Isha Upanishad

01Covered by the Lord

Isha vasyam idam sarvam. Whatever moves in this world is to be clothed in the Lord. Enjoy it by giving it up, and do not reach for another's wealth. The second mantra says one may wish to live a hundred years doing one's work, and work so done does not cling to a man. Adi Shankaracharya read the first mantra as a call to renunciation, for the one who has seen the Lord everywhere, and the second as the path for those not yet ready for it. Every later reading of the Upanishad starts from this pair.

02The fortieth adhyaya

Every other Upanishad sits in a Brahmana or an Aranyaka. The Isha is the closing chapter of the Shukla Yajurveda Samhita itself, which is why it is also called the Vajasaneyi Samhita Upanishad. The Vishnu Purana tells how that Veda came to be. Yajnavalkya gave back the Yajurveda he had learned from his guru Vaishampayana, then worshipped Surya, who taught him fresh yajus mantras. The Samhita survives in two shakhas, the Kanva and the Madhyandina, and the Isha stands in both with small differences of order. Shankara comments on the Kanva text of eighteen mantras. Its name comes from its first word.

03Eighteen mantras

The whole Upanishad fits on a single palm leaf. It moves in five steps. Mantras 1 to 3 give the rule of life and warn of the sunless worlds that await those who kill the Self by forgetting it. Mantras 4 to 8 describe that Self. Mantras 9 to 11 set vidya beside avidya, and 12 to 14 set sambhuti beside asambhuti. Mantras 15 to 18 are prayers of a dying man to Pushan and Agni. It is short enough for a student to learn by heart, svaras and all, in a few days, and it is usually the first Upanishad he learns.

04Unmoving, swifter than mind

The fourth mantra speaks in paradox. The One does not move, yet it is swifter than the mind; the senses run after it and never catch it, for it has gone ahead. It moves and it does not move. It is far and it is near. It is inside all this and outside all this. Then comes the line Vedanta teachers return to: whoever sees all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings shrinks from nothing. For one who has seen that oneness, where is delusion, where is grief? The eighth mantra calls the Self bright, bodiless, without wound or sinew, pure, untouched by sin, the seer, self-born.

05Vidya and avidya

Mantras 9 to 14 set two pairs side by side: vidya and avidya, knowledge and action, and sambhuti and asambhuti, the manifest and the unmanifest. Those who worship only avidya go into blind darkness, the Upanishad says, and those who delight only in vidya into a greater darkness still. Those who know both together cross death by the one and reach immortality by the other. The same pattern is then repeated, word for word, for sambhuti and asambhuti. Few passages of the Shruti have drawn as many different explanations.

06The golden lid

The last four mantras are spoken at the hour of death. The face of truth is covered with a golden vessel; uncover it, Pushan, so that I who hold to truth may see. Gather your rays, draw in your light: the person who is in you, that person am I. Let the breath go to the immortal wind, and this body end in ash. Om, mind, remember what was done; remember. The final mantra, Agne naya supatha, is a prayer to Agni to lead the soul by the good path, and it is also a hymn of the Rigveda (1.189.1). Shukla Yajurvedi families chant these mantras at the last rites and at shraddha.

07How the acharyas read it

Shankara reads vidya in mantras 9 to 11 as upasana of the devatas, worship joined with ritual work; that pair leads to the higher worlds, while liberation comes from knowing the Self as taught in mantras 6 and 7. Madhvacharya reads the Isha as Shri Vishnu, the Lord who dwells in and rules all things and stays distinct from the souls he rules. Vedanta Deshika, for the Shri Vaishnava school of Ramanuja, wrote an Ishavasya bhashya that reads the world as the body of the Lord and joins work and knowledge into bhakti. Uvata and Mahidhara explain the chapter as part of their commentaries on the whole Vajasaneyi Samhita.

08Purnam adah

The shanti mantra of the Isha, purnam adah purnam idam, is said before and after its study: that is full, this is full, from the full the full comes forth, and when the full is taken from the full, the full remains. The same words open the fifth chapter of the Brihadaranyaka. Every Upanishad of the Shukla Yajurveda shares this shanti. It is chanted at the close of pujas and housewarmings across Bharat, by people who may never have read the eighteen mantras that follow it.

09Gandhi's verse

Mahatma Gandhi learned the Isha by heart in Yeravda Jail. In January 1937, touring Travancore after its temples had been opened to all Hindus, he spoke on its first mantra at a public meeting in Quilon (Kollam). If every Upanishad and every other scripture were suddenly reduced to ashes, he said, "if only the first verse in the Ishopanishad were left intact in the memory of Hindus, Hinduism would live forever" (Harijan, 30 January 1937). Sri Aurobindo translated the Isha and wrote at length on it, reading it as the reconciliation of the world and the Spirit.

What it contains

1. 1
   Mantras 1–3

   The Lord dwells in all that moves; enjoy by renouncing and do not covet. Live a hundred years doing your work, and the work will not bind. Those who forget the Self go to the asurya lokas, worlds wrapped in blind darkness.

2. 2
   Mantras 4–8

   The Self is unmoving yet swifter than the mind, far and near, within and without. Whoever sees all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings is free of grief and delusion. The eighth mantra names the Self pure, bodiless and self-born, who has ordered all things through endless years.

3. 3
   Mantras 9–11

   Those who follow avidya alone enter darkness, and those who delight in vidya alone a greater darkness. The wise taught that each has its own fruit. One who knows both crosses death by avidya and gains immortality by vidya.

4. 4
   Mantras 12–14

   The same teaching is given for sambhuti and asambhuti, the manifest and the unmanifest. Worship of either alone leads to darkness. Knowing both together, one crosses death and reaches immortality.

5. 5
   Mantras 15–18

   Prayers at the hour of departure: Pushan is asked to draw back the golden lid from the face of truth. The seeker recognises the person in the sun as himself, gives his breath to the wind and his body to ash. Agni is asked to lead him by the good path and burn away crooked sin.

Famous verses

ईशा वास्यमिदँ सर्वं यत्किञ्च जगत्यां जगत्। तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा मा गृधः कस्यस्विद्धनम्॥

All this, whatever moves in this moving world, is clothed by the Lord. Enjoy it through renunciation; do not covet anyone's wealth.Isha Upanishad 1

यस्तु सर्वाणि भूतान्यात्मन्येवानुपश्यति। सर्वभूतेषु चात्मानं ततो न विजुगुप्सते॥

One who sees all beings in the Self alone, and the Self in all beings, shrinks from none.Isha Upanishad 6

विद्यां चाविद्यां च यस्तद्वेदोभयँ सह। अविद्यया मृत्युं तीर्त्वा विद्ययाऽमृतमश्नुते॥

One who knows vidya and avidya both together crosses death by avidya and attains immortality by vidya.Isha Upanishad 11

हिरण्मयेन पात्रेण सत्यस्यापिहितं मुखम्। तत्त्वं पूषन्नपावृणु सत्यधर्माय दृष्टये॥

The face of truth is covered by a golden vessel. Uncover it, Pushan, so that I, devoted to truth, may see.Isha Upanishad 15