isavasya upanishad.doc

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ESSENCE OF THE ISAVASYA UPANISHAD

by Swami Sivananda

The whole is all That. The whole is all this. The whole was

born of the whole. Taking the whole from the whole, whatremains is the whole.

Om Peace! Peace!! Peace!!!

GLORY OF THE UPANISHADS

1. Salutations to all Brahma-Vidya Gurus or the preceptors ofthe knowledge of Brahman.

2. Prostrations to Satchidananda Para Brahman, who is theprop, basis and source for everything.

3. The acme of wisdom of the sages is to be found in theUpanishads.

4. The Upanishads teach the philosophy of absolute unity.

5. The knowledge of the Upanishads destroys ignorance, the

seed of Samsara.6. Behind the names and forms, there dwells the Eternal,Infinite Satchidananda Brahman.

7. This world is indwelt by Para-Brahman or the Absolute.

8. Renounce all desires. Renounce egoism, selfishness andidentification of self with the body (Deha-Adhyasa). Thenalone will you attain Moksha or release.

9. Desire for liberation will destroy all earthly desires.

10. Perform religious rites and daily duties withoutexpectation of fruits.


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11. Do constant selfless service to humanity with Atma-Bhava, you will get purification of heart. Then alone willAtma-Jnana dawn in your heart.

12. Works will not bind you if you perform them withoutegoism and expectation of fruits.

NATURE OF THE ATMAN

13. This Atman is motionless, but swifter than the mind;because it is all-pervading and all-full.

14. Before the mind reaches a plane, the Atman is alreadythere, as it is all-pervading and infinite.

15. The Atman is distant and it is near. It is within all this,and also outside all this.

16. It is distant for the ignorant. It is very far for those whoare immersed in worldliness. It is very near for the enquirer,for him who is equipped with purity of mind and the fourmeans of salvation.

17. The Atman is very subtle. It is Antaratma, the inner self

of all beings. It fills and covers everything. It is all-full. Henceit is within and without.

18. The Atman is the substratum or support (Adhishthana) ofall beings.

19. The sage sees all beings in the Atman and the Atman inall beings.

20. He who sees the Atman as pervading everything, and

everything in the Atman, does not wish to guard himself,because he has no fear from anyone.

21. A sage who has realised the Atman beholds that allobjects and all beings are not distant from his own Self andthat his Atman is the Atman of all.


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22. The Atman is the common consciousness in all beings.

23. The Atman is the same in the king and the peasant, thesaint and the sinner, the cobbler and the barber, the ant andthe elephant, the tree and the stone.

24. How can that freed soul who rests in his own Atman andwho has an exalted cosmic consciousness shrink from anybeing or object with a feeling of repulsion? How can hedislike anything? How can he hate anything?

25. Mere intellectual assent that the one Self abides in allbeings will not do. Actual Self-realisation or directperception, Aparoksha-Anubhava is indispensably requisite.

26. The knower of Brahman becomes fearless. The knower ofBrahman transcends delusion and sorrow.

27. The three knots of the heart (Hridaya-granthi), Avidya(ignorance), Kama (desire) and Karma (action) are tornasunder by the knowledge of Brahman. The knower becomesabsolutely free.

28. A knower always rejoices in the bliss of the Atman. Even

the heaviest sorrow cannot shake him a bit.

29. This Atman is all-pervading, bright bodiless, pure,untouched by sin or evil actions, omniscient, transcendent,self-sprung or self-existent. It is scatheless and withoutmuscles.

30. This Atman is without the physical body, astral body andcausal body.

31. The Atman is independent. It never depends on another.

32. The Atman is beyond the reach of the senses and themind.

33. The Atman is the Mind of the mind, Ear of the ear.


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34. Behind the breath, the senses and the mind, there is thesupreme Brahman or the Absolute.

35. By the light of Brahman alone do the mind, the Pranaand the senses function.

BASES OF BRAHMA-JNANA

36. When Karma is done without expectation of fruits, itpurifies the mind and generates in the aspirant a strongdesire for the final emancipation.

37. The desire to know Brahman and attain freedom frombirths and deaths can arise only in the person who is

endowed with a pure and calm mind, who is desireless andwho is disgusted with the sensual objects of this illusoryworld.

38. Brahman cannot be attained by mere logical discussion.

39. The Srutis say: In order to know Brahman, let theaspirant approach, with sacrificial sticks (Samit) in hand, apreceptor who is well-versed in the Vedas and who iscentred in Brahman.

40. The Srutis say: He knows, who has studied under apreceptor.

41. Only that knowledge which is acquired by studying undera preceptor does good.

42. When one attains knowledge of Brahman, Avidya orignorance which is the seat of bondage and the cause ofKarma performed for the attainment of objects of desire, is

totally destroyed.

43. The Srutis say: There is neither sorrow nor delusion forthe knower of the Self, who beholds the one Atmaneverywhere. He who knows the Atman goes beyond sorrow.


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44. Moksha cannot be attained by Karma or knowledgecombined with Karma. Jnana alone can confer Moksha.Karma purifies the mind and helps the aspirant to attainknowledge.

45. The performance of Karma will take one to the world ofmanes (Pitriloka); but it cannot make one immortal.

46. Brahman, the only real entity, cannot be attained by anyother means than the removal of ignorance throughknowledge of the Self.

47. When one attains the supreme Brahman which is unborn,unchangeable, birthless, undecaying, immortal, fearless,

eternal, self-luminous, all-blissful, and all-pervading, one isfreed from births and deaths.

48. Para-Brahman or the Absolute controls and guides themind, life (Prana) and the senses.

49. Brahman is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, thetongue of the tongue, the speech of speech, the life of life,and the eye of the eye.

50. Having abandoned the sense of I-ness in these, andrising above sense-life, the wise becomes immortal.

isavasya upanishad.doc

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