There is knowledge and wisdom like no other hidden underneath the thousands of pages of metaphor and prose of the ancient Indian texts. The vedas still survive in our words, our thoughts, in how the first word that erupts before any mantra is still aum. the essence of these texts can be found in the Upanishads, of which the Isha Upanishad is one of most important.
This is a series of blog posts that dive deep into the well of wisdom these valuable texts have to offer, and attempts to present to you a summary of sorts, along with its application in your daily life.
Table of Contents
What are Upanishads?
From deep within the folds of knowledge buried under layers upon layers of meaning and metaphor, the truth emerges in Indian philosophical texts and readings. One such way to reach this truth is through the Upanishads—more than a hundred of them expounding on the metaphysical aspects of human life—from Brahman to consciousness to the ultimate unity of reality.
Upanishads contain a treasure of wisdom and truth that can be found and owned and internalised without any life threatening adventure. All it requires is concentration as you read and understand.
The word ‘upanishad’ is derived from upa (near), ni (down) and sad (to sit), i.e. sitting down near. Groups of pupils sit near the teacher to learn from him the secret doctrine. In the quietude of forest hermitages the Upanishad thinkers pondered on the problems of the deepest concern and communicated their knowledge to fit pupils near them.
The Principal Upanisads, S. Radhakrishnan
This is, however, not the only interpretation of philosophy.
Shankara derives the word upanishad as a substantive from the root ṣad, ‘to loosen,’ ‘to reach’ or ‘to destroy’ with upa and ni as prefixes and kvip as termination. If this derivation is accepted, upanishad means brahma-knowledge by which ignorance is loosened or destroyed.
Upanishads are also known as Vedanta, since they summarize the vedas. There are a total of 108 Upanishads, of which 10 are primary or major.
The Philosophy of Upanishads: From Ritual to Spiritual
If you pick up a Veda and an Upanishad both at the same time and compare the two, you will see the stark difference that can be seen there, the passage of time and the gradual yet steady shift in thought.
It is said that we can notice a transition from the naturalistic and anthropomorphic polytheism through transcendent monotheism to immanent monism in the pre-Upanisadic philosophy. The personified forces of nature first changed into real gods and these later on, became mere forms of one personal and transcendental God, the ‘Custodian of the Cosmic and Moral Order*, who Himself, later on, passed into the immanent Purusa. The Upanisads developed this Purusa into Brahman or Atman which is both immanent and transcendent.
A Critical History Of indian Philosophy, M. Hiriyana
The Rig Veda mentions several deities and Devas that represent nature—such as Indra Deva being the Lord of Rain and Sky, Surya Deva being the Sun Lord, Agni Deva as the purifying fire. When we come to the Upanishads, we see a few mentions of such deities, such as Yama in Kathopanishad who engages in a dialogue with Nachiketa. But the majority of the Upanishads concern themselves with a deeper understanding of the transcendental Brahman—the Absolute Reality who has no form, and is everywhere and in everything.
We go gradually but surely from ritual to spiritual, from the supernatural to the transcendental.
Isha Upanishad
Iśā vāsya upaniṣad is considered to be the essence of all Vedic thought and philosophy, even though it is one of the shortest of all the upanishads, with only 18 verses. Isha Upanishad derives its name from the īś (which is also the root of the word Īśvara and can be translated to God or Lord or master of). Isha Vasya means ‘enveloped by the lord’.
The invocation of Isha Upanishad goes as follows.
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पूर्णमुदच्यते ।
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
That is full; this is full. The full comes out of the full. Taking the full from the full, the full itself remains.
When I first read this in class, I was reasonably confused and I thought, How can something remain after it’s been removed? If I have a glass of water, and I empty the glass of all its water, it would—logically enough—be an empty glass. If I have ten apples, and I give all ten to my sister, I will have zero apples, no argument.
And yet one of the most profound sources of knowledge known to us claims in its first verse that there is something, which when removed wholly from itself, still remains whole. A contradiction, yes, but quite irrelevant when we realize who the subject of this contradiction is.
Brahman or atman is the ultimate reality, the One, the Absolute, and is everywhere, in everyone. So when the Iśā Upanishad speaks of the whole, it speaks of Brahman. Brahman is whole in that Brahman pervades every being, every fiber that makes up this universe. Brahman is whole and all consuming. Everything is born of Brahman and everything resides in Brahman. It is the ever present consciousness, even though consciousness is just a poor translation for the atman. Somethings can not be translated, or they lose all their essence. Brahman or atman is one such entity.
It is not comparable to glasses of water or apples. Rather, one should compare this to love. Love is whole—when you love someone, you love them with everything. A parent loves their child and is full of it, they give all their love to this child, the child is filled up with the parent’s love, and yet the parent’s love never diminishes. It still remains as whole as it ever was.
Much in the same way, Brahman births this universe, and from the complete Parabrahma comes out the complete universe, and still Brahman remains whole.
And since we are all born of this Brahman, we are all one with Brahman. Since we are all nothing but the Supreme One deep inside, essentially and fundamentally, the Isha Upanishad teaches us that we cannot hate each other.
The two paths to Enlightenment: Karma and Jñāna
There are two methods of becoming one with the Parabrahman—karma and jñāna also called vidya and avidya. Karma or work consists in fulfilling our duty, doing what is right and completing our role in this universe, all without desiring any fruits. As Sri Krishna says to Arjuna in Bhagavad Gīta, we only have claim to our actions; we have no claim to the fruits of those action.
As soon as we do something in order to get something out of it, our action loses its merit. We must do, but never expect. While action done out of desire binds the soul to this mortal world, action that is not marred by desire helps one attain liberation from all worldly binds.
Niskāma Karma (action without desire) is thus one way of crossing the river of illusions that is this entire world and realizing the ultimate truth.
Another way is knowledge or jñāna or Vidya which consists in meditating upon the truth, in scholarly learning, in worshipping knowledge. And yet just work alone and just knowledge alone leads one nowhere.
Synthesis of Knowledge and Duty
अन्धं तमः प्र वि॑शन्ति येऽवि॑द्यामुपास॑ते । ततो भूय॑ इव ते तमो य उ॑ विद्याया॑ रताः ॥९॥
Into blinding darkness enter those who worship ignorance and those who delight in knowledge enter into still greater darkness, as it were.
As the verse in Isha Upanishad illustrates, only engaging in karma leads one into darkness and yet seeking only knowledge and shirking one’s worldly duties all the while leads one into still greater darkness.
If we are to go towards the light, we need both work and wisdom. Once we’ve crossed the web of illusions and ignorance, we realize that we are one with God and we see ourselves and all our fellow humans as we see God. We are all one.
In this way, Isha Upanishad gaps the bridge between being worldly and complete renunciation, between the attainment of mokṣa through either work alone or knowledge alone. A synthesis between the two is required if one is to attain salvation.
Hatred and Humanity in Isha Upanishad: Is it possible to hate someone? Isha Upanishad says No!
Hatred comes out of difference, out of conflict, and when everyone is but a reflection of the Absolute Brahman, it is impossible to hate that which we are identical with. We cannot hate that for which there can be nothing but love.
It is impossible to hate oneself, and so it is impossible to hate another, because we all are, ultimately, one and the same.
And yet, there is hatred in this world. There is rage and there is malice and there is hatred to the level of violence. There is war. There are people who hurt others irreparably, and people who have so much hatred in themselves that they leave ugly marks of it in newspapers, in history books, in other people’s memory.
It is quite impossible not to hate when there is so much hatred already, so many stories of crimes, so many bitter truths of violence.
But there is hatred only where there is difference, and maybe if we all realized that we are ultimately one, that we belong to the same unity, we will cease this endless strife.
Ultimately, the Isa Upanishad speaks of the unity between God and the World—this world that we are born into is the creation of Parabrhaman, and being so is also identical to this Absolute Reality.
The only way to realize this, and to stop hating—because someone has to stop hating first—is through work and wisdom, karma and jñāna.
यस्तु सर्वा॑णि भूतान्यात्मन्नेवानुपश्य॑ति । सर्वभूतेषु॑ चात्मानं ततो न वि जु॑गुप्सते ॥६॥
And he who sees all beings in his own self and his own self in all beings, he does not feel any revulsion by reason of such a view.
Only one who has risen above hatred in such a way is truly realised. One knows through knowledge and karma that one cannot truly hate another, just as one cannot hate God. Just as one cannot hate oneself. This is the way to peace.
So there are countless evils in the universe, there are countless reasons to hate, to be angry, to propagate this hatred in the next generation and to teach them to hate in the same way as we’ve been taught by society.
But there is only one reason to not hate. Call that reason God, call it Love, call it Truth or the whole or the absolute. This reason is what we must look at, what we must memorise and internalise and practice until it is as easy as breathing.
The lesson of Isha Upanishad is to realise first and foremost, that there is no difference in this world and in the Parabrahman, the Ultimate Reality. They are unified in much the same way as a mother and her creation are unified, in that they are of the same origin, and in that they are whole in themselves despite being parts of each other.
The lesson of Isha Upanishad is to then love, for there is nothing but love. There can be no hatred, because hatred is born of conflict and conflict is born of difference, and there is no difference. It is a philosophy of wholes and halves, of being One, of unity, of love and of Truth.
Thanks for Reading
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You may also check out similar content about philosophy and life and everything in between with posts like Sylvia Plath’s Fig Tree Analogy: Can We Choose The Best Life? or What Is The Point Of Life?
