Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Mantra 9–10

Prabhupāda: [chuckles] Hare Kṛṣṅa. Chant. Oṁ pūrṅam adaḥ.

Loudly.

oṁ pūrṅam adaḥ pūrṅam idaṁ pūrṅāt pūrṅam udacyate pūrṅasya pūrṅam ādāya pūrṅam evāvaśiṣyate [Īśo Invocation]

[The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.]

īśāvāsyam idam sarvaṁ yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam [Īśo mantra 1]

[Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.]

kurvann eveha karmāṅi jijīviṣec chataṁ samāḥ evaṁ tvayi nānyatheto 'sti na karma lipyate nare [Īśo mantra 2]

[One may aspire to live for hundreds of years if he continuously goes on working in that way, for that sort of work will not bind him to the law of karma. There is no alternative to this way for man.]

asuryā nāma te lokā andhena tamasāvṛtāḥ tāṁs te pretyābhigacchanti ye ke cātma-hano janāḥ [Īśo mantra 3]

[The killer of the soul, whoever he may be, must enter into the planets known as the worlds of the faithless, full of darkness and ignorance.]

anejad ekaṁ manaso javīyo nainad devā āpnuvan pūrvam arṣat tad dhāvato 'nyān atyeti tiṣṭhat tasminn apo mātariśvā dadhāti [Īśo mantra 4]

[Although fixed in His abode, the Personality of Godhead is swifter than the mind and can overcome all others running. The powerful demigods cannot approach Him. Although in one place, He controls those who supply the air and rain. He surpasses all in excellence.]

tad ejati tan naijati tad dūre tad v antike tad antar asya sarvasya tad u sarvasyāsya bāhyataḥ [Īśo mantra 5]

[The Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything.]

yas tu sarvāṅi bhūtāny ātmany evānupaśyati sarva-bhūteṣu cātmānaṁ tato na vijugupsate [Īśo mantra 6]

[He who systematically sees everything in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all living entities as His parts and parcels, and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything never hates anything or any being.]

yasmin sarvāṅi bhūtāny ātmaivābhūd vijānataḥ tatra ko mohaḥ kaḥ śoka ekatvam anupaśyataḥ [Īśo mantra 7]

[One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for him?"]

sa paryagāc chukram akāyam avraṅam asnāviram śuddham apāpa-viddham kavir manīṣī paribhūḥ svayambhūr yāthātathyato 'rthān vyadadhāc chāśvatībhyaḥ samābhyaḥ [Īśo mantra 8]

[Such a person must factually know the greatest of all, the Personality of Godhead, who is unembodied, omniscient, beyond reproach, without veins, pure and uncontaminated, the self-sufficient philosopher who has been fulfilling everyone's desire since time immemorial.]

andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti ye 'vidyām upāsate tato bhūya iva te tamo ya u vidyāyām ratāḥ [Īśo mantra 9]

[Those who engage in the culture of nescient activities shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge.]

Next verse, verse number..., mantra 10.

anyad evāhur vidyayā- nyad āhur avidyayā iti śuśruma dhīrāṅāṁ ye nas tad vicacakṣire [Īśo mantra 10]

[The wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge and that a different result is obtained from the culture of nescience.]

Just try.

Again.

Again.

[05:47]

"The wise have explained to us that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge, and it is said that a different result is obtained from the culture of nescience."

So yesterday we have explained to some extent what is the culture of nescience and what is the culture of knowledge. Culture of knowledge means spiritual knowledge. That is real knowledge. And advancement of knowledge for comforts or to protect this material body, that is the culture of nescience. Because however you may try to protect this body, its natural course will take place. What is that? Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi [Bg 13.9].

[Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.]

You cannot relieve this body from repeated birth and death and, while manifested, disease and old age.

So people are very much busy for culturing knowledge of this body, although they are seeing every moment that this body is decaying. The death of the body was registered when it was born. That's a fact. So you cannot stop the natural course of this body. You must meet the process of the body, namely, birth, death, old age and disease.

So Bhāgavata says, therefore, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṅape tri-dhātuke [SB 10.84.13].

[One who identifies his self as the inert body composed of mucus, bile and air, who assumes his wife and family are permanently his own, who thinks an earthen image or the land of his birth is worshipable, or who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there, but who never identifies himself with, feels kinship with, worships or even visits those who are wise in spiritual truth—such a person is no better than a cow or an ass.]

This body is made of three primary elements: mucus, bile and air. That is the Vedic version and Āyurvedic treatment. This body is a bag of mucus, bile and air. In old age the air circulation becomes disturbed; therefore old man becomes rheumatic, so many bodily ailments. So Bhāgavata says, "One who has accepted this combination of bile, mucus and air as self, he is an ass." Yes.

Actually, this is the fact. If we accept this combination of bile, mucus and air as myself... So intelligent person, a very great philosopher, very great scientist, does it mean that he's a combination of bile, mucus and air? No. This is the mistake. He's different from this bile or mucus or air. He's soul. And according to his karma, he's exhibiting, manifesting his talents.

So they do not understand this karma, the law of karma. Why we find so many different personalities? If it is a combination of bile, mucus and air, why they are not similar? So they do not cultivate this knowledge. Why there are dissimilarities? One man is born millionaire; another man is born, he cannot even have full meals twice a day, although he's struggling very hard. Why this discrimination? Why one is put into such favorable condition, why the other is not? So there is law of karma, the individuality.

So this is knowledge. Therefore the Īśopaniṣad says that anyad evāhur vidyayā anyad āhur avidyayā [Īśo mantra 10].

[The wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge and that a different result is obtained from the culture of nescience.]

Those who are in ignorance, they are cultivating a different type of advancement of knowledge, and those who are actually in knowledge, they are cultivating in a different way. Ordinary people, they do not like our activities, Kṛṣṅa consciousness. They are surprised. Gargamuni was telling me yesterday evening that people ask, "Where do you get so much money? You are purchasing so many cars and big church property, and maintaining fifty, sixty men daily and enjoying. What is this?" [laughter] So they are surprised. And we are surprised why these rascals are working so hard simply for filling the belly [laughter].

So Bhagavad-gītā says, yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgrati saṁyamī [Bg 2.69].

[What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.]

We are seeing that these people are sleeping, and they are seeing we are wasting our time. This is opposite view. Why? Because their line of action is different, our line of action are different. Now, it is to be decided by an intelligent man whose actions are actually right.

These things are very nicely discussed in Vedic literature. There is another... Just like this is Īśopaniṣad. Similarly, there is another Upaniṣad, Garga Upaniṣad. So that is the talk between husband and wife, very learned. The husband is teaching the wife. Etad viditvā yaḥ prayāti sa eva brāhmaṅa gargi. Etad aviditvā yaḥ prayāti sa eva kṛpanā [Gargopaniṣad].

[He is a miserly man who does not solve the problems of life and who thus quits this world like the cats and dogs, without understanding the science of self-realization.]

This real culture of knowledge, one who... Everyone takes birth and everyone will die. There is no difference of opinion about it. We shall die and they shall die. They can say that "You are thinking of birth, death, old age and disease. So do you mean to say that because you are cultivating Kṛṣṅa consciousness knowledge, you will be free from these four principles of nature's onslaught?" No. That is not the fact.

The fact is, the Garga Upaniṣad says, etad viditvā yaḥ prayāti. One who quits this body after knowing what he is, sa eva brāhmaṅa, he is brāhmaṅa. Brāhmaṅa... We are offering you the sacred thread. Why? Just you try to understand what is the mystery of life. That is brāhmaṅa. Vijānataḥ. We have read in this verse, vijānataḥ. One who quits this body after knowing things as they are, he is brāhmaṅa.

And etad aviditvā yaḥ prayāti... And one who quits this body without knowing the mystery of life, he's a kṛpaṅā. Kṛpaṅā means miser. Just like if you get one million dollars and you could not utilize it, simply you see that "Oh, I have got this bank balance"—you are happy simply by seeing it—then you are kṛpaṅā. You do not know how to utilize. And one who has got one million dollars and utilizing it and making millions and millions of dollars, he is intelligent.

Similarly, this body is invaluable. One who is utilizing it for culture of spiritual knowledge, he is brāhmaṅa. That is the difference between brāhmaṅa and kṛpaṅā. And one who is utilizing this body like cats and dogs for sense gratification, he is miser. He does not know how to utilize one million dollars. Everyone does not know.

But it is the duty of the father, duty of the state, duty of the teachers to educate from the very beginning. Bhāgavata says that one should not become a father, one should not become a mother, one should not become a teacher, one should not become a king unless they are able to elevate their dependents to this spiritual knowledge, which can save him from repeated birth and death.

Thank you.

Devotees: Jaya. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṅa. Chant Hare Kṛṣṅa.

[18:10]

[kīrtana] [Prabhupāda plays gong] [prema-dhvani] [end]