Commentary on the Isha Upanishad–by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

The Final Aspiration

The poet Browning wrote of “the end of life for which the first was made.” That is a lovely expression, but very few really believe it and therefore rarely think of their life’s end. Those of us who seek liberation must from the very beginning be looking toward the end we desire. In the next to the last verse at the close of the Isha Upanishad we are given the perspective we should be living with every moment of our life if we would truly “come to a good end.”

Now

“Let my life now merge in the all-pervading life. Ashes are my body’s end. OM….O mind, remember Brahman. O mind, remember thy past deeds. Remember Brahman. Remember thy past deeds.”1

Emily Dickenson wrote: “While others hope to go to heaven at last, I am going all along!” This is the only way for those who would succeed in spiritual life. Nothing should be delayed for the future–it is all now or not at all. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation”2

There are many partially awakened people who know that God is the only real goal. Yet they delay their endeavor. “After I get this,” they say, “then I will really dig in and seek God.” But they never do, for as soon as one little short-term goal is reached another arises that seems even more demanding. I know a woman that claimed she would intensely seek God the day after her only child graduated from high school. But then it became after his graduating from college. Then after he was married and “really settled down.” Death found her anticipating still another “after which,” but it was all over. And by her foolishness she had created in her mind the habit of postponing spiritual life, a habit that will surely carry over into the next life and perhaps into others.

How often do we think that the vision of God will somehow interfere with our life–when in reality we have no life outside that vision. Silly children, we dawdle and dally until the night falls, that “night in which no man can work”3 which Jesus warned us about. “Now or never” happens to be the simple truth.

Merging in Life

Many people want to “embrace life” so they can egocentrically possess it and exploit it to the full. But they have no idea what life is. Just the opposite, for what they think is life is really death. “The all-pervading life” is the only life, for that is God. And the necessity is not to find or see God as an object (again, to possess), but to merge with God in complete unity-identity. That is, our consciousness must be completely merged in the infinite Consciousness, and irrevocably so. Just as a cup of water poured into the ocean cannot be drawn back out of the ocean, so we need to attain that state of unity which can never be reversed. Many yogis paddle their feet or go for a quick dip in the ocean of Satchidananda, but the goal is to unite with that ocean, to merge in it and become totally one with it. Consequently at ever moment of our life we must be holding in mind and living out the sankalpa: “Let my life now merge in the all-pervading life.”

Those who are unfit for union with God become all anxious and even fearful when they hear about merging with the Divine. “O! will I go out of existence?” they quaver. “What will happen to me?” Over and over again they plunge headlong into the sea of rebirth, never raising such questions about relative existence, but “going for it” heedlessly. Only when confronted with God do they develop prudence and caution. Jesus has assured us, though: “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”4 This is because we are truly negative–that is, we are absolutely backwards one hundred and eighty degrees. Consequently what we think will annihilate us will immortalize us, whereas what we think will make us live will destroy us.

Like the great master, Yogananda, we must pray: “Let me drown in Thine ocean and live!”

Understanding the destiny of the body

It is not a simple thing to rid ourselves of the conditionings of billions of lives wherein we identified completely with the body. Even when we have evolved enough to identify more with the mind and the spirit, still the body claims the majority of our attention–and attachment. It is completely reflexive with us, overriding any emotional or intellectual factors to the contrary. Therefore we must continually affirm in word, attitude, and act: “Ashes are my body’s end.” This will only seem painful or pessimistic if we are still identifying with the body. But if not, it will be as happy a statement as an affirmation that our prison is going to evaporate into dust.

We have died many times (or thought we did), but that did not free us at all. And in many lives we were no doubt cremated. Still, that accomplished nothing. Evidently there is a deeper meaning to the “ashes” that are the body’s end. It is the fire of wisdom that turns our “bodies” into ashes. Let us then be busy stoking the fires of yoga and getting on with the burning. Sadhus wear gerua, orange-red color, to remind them of the fire of discrimination and spirit-knowledge that must be perpetually burning in order to reduce all that impels us into embodiment to the ashes of freedom.

Flying from fear,
From lust and anger,
He hides in me
His refuge, his safety:
Burnt clean in the blaze of my being,
In me many find home.5

The blazing fire turns wood to ashes:
The fire of knowledge turns all karmas to ashes.6

When the “bridges” of all bodies, subtle and gross, have been burned in the holy fires, then we will pass on into the kingdom of Infinity that is our eternal birthright.

Remember!

How to kindle the ignorance-consuming fire? The upanishadic sage continues: “O mind, remember Brahman. O mind, remember thy past deeds. Remember Brahman. Remember thy past deeds.”

“Remember Brahman” is extremely easy to say, but how is it done? The Upanishads do not waste our time, but go straight to the mark, saying:

“I will tell you briefly of that Goal which all the Vedas with one voice propound, which all the austerities speak of, and wishing for Which people practice discipline: It is Om.”7

“Om is the Supreme Brahman.”8

“God is the Syllable Om.”9

“Om is Brahman, the Primeval Being.”10

“That [Om] is the quintessence of the essences, the Supreme, the highest.”11

“Om is Brahman.”12

After the battle of Kurukshetra, before which he had spoken the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna again spoke to Arjuna at length. In that conversation he told him: “The gods, rishis, and the nagas, and the asuras, approaching Prajapati [the Creator], said to Him: ‘Tell us the highest good.’ To them who were inquiring about the highest good, the Venerable One said, ‘Om, which is Brahman in a single Syllable.’”13

“The monosyllable Om is the highest Brahman,”14 said the sage Manu, and Patanjali summed it all up by simply saying: “Its repetition and meditation is the way.”15

To remember Brahman we engage in the japa and meditation of Om–simple and direct.

“One should meditate on this Syllable [Om].”16

“This [Om] is the best means [of attainment and realization]; this means is the Higher and Lesser Brahman. Meditating on Om, one becomes worthy of worship in the world of Brahman.”17

“The Self [atman] is of the nature of the Syllable Om. Thus the Syllable Om is the very Self. He who knows It thus enters the Self [Supreme Spirit] with his self [individual spirit].”18

“Taking as the bow the great weapon of the Upanishads [Om], one should place in It the arrow sharpened by meditation. Drawing It with a mind engaged in the contemplation of That [Brahman], O beloved, know that Imperishable Brahman as the target. The Syllable Om is the bow: one’s self, indeed, is the arrow. Brahman is spoken of as the target of that. It is to be hit without making a mistake. Thus one becomes united with it [Brahman] as the arrow becomes one with the target. He in Whom the sky, the earth, and the interspace are woven, as also the mind along with all the pranas, know Him alone as the one Self. Dismiss other utterances. This [Om] is the bridge to immortality. Meditate on Om as the Self. May you be successful in crossing over to the farther shore of darkness.”19

“Then Satyakama, son of Shibi, asked him [the Rishi Pippalada]: ‘Venerable Sir, what world does he who meditates on Om until the end of his life, win by That?’ To him, he said: ‘If he meditates on the Supreme Being [Parampurusha] with the Syllable Om, he becomes one with the Light, the Sun. He is led to the world of Brahman. He sees the Person that dwells in the body, Who is higher than the highest life.…That the wise one attains, even by the mere sound Om as support, That Which is tranquil, unaging, immortal, fearless, and supreme.”20

“The knower of the real nature of Brahman that is identical with the Pranava, should cross all the formidable streams [of samsara] with the ferryboat of the Pranava.”21

“He who utters Om with the intention ‘I shall attain Brahman’ does verily attain Brahman.”22

Alternating remembrance

The thorough practicality and good sense of dharma is one of its most striking features: it works. And it works very well. So it is meaningful that the upanishad tells us to remember Brahman, then remember our own past deeds, then remember Brahman, and then remember our own past deeds in a kind of alternating current. This is to keep us from falling into two serious errors: 1) being so focused on the “spiritual” that we do not pay attention to what is really going on with us, and 2) becoming so obsessed with ourselves that we utterly leave God out of the picture. Patanjali lists swadhyaya–introspective self-study–as an essential ingredient of yoga practice. Yet this self-study must be done in the greater context of divine consciousness: “In thy light shall we see light.”23 Only in the divine light can we see things as they really are.

So we should meditate on Brahman through Om, and outside of meditation we should look at our past, comparing our past deeds and our past states of mind with our present deeds and mental condition. This will reveal to us whether we are truly progressing or not. I knew a woman who sincerely believed that God was appearing to her in meditation and talking to her so sweetly, making her feel so holy and pure. Then she would come out of meditation and be unspeakably cruel to her daughter, both physically and mentally. In meditation she was an angel, but outside of meditation she was a devil. Wrong meditation gives us a wrong image of ourselves, but right meditation shows us the truth about both God and ourselves.

Of course we have to have a correct memory of our past. Many people are so blinded to the truth about themselves that when they learn to meditate they start saying: “My mind used to be calm, but it has gotten so restless,” or: “I used to be a nice person, but now I am just a wreck and falling apart.” The reality is that their mind was always restless, but not being introspective they did not realize it. They were also a complete ruin, mentally and spiritually, but they had no eyes with which to see it. Now they do, and they foolishly blame meditation. On the other hand, people who are practicing a wrong form of meditation (or a right form wrongly) do become increasingly restless and increasingly negative. I know of several kinds of meditation that really do bring about the mental and spiritual disintegration of those who practice them, and often the physical degeneration, as well. But those who meditate according to the teachings of the upanishads will have no problem.

More from the Upanishads: • An Introduction to the Upanishads
Selections from the Text of the Eleven Major Upanishads from The Upanishads: Breath of the Eternal–translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Frederick Manchester
• The Isha Upanishad • The Katha Upanishad • The Taittiriya Upanishad • The Aitareya Upanishad • The Chandogya Upanishad • The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad	• The Kena Upanishad • The Prashna Upanishad • The Mundaka Upanishad • The Mandukya Upanishad • The Shvetashvatara Upanishad
Commentaries on the Upanishads by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
Katha Upanishad:
1. The Past is the Future 2. Seeing Death, Seeing Life 3. The Good and the Pleasant 4. The Way of Ignorance 5. The Mystery of the Self 6. How to Either Know or Not Know the Self 7. From the Unreal to the Real 8. Finding the Treasure 9. The Transcendent Reality of the Self 10. The Immortal Self 11. The Indwelling Self 12. The Omnipresent Self 13. The Sorrowless Self 14. Who Can Know the Self? 15. The All-Consuming Self	16. The Divine Indwellers 17. The Chariot 18. The Chariot's Journey 19. The Glorious Way 20. To Know The Self 21. The Power of Enlightenment 22. The Infinite Self 23. The Dweller in the Heart 24. The Birthless Self 25. The Shining Self 26. The Life-Giving Self 27. The Eternal Brahman–The Eternal Self 28. The Radiant Self 29. The Universal Tree 30. Hierarchy of Consciousness 31. From Mortality to Immortality
Isha Upanishad:	Kena Upanishad:
1. Seeing All Things in God 2. Living a Life Worth Living 3. Spiritual Suicides 4. The Undivided Unmoving Self 5. The Ever-Present Self 6. The All-Embracing Self 7. Perspective on Life 8. Seeing Beyond the Sun 9. The Final Aspiration	1. The Mover of the Moved 2. Knowing that is Ignorance, and Unknowing That is Knowing 3. The Blessed 4. Approaching Brahman
	Aitereya Upanishad:
	1. The Worlds and the Self
Prashna Upanishad:	Mundaka Upanishad:
1. The Right Beginning 2. The Father and Mother of All 3. The Powers That Make Us “Be” 4. Prana: Its History and Nature 5. The Witnessing Self 6. Meditation on Om 7. Where is the Self?	1. Knowing the ALL 2. Delusion and Ignorance 3. Wisdom and Truth 4. Getting in Perspective 5. Origin and Return 6. Knowing God 7. The Two Selves 8. The God Within, The Sage Without 9. Hail To the Sages!
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:
1. The World and the Self 2. Correcting Our Ideas About Brahman 3. The Dearness of the Self 4. Divine Sweetness 5. The Wisdom of the Wise 6. The Sutratman, the “Thread” Self	7. Janaka and Yajnavalkya–1 8. Janaka and Yajnavalkya–2 9. The Process of Reincarnation 10. The Path of Liberation 11. Some Final Words
Chandogya Upanishad:	Mandukya Upanishad:
1. The Glory of Om 2. The Gods and Om 3. The Sages and Om 4. Four Things God REALLY Wants You to Know 5. The Light Within 6. The Self Within 7. Satyakama 8. Upakosala 9. Svetaketu 10. The Essence of the Mind and Prana 11. Narada 12. Within the Lotus of the Heart 13. Crossing the Boundary 14. Devas and Demons Seeking the Self	1. The Shabda Brahman: Om
	Taittiriya Upanishad:
	1. Reflections On Brahman 2. Necessary Lessons 3. The Source and the Goal 4. Brahman, Creation, and Us 5. The Ladder of Understanding
	Shvetashvatara Upanishad:
	1. The Universe and Its Mystery 2. Realizing God 3. Brahman/Ishwara 4. The Upanishadic Seer Speaks of Ishwara 5. The Prayer of Liberation
PDF Downloads
• Full Commentary on the Upanishads, by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

1) Isha Upanishad 17 [Go back]

2) II Corinthians 6:2 [Go back]

3) John 9:4 [Go back]

4) Luke 17:33 [Go back]

5) Bhagavad Gita 4:10 [Go back]

6) Bhagavad Gita 4:37 [Go back]

7) Katha Upanishad 1. 2.15-17 [Go back]

8) Svetasvatara Upanishad 1:7 [Go back]

9) Svetasvatara Upanishad 4:17 [Go back]

10) Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 5.1.1 [Go back]

11) Chandogya Upanishad 1.1.3 [Go back]

12) Taittiriya Upanishad 1.8.1 [Go back]

13) Anugita XI [Go back]

14) Manu Smriti 2:83,87 [Go back]

15) Yoga Sutras 1:28 [Go back]

16) Chandogya Upanishad 1.1.1 [Go back]

17) Katha Upanishad 1. 2.15-17 [Go back]

18) Mandukya Upanishad 1.8.12 [Go back]

19) Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.3-6 [Go back]

20) Prashna Upanishad 5:1,5,7 [Go back]

21) Svetasvatara Upanishad 2:6 [Go back]

22) Taittiriya Upanishad 1.8.1 [Go back]

23) Psalms 36:9 [Go back]