[Advaita-l] Questions on the blessed Isa Upanishad

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

On Fri, 27 Nov 2020, H S Chandramouli wrote:

> The instructions in the first verse of IsAvAsya is meant for a sAdhaka who
> is a sAdhanachatushtaya sampanna and is a tIvra mumukshu. He has no other
> Goal in life other than Realizing the Truth. The verse addressing him states
> that the entire Creation, including all sentient and insensient  entities,
> should be realized as nothing but  his own Innermost Self, which is The
> Lord. Since everything is one’s own Self, the question of desiring for any
> object does not arise. This is in answer to the questions  raised by Kartik
> Ji.
> 
> The second verse is meant for people like the ones covered in the last
> question of Kartik Ji as well as the ones illustrated in the post by
> Srinivasa gadkari Ji. The first verse is not intended for them.
>

Some commentators note that, unusually, Ishopanishad is in the samhita 
portion of its shakha (it is the 40th adhyaya of Vajasaneyi Samhita of 
Shuklayajurveda) instead of the Brahmana so it is connected to karma in a 
way that other upanishads are not.

The term tyaga itself comes from karmakanda.  In a yajna, when the 
purohita recites a mantra and says e.g. agnaye svaha, "To Agni svaha!" the 
yajamana makes the offering and responds idam agnaye na mama "This is 
Agnis not mine."  This formula is called tyaga.  The big difference is 
that the karma tyaga is for a particular object and purpose while the 
Vedantic tyaga is universal.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>