Ishopnishad

FROM THE COMMENTARY ON UPANISHAD
BY SUDIP KUMAR BANERJEE

Isha Vashaya
Midam Sarvam yat Kinchit jatyam Jagat।
Ten Taykten Bhunjitha maa
Gradhh Kasya
Swidadhanam।।

In this universe, everything is controlled by God and is in union with God, whether it is animate or inanimate. God resides in everyone, therefore in your heart, don’t give any place to hatred or jealousy or violence for anyone, rather fill your heart with love for everyone as everything belongs to him, nothing is ours.

Sacrifice is the main key to realize the presence of God in us. The desire to realize God gets awakened and becomes stronger day by day by cultivating the thought and feeling of sacrifice in mind and heart. Try to follow the voice from the soul. This way desire gets destroyed.

Meaning:

The whole universe is the form of Braham.

God is residing in every living creature, in every atom and molecule, in the form of soul. Thus God is directing and controlling the whole universe. Within living creatures this soul takes the form of stable or serene life force residing on the top most point of the brain known as ‘Shastrar’.

Here the word life force has been used for ‘Pran’ (meaning life). This ‘stable life force’ when comes down from Shastrar, it becomes agile and flows through our nose in the form of breathing. This

pran again takes the form of pancha vayu (five types of air). These pancha vayu are named as Pran, Apan, Vyan, Udan and Saman. These vayus play very important role in the function of body and mind and also control and guide the process of thinking according to the fruits of past deeds.

Agile Apan vayu creates the veil of illusion and therefore it is the cause of ignorance. Because of this ignorance, human beings are not able to realize the presence of God in them. Thus this divine knowledge is hidden due to this ignorance.

Now the question comes as how do we know the presence of God within us?

The aim of human life is to realize this truth through divine knowledge. The way to get this knowledge is through sacrifice. The progress in spiritual life can be achieved through sacrifice only. Without sacrifice this realization is not possible.

This world is a huge illusion. Human beings are trapped in this illusion and get indulged in the joy of senses. As a result they get trapped more and more in the joy of senses which generates more and more desire in their mind.

One day these desires turn into thorn in their life. Therefore to manifest the truth, to realize the real element of soul, sacrifice is a must. This will help to eradicate the desires.

Now the question arises, as what do we mean by the word Sacrifice?

Here, sacrifice does not mean that you leave this world and go into the forest in search of God. Because by following this way your mind remains in the world only. The examples of realizing God by following this way are rare.

Here sacrifice means sacrifice of ego and for sacrificing the ego one has to control the process of breathing, that is, the direction of breathing is to be reversed. The life force which is flowing through nostril 21,700 times a day is to be saved. This frequency is to be reduced slowly by practicing introversive pranayama and finally to make it stable in kutasth.

This way the agile Apan vayu which is the cause of ignorance is also made stable and the devotee rises above ignorance. In Upanishad this has been defined as following the ‘path of soul’.

Man is under the fascination of the world due to ignorance and consequently he suffers. Then he cries for liberation from the pains and sorrows of the world but one cannot get freedom just by crying. To get liberation, one has to learn and practice the art of yoga from guru. While on the path, one should consider himself small as there is no place for ego on the path of self-realization. Out of their ego, people try to show that ‘I am above of all’.

If one wants to liberate the soul from the pains and sorrows of the world, one has to destroy his ego.

Always keep in mind that God is the donor and we are the recipient. Whatever he gives, it is his grace. Whatever we receive, that much only is receivable by us, nothing more than that. When this sense awakens in us, then only filthiness of mind will be removed and it will be possible for us to gain divine knowledge.

After getting that knowledge, we shall realize that whatever desires were there, all originated from God only. In this world, nothing is ours, even we ourselves. We have come into this world by his grace and love. Everything belongs to him but as we think that all these things are ours, this thinking becomes the source of all troubles.

All the mantras of Upanishad show the path of perfect life. When a devotee follows this path, the ambush-rebounded faced by devotee may create confusion in the mind of the devotee. At such a critical time one needs the guidance of guru, who can remove his doubts.  Flawless Upanishad can also redress all his doubts like guru.

The life becomes harmonious and beautiful by keeping the spiritual outlook at every stage of life.

A devotee can perform his duty properly only when his life is harmonious. This world with name and form can distract the mind of devotee from God and the distracted mind cannot gain the knowledge. To gain spiritual knowledge, the mind has to be calm. The only way to make the mind calm is to perform introversive Pranayam and to keep the mind always on kutastha that is in the centre of two eyebrows. This is known as staying in the ‘Para-Avastha of Kriya’. The genre of this Pranayam is known as ‘Kriya’. This is also known as ‘Pran-Karma’.

Performing Pranayama means giving rest to pran, means to see the life force. This technique has been discovered in the holy land of India by great rishi-muni and is based on truth.

The aim of performing kriya is to convert agile pran to stable/serene pran and from stable pran to super stable pran and finally to unite with the super stable life force in Shastrar. The ‘para-avastha’ of kriya is invisible, inadvertent, and imperceptible. Senses can neither be participle nor can they express. This is a higher stage of ‘para-avastha’, which can be gained only by long practices of keeping the mind on kutastha.

Omkar means ‘pranav dhavani’ which is a form of God. Dhavni means sound. One can find God by adherence to this divine sound. By performing introversive pranayam with faith and reverence ‘Omkar dhavani’ that is sound of Omkar is heard by the devotee.

In the next stage, by entering the mind in this Omkar dhavani, the divine sound which is already present in the body is being heard in the form of ‘Anahat’.

To get success in this spiritual practice, stability is a must and to achieve this stability, one has to cross the three gunas (virtues) that is Pran, Apan and Udan. This means with the help of pranayam first makes them stable and then lifts them up to sacrifice in kutash and further merge into to ‘Shastrar’. Then only one can destroy ego.

This way devotee rises above three Gunas and becomes united with ‘Braham’. This is known as ‘Gunatit Avastha’ means rising above Sattav, Rajah and Tmogun as described in Upanishad and Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta.

The devotee gets united with Braham. The life of such devotee becomes perfect and beautiful from all angles. Let us hear the voice of Kashi Baba (Sri Sri Shayama Charan Lahiri Mahasaya) regarding ‘Para-Avastha’.

“In the ‘Para-Avastha of kriya the ego gets dissolved and gets converted into Braham’. This state is known as Para-Avastha of kriya. It is advisable to perform the Pran-Karma by remaining in this state”

Disclaimer: The views expressed are personal