TAKE FULLNESS FROM FULLNESS
Reflections on the ISA Upanishad by Sr ishpriya
These notes are offered as a 'backup to a series of recorded CDs by Sister Ispriya on the Isa Upanishad. They are available as a download from the Satsang Website http://www.international-satsang.org/ as a series of talks.Her first talk in the series, ‘WHY ?’ , sets the series and the Isa Upanishad in a context . These notes are offered as many may be interested in the Upanishads and their background.
Although we may come from different Faith Traditions, those of us who are committed and serious about our chosen spiritual path derive great comfort and inspiration from the Sacred Scriptures. In addition we know that the One we seek is in many ways ‘unknowable’ . God, the Supreme Spirit, Ultimate Reality Allah, Satguru or by whatever name we call Him is in many ways a sacred mystery. Our Muslim friends talk about the 99 names of God and Hindus talk of the 1000 faces of Brahman.
So each Faith Tradition provides a ‘window’ onto the Reality and each also has a strong history or tradition which dwells on the ‘Mystical’ aspect of God. In Islam, this is perhaps best represented by the Sufi Mystics and Masters. In Christianity we have the long tradition of the Desert Fathers, John of the Cross, Hildegard of Bingen and Mother Juliana of Norwich
The Upanishads are part of the Vedanta ( the end of the Vedas), whilst the Vedas themselves come from a Sanskrit word ( to know or to possess) The Upanishads are considered to be the ‘pearls of the Hindu teachings’ A very literal translation of the Sanskrit word Upanishad is ‘to sit at the feet of the Master. There are many hundreds of these ‘epistles’ or Upanishads. Their authors are unknown and they stretch back at least 3000 years. However, there are about twenty or so which are considered to be spiritual masterpieces and in most compilations the Isa Upanishad, although the shortest and by no means the oldest, is considered to be the most concise and prosaic of them all, in fact it is ‘ the jewel in the crown of the Upanishads’ . It is almost always the first one in any edition of the Upanishads. Unlike the great Bhagavad Gita, many of the Upanishads are not as well known but they do contain wisdom of equal validity and relevance.
The 18 verses plus the opening Shanti Patha ( Invocation for Peace) are contained in the following two pages.
Peter Creagh
ISAWASYA UPANISAD:- THE ISA UPANISHAD
SHANTI – PATHA Invocation of Peace Fullness is here; Fullness is there. When Fullness is taken from Fullness Fullness still remains |
1. Behold the Universe in the glory of God: and all that lives and moves on earth.
Leaving the transient, find Joy in the Eternal:
Set not your heart on another’s possessions.
2. Working thus, a man may wish for a life of a hundred years.
Only actions done in God bind not the soul.
3. There are demon haunted worlds, regions of utter darkness.
Whoever in life denies the Spirit falls into that darkness of death.
4. The Spirit, without moving, is swifter than the mind.
The senses cannot reach him: He is ever beyond them all.
Standing still, he overtakes those who run.
To the ocean of His being, the Spirit of Life leads the streams of
action.
5. He moves, and he moves not. He is far, and He is near.
He is within all, and he is outside all.
6. The one who sees all beings in his own Self, and his own Self in all beings, loses all fear.
7. When a wise one sees this Great Unity and his own Self has become all beings.
What delusion and what sorrow can ever be near him?
8. The Spirit filled all with his radiance.
He is without form and invulnerable, pure and untouched by evil.
He is the supreme seer and thinker, immanent and transcendent.
He placed all things in the path of Eternity.
9. Into deep darkness fall those who follow action.
Into deeper darkness fall those who follow knowledge.
10. One is the outcome of knowledge and the other is the outcome of action.
Thus have we heard from the ancient sages who explained this truth to us.
11. He who knows both knowledge and action, with action overcomes death and with knowledge reaches immortality.
12. Into deep darkness fall those who follow the immanent.
Into deeper darkness fall those who follow the transcendent.
13. One is the outcome of the transcendent
and the other is the outcome of the immanent.
Thus have we heard from the ancient sages who explained this
truth to us.
14. He who knows both the transcendent and the immanent, with the immanent overcomes death and with the transcendent reaches immortality.
15. The Face of Truth remains hidden behind a circle of Gold.
Unveil it, O God of Light, that I, who love the True, might see!
16. O life giving sun, off-spring of the Lord of Creation, solitary seer of
heaven!
Spread Thy Light and withdraw Thy blinding splendour,
that I might behold Thy radiant form.
That Spirit far away within Thee is my own inmost Spirit.
17. May Life go to immortal life, and the body go to ashes.
Oh my soul, Remember past strivings, Remember!
Oh my soul, Remember past strivings, Remember!
18. By the Path of Good lead us to final bliss, O Fire Divine, thou god
who knows all ways.
Deliver us from Wandering Evil.
Prayers and adoration we offer unto thee.
Translation by Juan Mascaro
(Penguin Books)
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