Śrī Īśopaniṣad — 4
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
Through mental speculation, even the greatest philosopher cannot know the Supreme Lord, who is the Absolute Personality of Godhead. He can be known only by His devotees through His mercy. In the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.34) it is stated that even if a nondevotee philosopher travels through space at the speed of the wind or the mind for hundreds of millions of years, he will still find that the Absolute Truth is far, far away from him. The Brahma-saṁhitā (5.37) further describes that the Absolute Personality of Godhead has His transcendental abode, known as Goloka, where He remains and engages in His pastimes, yet by His inconceivable potencies He can simultaneously reach every part of His creative energy. In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa His potencies are compared to the heat and light that emanate from a fire. Although situated in one place, a fire can distribute its light and heat for some distance; similarly, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, although fixed in His transcendental abode, can diffuse His different energies everywhere. Although His energies are innumerable, they can be divided into three principal categories: the internal potency, the marginal potency and the external potency. There are hundreds and millions of subheadings to each of these categories. The dominating demigods who are empowered to control and administer such natural phenomena as air, light and rain are all classified within the marginal potency of the Absolute Person. Lesser living beings, including humans, also belong to the Lord’s marginal potency. The material world is the creation of the Lord’s external potency. And the spiritual sky, where the kingdom of God is situated, is the manifestation of His internal potency. Thus the different energies of the Lord are present everywhere. Although the Lord and His energies are nondifferent, one should not mistake these energies for the Supreme Truth. Nor should one wrongly consider that the Supreme Lord is distributed everywhere impersonally or that He loses His personal existence. Men are accustomed to reaching conclusions according to their capacity for understanding, but the Supreme Lord is not subject to our limited capacity for understanding. It is for this reason that the Upaniṣads warn us that no one can approach the Lord by his own limited potency. In the Bhagavad-gītā (10.2) the Lord says that not even the great ṛṣis and suras can know Him. And what to speak of the asuras, for whom there is no question of understanding the ways of the Lord? This fourth mantra of Śrī Īśopaniṣad very clearly suggests that the Absolute Truth is ultimately the Absolute Person; otherwise there would have been no need to mention so many details in support of His personal features. Although the individual parts and parcels of the Lord’s potencies have all the symptoms of the Lord Himself, they have limited spheres of activity and are therefore all limited. The parts and parcels are never equal to the whole; therefore they cannot appreciate the Lord’s full potency. Under the influence of material nature, foolish and ignorant living beings who are but parts and parcels of the Lord try to conjecture about the Lord’s transcendental position. Śrī Īśopaniṣad warns of the futility of trying to establish the identity of the Lord through mental speculation. One should try to learn of the Transcendence from the Lord Himself, the supreme source of the Vedas, for the Lord alone has full knowledge of the Transcendence. Every part and parcel of the Complete Whole is endowed with some particular energy to act according to the Lord’s will. When the part-and-parcel living entity forgets his particular activities under the Lord’s will, he is considered to be in māyā, illusion. Thus from the very beginning Śrī Īśopaniṣad warns us to be very careful to play the part designated for us by the Lord. This does not mean that the individual soul has no initiative of his own. Because he is part and parcel of the Lord, he must partake of the initiative of the Lord as well. When a person properly utilizes his initiative, or active nature, with intelligence, understanding that everything is the Lord’s potency, he can revive his original consciousness, which was lost due to association with māyā, the external energy. All power is obtained from the Lord; therefore each particular power must be utilized to execute the will of the Lord and not otherwise. The Lord can be known by one who has adopted such a submissive service attitude. Perfect knowledge means knowing the Lord in all His features, knowing His potencies and knowing how these potencies work by His will. These matters are described by the Lord in the Bhagavad-gītā, the essence of all the Upaniṣads .
anejad ekaṁ manaso javīyo
nainad devā āpnuvan pūrvam arṣat
tad dhāvato ‘nyān atyeti tiṣṭhat
tasminn apo mātariśvā dadhāti
Vedārka Dīdhiti Commentary
anejat na ejat ejṛkaspane niścalaṁ iti arthaḥ. tat ātma-tattvaṁ niścalaṁ-ekaṁ. Manasaḥ javīyaḥ. devā indriyāṇi tat na āpanūvan prāpta-vastuḥ. yataḥ pūrvamarṣata pūrvaṁ eva gataṁ tat dhāvataḥ drataṁ gacchataḥ anyān manaḥ prabhṛtīn. atyeti atikrāmati. tat tiṣṭhat. tasmin ātmani mātariśvā vāyuḥ. apaḥ karmāṇi dadhāti dhāvayati.
(“The Paramātmā and the ātmā are stationary, they are individual, and they are faster than the mind. All the senses cannot grasp them since the ātmā precedes the senses. While the mind, etc., may run, the ātmā always excels them. When the ātmā remains inactive, Vāyu performs activities on his behalf.”)
PURPORT
It is understood that the word ātmā refers to any object that has the qualities of the ātmā. Therefore, when we say ātmā, we should understand this to refer to both the jīva and Paramātmā. Paramātmā is the super-consciousness (bṛhac-caitanya). The jīva is finite consciousness (anu–caitanya). Although such divisions are eternal, the nature (dharma) of both are one. In Vedic statements, the word ātmā can be understood to be jīva, and in other places, the word ātmā can be understood to be Paramātmā. Wherever possible, this should be understood. Here (in this verse), the principle of ātmā refers to both. The superiority of a conscious object over the material and subtle worlds has been explained. The mind is the fastest within the gross and the subtle world. But that too falls behind the ātmā. Though the jīvātmā may remain dormant as a result of being under the sway of the māyā-śakti, it still performs its functions by accepting vāyu in the form of prāṇa. Paramātmā is immobile, but He is active through His icchā-śakti (His will-power potency) and kriyā-śakti (His creative potency) that take shelter of Him.
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Īśa-upaniṣad mantra 4:
अनेजद् एकं मनसो जवीयो नैनद्देवा आप्नुवन्पूर्वमर्षत् ।
तद्धावतोऽन्यानत्येति तिष्ठत् तस्मिन्न् अपो मातरिश्वा दधाति ॥ ४ ॥
anejad ekaṃ manaso javīyo nainaddevā āpnuvanpūrvamarṣat |
taddhāvato'nyānatyeti tiṣṭhat tasminn apo mātariśvā dadhāti || 4 ||
anejat—untrembling, ie, fearless unagitated; ekam—one, because supreme: and not because there is no other object than He; manasaḥ—than mind; javīyaḥ—swifter; na—not; enat—it, the Supreme Brahman; devāḥ—the shining ones, like Brahmā and other devas; āpnuvan—obtain, fully comprehend; Pūrvam, from before (the beginning of time), beginningless, eternal; arṣat—knowing, He knows all from before; tat—that Brahman; dhāvataḥ—running; anyān—these others; atyeti—goes beyond, surpasses; tiṣṭhat—staying at one place, resting, sitting; tasmin—in that ātman or Hari; apaḥ—lit. that which protects from all side, namely, karmas; mātariśvā—the Principal Vāyu, or Spirit, the mover in space, Sūtrātmā, the Prāṇa, the Marut; dadhāti—offers as pūjā, supports, allots for, establishes; The karmas done by all beings are stored up in Him, by the Spirit, the great Saviour, called Christ in the West and the Thread-soul or Vāyu here.
4. He is fearless, supreme, and swifter than the mind. The Devas even know Him not fully, but He knows them all, as He is the Eternal. He staying in one place surpasses them all, though they be running. In Him, the Mātariśvan offers up all karmas of all creatures.
Commentary: The Bhāṣya of Madhva (Madhvācārya):
(English translation of Madhva’s 13th-century commentary called the Īśāvāsyopaniṣadbhāṣya or Īśopaniṣadbhāṣya)
‘Anejat’ means not trembling, because He is fearless, and so also, He is ekam or one, because He is Supreme. ‘The devas even cannot reach Him’ means that they even are incapable of understanding Him fully and completely. By His very nature He knows everything, from before the beginning of time. And because His powers are inconceivable, and He is All-pervading, therefore, though others be running lie surpasses them. And Marut places all karmas in Him. Because all activities proceed from Prāṇa or Marut, therefore, let men resign all their actions into the Lord. For says the Brahmāṇḍa Parana: “Since all actions depend upon Spirit (Prāṇa) let one resign all actions to Hari.”
The word arṣat comes from the root “ṛṣa”—‘to know.’
Note.—There is no such root as “ṛṣa jñāne” in the Dhātupātḥa, but in the Mahā Bhāṣya it is said, there is such a root.
Note.—This verse describes the nature of the Lord or the Ātman. A wrong knowledge of this atman leads to darkness, as has been taught in the last mantra. The Ātman is fearless and supreme. He is swifter than the mind. The Devas even know Him not fully: but He knows them all from eternity. Though all may be straining their utmost to catch Him and be running after Him, yet He by merely staying in one place is beyond their reach. The great Mediator, Mātariśvan, the Son of the Mother-Space, offers to Him all the actions of creatures. When a person does an act with perfect humility, believing that the true agent is Hari and not he, that all acts are sacred and must be performed with the idea of their being sacred, and with full love and devotion towards God, such acts become holy and are carried by Vāyu to the Lord. Since the man has renounced all fruits of action and does all act for the Lord, they remain in Him. This of course refers to karmas of good men.
Article published on 22 November, 2020
Last Updated: 22 November, 2020
My note
Source: vedabase.io