works, will not stick and pollute, by which karma will not bind, and, therefore, will not be a cause for rebirth in this world.

3   People who deny the existence of the Self, of the Atma, they, in a way, become the slayers of the Self. Such people spend their entire life in the darkness of ignorance, and after death they go to the dark and sunless worlds of the Asuras or the demons, of those who delight only in the physical life, with no hope whatsoever of redemption.

4      The Supreme Spirit, the Param Atma is one.Though unmoving, it is swifter than the mind. The senses can never reach it as it is ever ahead of them. Though Itsef still, it overtakes all those who run or move.Rooted in and empowered by that very Param Atma, the all pervading air and the cosmic forces support life and the activities of all beings in creation.

5     The Param Atma moves and moves not. For those who deny its existence, and for those who do not know it, it is far, far away, unattainable as it were, but for the faithful, for the believers and for those who know the Param Atma, it is very near them and can be easily attained, for It is their very soul. It is within all beings and it is outside them as well. It is both immanent and transcendent.

6    He who sees all beings in his own self and his own self in all beings, he who sees unity in all creation, for such a one all divisions,  all differences, and all conflicts end, for then he does not feel any revulsion or hatred towards any being, since he himself has become one with them.

7      When one has seen and experienced the harmony of unity with all other beings of creation, when one has seen, known, and experienced the oneness of all beings becoming one with his own self, of all beings merging in him and of him merging in all beings, then that is the end of all his sorrows and that is the end of all his delusions.

8       The Supreme Lord has filled all, He has filled everyone and everything. He is without body and without limbs. He is pure, never having been touched or tainted by any evil or by any sin. He is ever luminous and radiant. He is invulnerable, unconquerable. He is the Thinker, He is the Seer, and He is the All Pervading and the Self Existent. He has through all these endless years created the universe and assigned duties to everything in it and has also distributed all objects in the universe according to their different natures.

9    Those who only worship ignorance, who put their faith only in rituals and works and do them without true spiritual  knowledge, they enter into, and live in blinding  darkness, while those who worship and put their faith only in spiritual knowledge ignoring works, and take delight in it, they enter into and live in still deeper darkness.

10    The wise have explained to us that what results from doing only rituals and works is, indeed, very different from what results from believing only in knowledge.

11    But he who understands both together, the doing of rituals and works, as well as spiritual knowledge, he, by performing rituals and doing his works crosses over death and through right spiritual  knowledge and its understanding he attains immortality and life eternal.

12        Those who put their faith in and worship only the  visible, perishable world, having shapes and forms, they enter into and live in blinding  darkness, while those who put their faith in and worship only the

invisible, formless, imperishable Supreme, without truly understanding Him, they enter into still deeper darkness.

13         The wise have explained to us that what results from worshiping the visible world is, indeed, very different from what results from worshiping the invisible Supreme.

14            He who understands the visible, perishable world and the invisible, imperishable Supreme both together, through the understanding of the world he crosses over death and through the understanding of the Supreme he attains immortality and life eternal.

15         The face of truth is hidden behind a shining disc of gold, truth is hidden behind a curtain of gold. Remove that disc of gold; remove that curtain of gold, O Lord, so that I, the seeker of truth, may see the face of truth.

16        O Nourisher, O only seer, O solitary traveler, O Sun, O son of the Lord, gather up your rays and withdraw your blinding,  radiant,  light so that I, who thirst for the truth, may see your most beautiful form. Whosoever you are, that too am I. You and I are but one. You and I are one and the same.

17    O Lord, when death comes my way, may this life enter into the immortal breath, may my life force merge with the cosmic life force. Then may this body be consigned to fire and be reduced to ashes. O mind, O intelligence, think of all I have done throughout my life.O mind, Remember all my deeds, O intelligence, remember all that I have done, remember, O mind, remember all my deeds.

18      O Agni, O Fire, lead us along the right and the auspicious path to prosperity and liberation. O God, you who know all our deeds, rid us of all deceitful sins and evil. We pray to you again and again, O Lord, We pray to you again and again.

                                         End of Isha Upanishad