The Upanishads | Page 8

this he gains
inevitably a knowledge of God, because the Soul and God are one and
inseparable; and when he knows himself to be one with the Supreme
and Indestructible Whole, he realizes his immortality.
XII
They fall into blind darkness who worship the Unmanifested and they
fall into greater darkness who worship the manifested.
XIII
By the worship of the Unmanifested one end is attained; by the worship
of the manifested, another. Thus we have heard from the wise men who
taught us this.
XIV
He who knows at the same time both the Unmanifested (the cause of
manifestation) and the destructible or manifested, he crosses over death
through knowledge of the destructible and attains immortality through
knowledge of the First Cause (Unmanifested).
This particular Upanishad deals chiefly with the Invisible Cause and
the visible manifestation, and the whole trend of its teaching is to show
that they are one and the same, one being the outcome of the other
hence no perfect knowledge is possible without simultaneous
comprehension of both. The wise men declare that he who worships in
a one-sided way, whether the visible or the invisible, does not reach the
highest goal. Only he who has a co-ordinated understanding of both the
visible and the invisible, of matter and spirit, of activity and that which
is behind activity, conquers Nature and thus overcomes death. By work,
by making the mind steady and by following the prescribed rules given
in the Scriptures, a man gains wisdom. By the light of that wisdom he
is able to perceive the Invisible Cause in all visible forms. Therefore
the wise man sees Him in every manifested form. They who have a true
conception of God are never separated from Him. They exist in Him
and He in them.
XV
The face of Truth is hidden by a golden disk. O Pushan (Effulgent
Being)! Uncover (Thy face) that I, the worshipper of Truth, may behold
Thee.
XVI

O Pushan! O Sun, sole traveller of the heavens, controller of all, son of
Prajapati, withdraw Thy rays and gather up Thy burning effulgence.
Now through Thy Grace I behold Thy blessed and glorious form. The
Purusha (Effulgent Being) who dwells within Thee, I am He.
Here the sun, who is the giver of all light, is used as the symbol of the
Infinite, giver of all wisdom. The seeker after Truth prays to the
Effulgent One to control His dazzling rays, that his eyes, no longer
blinded by them, may behold the Truth. Having perceived It, he
proclaims: "Now I see that that Effulgent Being and I are one and the
same, and my delusion is destroyed." By the light of Truth he is able to
discriminate between the real and the unreal, and the knowledge thus
gained convinces him that he is one with the Supreme; that there is no
difference between himself and the Supreme Truth; or as Christ said, "I
and my Father are one."
XVII
May my life-breath go to the all-pervading and immortal Prana, and let
this body be burned to ashes. Om! O mind, remember thy deeds! O
mind, remember, remember thy deeds! Remember!
Seek not fleeting results as the reward of thy actions, O mind! Strive
only for the Imperishable. This Mantram or text is often chanted at the
hour of death to remind one of the perishable nature of the body and the
eternal nature of the Soul. When the clear vision of the distinction
between the mortal body and the immortal Soul dawns in the heart,
then all craving for physical pleasure or material possession drops away;
and one can say, let the body be burned to ashes that the Soul may
attain its freedom; for death is nothing more than the casting-off of a
worn-out garment.
XVIII
O Agni (Bright Being)! Lead us to blessedness by the good path. O
Lord! Thou knowest all our deeds, remove all evil and delusion from us.
To Thee we offer our prostrations and supplications again and again.
Here ends this Upanishad

This Upanishad is called Isa-Vasya-Upanishad, that which gives
Brahma-Vidya or knowledge of the All-pervading Deity. The dominant
thought running through it is that we cannot enjoy life or realize true
happiness unless we consciously "cover" all with the Omnipresent Lord.

If we are not fully conscious of that which sustains our life, how can we
live wisely and perform our duties? Whatever we see, movable or
immovable, good or bad, it is all "That." We must not divide our
conception of the universe; for in dividing it, we have only fragmentary
knowledge and we thus limit ourselves.
He who sees all beings in his Self and his Self in all beings, he never
suffers; because when he sees all creatures within his true Self, then
jealousy,