Śrī Īśopaniṣad — 16
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
The sun and its rays are one and the same qualitatively. Similarly, the Lord and the living entities are one and the same in quality. The sun is one, but the molecules of the sun’s rays are innumerable. The sun’s rays constitute part of the sun, and the sun and its rays conjointly constitute the complete sun. Within the sun itself resides the sun-god, and similarly within the supreme spiritual planet, Goloka Vṛndāvana, from which the brahma-jyotir effulgence is emanating, the Lord enjoys His eternal pastimes, as verified in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.29) : cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa- lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi “I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the first progenitor, who is tending the cows fulfilling all desires in abodes filled with spiritual gems and surrounded by millions of wish-fulfilling trees. He is always served with great reverence and affection by hundreds of thousands of Lakṣmīs, or goddesses of fortune.” The brahma-jyotir is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā as the rays emanating from that supreme spiritual planet, Goloka Vṛndāvana, just as the sun’s rays emanate from the sun globe. Until one surpasses the glare of the brahma-jyotir, one cannot receive information of the land of the Lord. The impersonalist philosophers, blinded as they are by the dazzling brahma-jyotir, can realize neither the factual abode of the Lord nor His transcendental form. Limited by their poor fund of knowledge, such impersonalist thinkers cannot understand the all-blissful transcendental form of Lord Kṛṣṇa. In this prayer, therefore, Śrī Īśopaniṣad petitions the Lord to remove the effulgent rays of the brahma-jyotir so that the pure devotee can see His all-blissful transcendental form. By realizing the impersonal brahma-jyotir, one experiences the auspicious aspect of the Supreme, and by realizing the Paramātmā, or all-pervading feature of the Supreme, one experiences an even more auspicious enlightenment. But by meeting the Personality of Godhead Himself face to face, the devotee experiences the most auspicious feature of the Supreme. Since He is addressed as the primeval philosopher and maintainer and well-wisher of the universe, the Supreme Truth cannot be impersonal. This is the verdict of Śrī Īśopaniṣad. The word pūṣan (“maintainer”) is especially significant, for although the Lord maintains all beings, He specifically maintains His devotees. After surpassing the impersonal brahma-jyotir and seeing the personal aspect of the Lord and His most auspicious eternal form, the devotee realizes the Absolute Truth in full. In his Bhagavat-sandarbha, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī states: “The complete conception of the Absolute Truth is realized in the Personality of Godhead because He is almighty and possesses full transcendental potencies. The full potency of the Absolute Truth is not realized in the brahma-jyotir; therefore Brahman realization is only partial realization of the Personality of Godhead. O learned sages, the first syllable of the word bhagavān ( bha ) has two meanings: the first is ‘one who fully maintains,’ and the second is ‘guardian.’ The second syllable ( ga ) means ‘guide,’ ‘leader’ or ‘creator.’ The syllable vān indicates that every being lives in Him and that He also lives in every being. In other words, the transcendental sound bhagavān represents infinite knowledge, potency, energy, opulence, strength and influence – all without a tinge of material inebriety.” The Lord fully maintains His unalloyed devotees, and He guides them progressively on the path toward devotional perfection. As the leader of His devotees, He ultimately awards the desired results of devotional service by giving Himself to them. The devotees of the Lord see the Lord eye to eye by His causeless mercy; thus the Lord helps His devotees reach the supermost spiritual planet, Goloka Vṛndāvana. Being the creator, He can bestow all necessary qualifications upon His devotees so that they can ultimately reach Him. The Lord is the cause of all causes. In other words, since there is nothing that caused Him, He is the original cause. Consequently He enjoys His own Self by manifesting His own internal potency. The external potency is not exactly manifested by Him, for He expands Himself as the puruṣas, and it is in these forms that He maintains the features of the material manifestation. By such expansions, He creates, maintains and annihilates the cosmic manifestation. The living entities are also differentiated expansions of the Lord’s Self, and because some of them desire to be lords and imitate the Supreme Lord, He allows them to enter into the cosmic creation with the option to fully utilize their propensity to lord it over nature. Because of the presence of His parts and parcels, the living entities, the entire phenomenal world is stirred into action and reaction. Thus the living entities are given full facilities to lord it over material nature, but the ultimate controller is the Lord Himself in His plenary feature as Paramātmā, the Supersoul, who is one of the puruṣas . Thus there is a gulf of difference between the living entity ( ātmā ) and the controlling Lord (Paramātmā), the soul and the Supersoul. Paramātmā is the controller, and the ātmā is the controlled; therefore they are in different categories. Because the Paramātmā fully cooperates with the ātmā, He is known as the constant companion of the living being. The all-pervading feature of the Lord – which exists in all circumstances of waking and sleeping as well as in potential states and from which the jīva-śakti (living force) is generated as both conditioned and liberated souls – is known as Brahman. Since the Lord is the origin of both Paramātmā and Brahman, He is the origin of all living entities and all else that exists. One who knows this engages himself at once in the devotional service of the Lord. Such a pure and fully cognizant devotee of the Lord is fully attached to Him in heart and soul, and whenever such a devotee assembles with similar devotees, they have no engagement but the glorification of the Lord’s transcendental activities. Those who are not as perfect as the pure devotees – namely, those who have realized only the Brahman or Paramātmā features of the Lord – cannot appreciate the activities of the perfect devotees. The Lord always helps the pure devotees by imparting necessary knowledge within their hearts, and thus out of His special favor He dissipates all the darkness of ignorance. The speculative philosophers and yogīs cannot imagine this, because they more or less depend on their own strength. As stated in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad (1.2.23), the Lord can be known only by those whom He favors, and not by anyone else. Such special favors are bestowed upon His pure devotees only. Śrī Īśopaniṣad thus points to the favor of the Lord, which is beyond the purview of the brahma-jyotir .
pūṣann ekarṣe yama sūrya prājāpatya
vyūha raśmīn samūha
tejo yat te rūpaṁ kalyāṇa-tamaṁ
tat te paśyāmi yo’sāv asau puruṣaḥ so’ham asmi
Vedārka Dīdhiti Commentary
he puṣan! he ekarṣe! he yama! he sūrya! he prājāpatya! raśmīn vyaha vigamaya. tejaḥ samūha upasaṁhara. yat te kalyāṇatamaṁ rūpaṁ tat te rūpaṁ ahaṁ paśyāmi. yataḥ ahaṁ tat adhikārī. ya eva pūrṇaḥ puruṣaḥ sa eva asau-puruṣaḥ. sa eva ahaṁ asmi.
(“O Puṣan, O Ekarṣi, O Sūrya, O Prajāpatya! Please remove all Your rays, curb Your effulgence. Then I can see Your exceedingly auspicious form. I am eligible to see that form. Since You are the complete Absolute Personality [pūrṇa–puruṣa], You enter the world in Your manifestation as Paramātmā, and we are all cit-svarūpa [spiritual entities by nature]. By Your mercy we can see you.”)
PURPORT
Although You are the complete Absolute Personality, You also appear as the puruṣāvatāra, the controller of māyā. You employ all Your various potencies to regulate māyā, and being the repository of all those different potencies, You bear such names as Pūsā, Ekarṣi, Yama, Sūrya, and Prajāpatya Vāmana etc. * Entangled within matter, I think of all the forms of Your avatāras and I long to take darśana of Your eternal form. By Your mercy, this finite conscious being may become eligible to see Your eternal form. All auspicious qualities take shelter within Your eternal form. You have situated me in a spiritual form; thus, by your mercy, I can take darśana of Your eternal form.
* Vāmana is the son of Prajāpati Kaśyapa.
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Īśa-upaniṣad mantra 16a:
{DEV}
pūṣannekarṣe yama sūryaprājāpatyavyūha raśmīnsamūha | tejaḥ yatte rūpaṃ kalyāṇatamaṃ tatte paśyāmi
pūṣan—O Pūṣan! O Nourisher! O Full! Ekarṣe, Eka-ṛṣe who is principally knowledge or wisdom; Eka=highest, supreme, ṛṣi=knowledge, Supreme knower, Omniscient; Yama. O Yama or Punisher or Judge of all. sūrya—O the Goal of the Sūris or wise, ie, thy Devotees, especially of Hiraṇyagarbha; prājāpatya—O Goal of Prajāpati Hiraṇyagarbha, because thou hast taught him the Vedas, and he merges in Thee; vyūha—spread, expand; raśmīn—the knowledge of self or soul; The knowledge of the true form of God. samūha—gather, in-draw, collect; tejaḥ—the knowledge of the non-self or of external objects; yat—what; te—thy; rūpam—form; kalyāṇatamam—most auspicious, fairest, loveliest; tat—that; te—(through) thy (grace; ) paśyāmi—I see, I may see, I wish to see.
16a. O All-fuil! O Sole-wise! O All-Judge! O Goal of the Wise! O the Lord of Prajapati [Prajāpati?]! expand my knowledge of the self, and increase my knowledge of the non-self, so that through Thy grace, I may see that form of Thine which is the most auspicious.
Commentary: The Bhāṣya of Madhva (Madhvācārya):
(English translation of Madhva’s 13th-century commentary called the Īśāvāsyopaniṣadbhāṣya or Īśopaniṣadbhāṣya)
The word Ekarṣe means “O thou who art principally (eka), all knowledge and wisdom (ṛṣi).” The word ekarṣi is thus the name of Viṣṇu. Hari is called Yama because he controls and punishes all—He is the Great Judge. He is called Sūrya because he is the Goal of the wise (sūris). He is called Prājāpatya, because he is specially the Goal of Hiraṇyagarbha Prajāpati.
Note.—The raśmin and tejas have no reference to the rays of the sun and his heat and light rays. For no amount of enfeebling of the light and heat rays of the sun will give one the divine vision. Therefore raśmin is translated as ‘knowledge of the self’—expansion of raśmin means the expansion of consciousness. While the expansion of tejas means controlling the non-self—getting more and more power over the forces of nature. In short it is a prayer for the expansion of one’s consciousness and the growth and purification of one’s vehicles. When the raśmin and the tejas, the consciousness and the
Article published on 22 November, 2020
Last Updated: 22 November, 2020
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Īśa-upaniṣad mantra 16b:
योऽसावसौ पुरुषः सोऽहमस्मि ॥ १६ ॥
yo'sāvasau puruṣaḥ so'hamasmi || 16 ||
yaḥ—who; asau—in life; it is locative singular of “life”; That person in the solar orb is in life, The word sthitaḥ must be supplied; asau—yonder that person in my heart; puruṣaḥ—person, all-full; The sleeper or dweller-in-the city. saḥ—he; aham—“I”; not-inferior: Supreme; It is derived from the root “hā” to abandon—with the negative affix “a, a + hā = aham”—“that which is not abandoned, hence Supreme”; asmi—“I am”: it is an Indeclinable, meaning “essence”, “Being”, he who is in my life breath, that puruṣa is the great “I am,” is the supreme Being, may I see him; “as”—“to be” + “mā”—“to measure”.
16b. That yonder person who dwells in Asu (Life) is known by the name of Aham “I” (i.e., the Supreme) and Asmi “I am” (i.e., the only standard of existence.)
Commentary: The Bhāṣya of Madhva (Madhvācārya):
(English translation of Madhva’s 13th-century commentary called the Īśāvāsyopaniṣadbhāṣya or Īśopaniṣadbhāṣya)
He is called Aham, because he is not discardable (aheya). In other words “Aham” means “the Supreme.” He is called “Asmi,” because he dwells in all beings and thus He is the measure (mā) of their existence (as)—(their existence or be-ness depends upon His being in them—He is the standard of their existence). But Hari, the Supreme Lord, however, is apart from all His devotees (jīvas), though ensouling all.
Note.—Though the words aham and asmi are used in the Mantra, and ordinarily they would mean “I am He,”—lest one should fall into this error of identifying himself with the Lord, the author says “svayaṃ tu sarvajīvebhyo vyatiriktaḥ paro hari”—“Hari, the Supreme, is quite separate from all jīvas, however devoted they may be to him. In ectasy [ecstasy?] one may exclaim ‘I am He’—but as a truth, the jīva can never become He.”
Of the two in the above verse, one is a pronoun nominative singular of adas, and means ‘that’, the other is the locative singular of the noun “asu” meaning ‘life,’ i.e., in the life.
Note.—The meaning of the verse is that the well-known Person who resides in the Prāṇa, also dwells in His devotees as aham and asmi, i.e., He is the very “I” and the very “I am” of the devotees. He is in Pūṣan, etc., and is then called by the name of Pūṣan, Yama, Ekarṣi, etc. He though in all these is one alone, and does not become differentiated, owing to the differences of beings in whom He resides. The Brahman is one in all.
Article published on 22 November, 2020
Last Updated: 22 November, 2020
My note
Source: vedabase.io