Hinduism

Isha Upanishad - Shloka 5



Tadejati tannaijati tad dure tadvantike,
tadan-tarasya sarvasya tadu sarv-syasya bahyatah (5)

Consciousness acts and acts not;
Distances matter not, far or near; 
His omnipresence is in every being;
Realise Him inside Self,
Experience Him everywhere.

Commentary 

The nature of the Infinite has further been explained. The seer who realises the Atman is unable to articulate but can only give hints and suggestions about the nature of the supreme. According to Vedic concept, the Consciousness does not undergo any change. Any modification or duality is unconceivable. The Infinite Consciousness is non-dual and unmodified. 

The present shloka takes up the inconceivable and contradictory presentation of the potencies of the Lord. 

He walks and does not walk; The Atman moves and It moves not; He is far away and yet very near; The seer resorts to contradictions to prove the inconceivable potencies of the Lord and describe His transcendental nature. The seer realises that He is without parts but He is the All; He dwells in the body but He is omnipresent; He enjoys and does not enjoy, He is intelligent in every limb. The seer sees the Truth as he sees that the things are strung in the Self as beads are strung on a thread and knows that “I am not the mind ”. Pure Consciousness is indivisible, without parts. It does not have any form or shape. There is nothing without or within, right or left, outside or apart from It. That is the ultimate Reality.

The seer knows that it is the Consciousness that experiences all but remains pure and unconditioned. It is the Absolute Truth but not as a conceit, but as pure awareness and nothing else. It is like sky, unconditioned and indivisible but it becomes cloud and conditioned. It can be compared to ultimate sub-atomic particle which yet hides within its heart the greatest of the mountains  The Supreme Being is formless yet five are its aspects-Will, space, time, order and destiny and cosmic manifestation . It has countless powers, energy, potency, knowledge, dynamics, actions, and non-actions. All these are but Pure Consciousness. They, though may so appear, are not distinct from It.
 
Everything is the manifestation of His energy within and without. Universe is in fact the external effulgent of the Infinite Consciousness which generates within itself the knowable with an idea of space and an enquiry about it. The entire objective universe exists as the Supreme lord, the Eternal, unborn, self–effulgent and He is the All who is omnipotent, beyond conception and description .He is, yet He is not realised by the world He is within the body too yet He is far. Actually people out of ignorance wander in search of God outside the world and do not peep Him inside their heart. He resides there. He is always near us yet we try to seek Him at a distance and fail due to duality concept. From Him emerge countless divinities even as countless rays emerge from the sun. It is from Him that Infinite worlds arise as ripples from the surface of the ocean. He is the Light that makes the Self and the world shine the individual cannot exist apart from the total. 

So the gross body cannot exist if not for the five great elements of the total. Individual is an essential constituent of the total. With it the total becomes complete and full. 

The Consciousness lives in the body inside the Jeeva and the same Consciousness stays in totality all over the existence. It knows no time and no place. It is all-pervading and omnipresent. Atman is motionless. It is substratum of the universe and everything is inside it yet He is outside of everything. It is the space that has no range and which cannot be measured. Who can fathom the consciousness then? The seer knows it and sees that He alone is That, the controller of all this and not the content.

Previous: Isha Upanishad - Shloka 4   
Next: Isha Upanishad - Shloka 6 
 

27-Mar-2011

More by :  Dr. R. K. Lahri

Top | Hinduism

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