- •Isopanisad
- •His divine grace a.C.Bhaktivedanta swami prabhupada
- •Purpose
- •Section I
- •Introduction & summary of isopanisad
- •1. Meaning of Isopanishad:
- •2. Isopanisad is part of the Vedas:
- •3. Isopanisad and the other Upanishads:
- •4. Other Upanishads and Isopanisad indicate that God is full in six opulences:
- •5. In each and every Upanisad the Supreme Brahman is first viewed as impersonal, at the end the personal form of the Supreme Lord is accepted:
- •6. The purpose of the Upanisads, Vedanta-sutra and Srimad-Bhagavatam is one and the same:
- •7. Relationship of Isopanisad with Bhagavad-Gita:
- •8. Authorship of Isopanishad:
- •9. Isopanisad should be understood according to its original statements:
- •10. The method of translation and commentary of Isopanisad by Srila Prabhupada makes the book authentic and scholarly and makes the meaning self evident:
- •11. The basic philosophy of Isopanisad:
- •12. Main directions of Isopanisad summarized:
- •Lord is the proprietor of the entire Cosmic creation:
- •One should live by the direction of the Lord:
- •God is present everywhere:
- •Hence one should respect all things as parts and parcels of His Supreme Body
- •One can enjoy a fragment of this material creation under the control of the Lord, but not self-sufficiently.
- •Vidya and avida are very nicely explained in Isopanisad:
- •The Lord is apapa-viddham and suddham:
- •Liberating work is described in the pages of Sri Isopanisad:
- •Killer of the soul to suffer perpetually:
- •God is a person even if we cannot see Him with our eyes:
- •Arca-vigraha descends at the requests of the acaryas:
- •Lord rewards everyone’s desires:
- •Not to make one-sided attempts to win the struggle for existence:
- •Worship Krsna, not demogods:
- •Destination of pseudo religionists:
- •Sri Isopanisad advises us to pour water on the root
- •To know God in full one needs to penetrate His effulgence:
- •Bhakti Yogi is highest:
- •Section II – lectures on isopanisad verses
- •Iti çuçruma dhéräëäà
- •Iti çuçruma dhéräëäà
- •Section III – references to verses of isopanisad by srila prabhupada in his preaching
- •Introduction
- •Invocation Mantra
- •Mantra 1
- •Vairagyam phalgu kathyate
- •Mantra 2
- •In the words of Çré Éçopaniñad (3),
- •Mantra 5
- •Mantra 7
- •Mantra 11
- •Vidyäà cävidyäà ca yas
- •Vidyayämåtam açnute
- •Väsudevaù sarvam iti
- •Mantra 12
- •Mantra 14
- •Mantra 15
- •Section IV – srila prabhupada’s desires and instructions on isopanisad to his disciples
- •Instructions regarding Printing and distribution of Sri Isopanisad:
- •100 © 2009 International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Inc., New York
Liberating work is described in the pages of Sri Isopanisad:
One should execute all one’s activities in relation with isavasya, the God-centered conception:
An ordinary man works for his own sense enjoyment, and when this principle of sense enjoyment is extended to include his society, nation or humanity in general, it assumes various attractive names such as altruism, socialism, communism, nationalism and humanitarianism. These "isms" are certainly very attractive forms of karma-bandhana (karmic bondage), but the Vedic instruction of Sri Isopanisad is that if one actually wants to live for any of the above "isms," he should make them God-centered. There is no harm in becoming a family man, or an altruist, a socialist, a communist, a nationalist or a humanitarian, provided that one executes his activities in relation with isavasya, the God-centered conception.
(Iso 2)
The greatest danger of life is the danger of gliding down again into the evolutionary cycle of birth and death among the 8,400,000 species. If somehow or other a man misses the spiritual opportunity afforded by his human form of life and falls down again into the evolutionary cycle, he must be considered most unfortunate. Due to his defective senses, a foolish man cannot see that this is happening. Consequently Sri Isopanisad advises us to exert our energy in the spirit of isavasya. Being so engaged, we may wish to live for many, many years; otherwise a long life in itself has no value.
One should therefore not indulge in hearing and speaking of the rubbish activities of worldly politicians and so-called big men in society but should mold his life in such a way that he can engage in godly activities without wasting a second. Sri Isopanisad directs us toward such godly activities.
(Iso 17)
Intelligent men well know that both good and bad work equally bind one to the material miseries. Consequently they seek that work which will free them from the reactions of both good and bad work. Such liberating work is described here in the pages of Sri Isopanisad.
(Iso 2)
When altruistic activities are executed in the spirit of Sri Isopanisad, they become a form of karma-yoga. Such activities are recommended in the Bhagavad-gita (18.5-9), for they guarantee their executor protection from the danger of sliding down into the evolutionary process of birth and death. Even though such God-centered activities may be half-finished, they are still good for the executor because they will guarantee him a human form in his next birth. In this way one can have another chance to improve his position on the path of liberation.
(Iso 2)
Killer of the soul to suffer perpetually:
Sri Isopanisad warns in clear terms that the killer of the soul is destined to enter into the darkest region of ignorance to suffer perpetually....Some of the regions where the asuras are sent to work are revealed in this verse of Sri Isopanisad. If a man fails to discharge his duties as a human being, he is forced to transmigrate to the asurya planets and take birth in degraded species of life to work hard in ignorance and darkness.
(Iso 3)
Sri Isopanisad warns of the futility of trying to establish the identity of the Lord through mental speculation. One should try to learn of the Transcendence from the Lord Himself, the supreme source of the Vedas, for the Lord alone has full knowledge of the Transcendence.
Every part and parcel of the Complete Whole is endowed with some particular energy to act according to the Lord's will. When the part-and-parcel living entity forgets his particular activities under the Lord's will, he is considered to be in maya, illusion. Thus from the very beginning Sri Isopanisad warns us to be very careful to play the part designated for us by the Lord. This does not mean that the individual soul has no initiative of his own. Because he is part and parcel of the Lord, he must partake of the initiative of the Lord as well. When a person properly utilizes his initiative, or active nature, with intelligence, understanding that everything is the Lord's potency, he can revive his original consciousness, which was lost due to association with maya, the external energy.
(Iso 4)