Episode 01 - Isaavaasya Upanishad.

ISAAVAASYA UPANISHAD

The following beautifully poetic and deeply mystical sloka is found as the SAnthi Mantra (invocation verse) of the Isaavaasya Upanishad (Rig Veda): 

"Poornamadha: poornamidham poornaath poornamudhasyadhe;

Poornamasya poornamaadhaaya poornamEvaavasishyathE.

Om SAnthih; SAnthih; SAnthih."

Roughly understood, this states: The Totality (poornam) that is this Universe emerged from the Totality that is Brahman; Even after taking this Totality (that the Universe is) from out of the Totality (that the Brahman is), the latter is still the Totality (without diminishing in any manner). 

Gandhiji had reportedly said of this opening verse in this Upanishad: "If all the Upanishads all the other scriptures happened all of a sudden to be reduced to ashes, and if only the first verse in the Ishopanishad were left in the memory of the Hindus, Hinduism would live for ever."

Totality remains the same always

A few allegories could be thought of to understand this in very simple terms: 

a) When several lights are lit from one light, the source light does not diminish in any manner and the newly lit lights are not lesser either;

b) When love is shared, it does not diminish in the giver nor in the takers;

c) When a jasmine bush blossoms, the jasmine flowers are all fully beautiful and fragrant; the bush does not diminish in any manner.

But these references are to be understood to be too simiplistic. The mind and intellect should raise themselves to ponder over and into the purport and meaning of this startlingly evocative proclamation.

The "Waves and Ocean" allegory is widely used in discourses on vedanta. But I find that there is a slight discrepancy in this metaphor, applied to the Isaavasya SAnthi Mantra which says that even after the whole (universe - prakriti) has emerged out of the whole, the whole remains the whole. (poorNaSya poorNamAdhaaya poorNamEvaa vadhishyathE) Now, the waves do not emerge out of the ocean. They are perceived as very much part of the ocean even by the normal human mind. But the entire "viswam" - the multitudinous milky ways that science perceives, emerges out of the whole i.e. Brahmam and the Brahmam remains the same whole. Sri Purusha Suktha attempts to differentiate this phenomenon closer to human thought: 

"PaadhOsya viswaa bhoothaani,

Thripaadhasya amrtham divi:

thripaadhOth udaith Purushah:

PaadOsyaahath bhavaath punah.

The word "paadhah" is explained as one-fourth in literal Samskrit, but I personally feel it connotes "a fraction".

Now, let us consider the following mind-boggler:

"PooshannEkarshE yamas sUrya praajaapathya vyUharaSmIn Samooha

thEjO yath thE RUpam kayaaNadhamam that thE paSyaami:

yOSaavaSow purusha: SOhamasmi."

“O Surya, the sustainer of all life! One who traverses alone! One who commands everything! Son of Prajaapathi! Please push away your gleaming rays. Please contain your effulgence. With your Grace, I must see your true form.I see myself in the Sun!”

 Let us not kid ourselves with a literal meaning of the "I" in the finishing punch in this proclamation. That "I" is a total consciousness that identifies itself with the Brahman, not you are me, in our mortal form overlaid with immeasurable vasanas. However, this audacious proposition does become a beacon for all aspirant saadhakas: that this ultimate, none more exalted, goal is attainable if the saadhaka chooses the path so brilliantly laid out and lit by Upanishads.

Now to the Isaavasya Upanishad proper:

AnEjadhEkam manasO javeeyO

NainaththEvaa Apnuvan pOOrvamarshath:

ThathaavadhOnyaanEthi thishtath

ThasminnapO maatharisvA thadhaathi. ( Verse 4)

Athman is immobile; It is One; It is much faster than the Mind; the sensory organs cannot comprehend it; Though It is immobile it precedes everything; As It is stable (immobile), Praana is the energizing force that energizes everything.  

(The riddle is this: the Brahman is One and therefore it is in everything - manifest everywhere and thus immobile; But it is the executive energy for all the forces at work in this Universe and beyond and therefore dynamic as well).