Upanishad, Ishavasya
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Immanence
Pranav Khullar, July 18, 2023: The Times of India
The notion of immanence circumscribes the Ishavasya Upanishad in all of its eighteen verses, postulating a life-affirming theory of creation, in contrast to the Advaitic notion of the world as a framework of illusion. Just as Spinoza postulated that God is not prior to or transcendent to creation but fully immanent within it, the Ishavasya Upanishad is seen to exemplify the deification of the world, in proposing the indivisibility of the impersonal Brahmn and the dynamic Shakti.
The first verse itself initiates this notion of immanence, “Isha vasyam idam sarvam”, where the manifest world is seen as enveloped by Isha, Ishwar, God or as Advaita would view it – the Self. The manifest world is itself the body of the god-principle, everything in this jagat, earth, living being or matter, is one with the universal motion, jagati, jagatyam jagat, Prakriti, Shakti. The second line of this first verse states that the way to enjoy this world is through renunciation.
Adi Shankara’s Advaita sees this verse as the Vedantic principle that the only way to inner bliss is through the renunciation of the external world, as it is unreal. Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo reinterpret the concept of renunciation radically, by stating that “the renunciation intended is an absolute renunciation of the principle of desire founded on egoism, and not the renunciation of world-existence. ”
The second verse of the Ishavasya exhorts us to perform our duties diligently all our lives, engage in karma, since creation is itself the impulse of the creator. There is no contradiction between engagement in the world and seeking inner freedom, since the world itself is a real manifestation of Shakti, Prakriti.
And in affirming creation and action, Vivekananda and Aurobindo see the Ishavasya Upanishad proposing a Vignana state of mind, greater than the Advaitic Jnana state of mind, wherein the Vignani not only realises his oneness with the transcendent Brahmn in Nirvikalpa Samadhi, but also that “Brahmn itself has become everything in the universe” and returns to the world to share this knowledge and uplift others. The Ishavasya itself redefines these traditional notions of knowledge and ignorance by stating that “those who follow ignorance enter into a great darkness, but those who follow knowledge enter into a greater darkness. ”
Adi Shankara’s Advaita views these verses as proposing a balance of two paths, by defining avidya, ignorance, as karma, action; and vidya, knowledge, as meditation. For meditation on knowledge alone can blind us to action required to be taken and leave us in a greater darkness of aconfused mind. But since the world framework is ultimately unreal for Shankara, he sees these verses as positing arelative, phenomenal immortality only, ultimately maya only.
Aurobindo’s worldview defines avidya as the state which sees the multiplicity of the world as real only; and vidya, knowledge, as a state of consciousness which has entered the Void beyond the multiplicity, but now blinds itself to the creative aspect of Brahmn which has manifested as this plural world.
This concept of immanence in the Ishavasya redefines Vedantic thought by providing a meaning to this phenomenal world, capable of spiritually uplifting life here itself.
