ईशावास्यमिदं सर्वं यत्किञ्च जगत्यां जगत् ।
तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा मा गृधः कस्य स्विद्धनम् ॥ १ ॥
īśāvāsyamidaṃ sarvaṃ yatkiñca jagatyāṃ jagat |
tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā mā gṛdhaḥ kasya sviddhanam || 1 ||
jagatyām – in the universal motion ; yat kim ca – whatsoever ; jagat – individual universe of movement ; asti – is ; idam – this ; sarvam – all ; īśā – by the Lord ; vāsyam – for habitation ; tena – by that ; tyaktena – renounced ; bhūJñīthāḥ – thou shouldst enjoy ; kasyasvit – any man’s ; dhana – possession ; mā gṛdhaḥ – lust not after ;
Translation:
All this-whatever exists in this changing universe-should be covered by the Lord. Protect the Self by renunciation. Lust not after any man’s wealth.
Commentary:
This mantra is the most commented mantra in all the Upanishads.
What makes this mantra so contentious?
Recall what we mentioned in the Introduction about serving God and Mammon together. The ancient Hindu conception was the ‘Iti, iti’ path, the Via Positiva.
There is a highly illuminating passage from a lecture Swamiji delivered in Alameda in 1900, where he says: What is practical religion, then? To get to that state – freedom, the attainment of freedom. And this world, if it helps us on to that goal, is all right; if not – if it begins to bind one more layer on the thousands already there, it becomes an evil. Possessions, learning. beauty, everything else – as long as they help us to that goal, they are of practical value. When they have ceased helping us on to that goal of freedom, they are a positive danger. What is practical religion, then? Utilise the things of this world and the next just for one goal – the attainment of freedom. Every enjoyment, every ounce of pleasure is to be bought by the expenditure of the infinite heart and mind combined.
Look at the translation of this mantra that we have given above. This is a true translation of the mantra according to Shankara’s tradition, done by Swami Nikhilananda. Shankara had great aversion to the use of the word ‘Bhunjita’ in its meaning as ‘enjoyment’ or ‘experiences’. As we mentioned, this aversion sprung from the terrible degradation of the Hindu religion in the post Buddhist period. The hideous practices of the incoming tribes, which were indiscriminately incorporated into Buddhism and later on into Hinduism were all based on unbridled sensuality. So, Shankara scrupulously avoided the meaning ‘enjoy’ or ‘experience’ in the original Sanskrit word ‘Bhunjita’. The simple fact is – this word ‘Bhunjita’ means ‘enjoy’ or ‘experience’. So, how does one ‘enjoy’ or ‘experience’ the Self by renunciation? That is what Swamiji has explained in the passage quoted above: Utilise the things of this world and the next just for one goal – the attainment of freedom. Every enjoyment, every ounce of pleasure is to be bought by the expenditure of the infinite heart and mind combined.
Let us listen to Swami Vivekananda explain this ancient conception of spiritual life in his lecture ‘God in everything’[11]:
The Vedanta does not in reality denounce the world. The ideal of renunciation nowhere attains such a height as in the teachings of the Vedanta. But, at the same time, dry suicidal advice is not intended; it really means deification of the world – giving up the world as we think of it, as we know it, as it appears to us – and to know what it really is.
Deify it; it is God alone. We read at the commencement of one of the oldest of the Upanishads, ‘Whatever exists in this universe is to be covered with the Lord.’
We have to cover everything with the Lord Himself, not by a false sort of optimism, not by blinding our eyes to the evil, but by really seeing God in everything. Thus, we have to give up the world, and when the world is given up, what remains? God. What is meant? You can have your wife; it does not mean that you are to abandon her, but that you are to see God in the wife. Give up your children; what does that mean? To turn them out of doors, as some human brutes do in every country? Certainly not. That is diabolism; it is not religion. But see God in your children. So, in everything. In life and in death, in happiness and in misery, the Lord is equally present. The whole world is full of the Lord. Open your eyes and see Him. This is what Vedanta teaches. Give up the world which you have conjectured, because your conjecture was based upon a very partial experience, upon very poor reasoning, and upon your own weakness. Give it up; the world we have been thinking of so long, the world to which we have been clinging so long, is a false world of our own creation. Give that up; open your eyes and see that as such it never existed; it was a dream, Maya. What existed was the Lord Himself. It is He who is in the child, in the wife, and in the husband; it is He who is in the good and in the bad; He is in the sin and in the sinner; He is in life and in death.
A tremendous assertion indeed! Yet that is the theme which the Vedanta wants to demonstrate, to teach, and to preach. This is just the opening theme.
We all understand that desires are wrong, but what is meant by giving up desires? How could life go on? It would be the same suicidal advice, killing the desire and the man too. The solution is this. Not that you should not have property, not that you should not have things which are necessary and things which are even luxuries. Have all that you want, and more, only know the truth and realise it. Wealth does not belong to anybody. Have no idea of proprietorship, possessorship. You are nobody, nor am I, nor anyone else. All belongs to the Lord, because the opening verse told us to put the Lord in everything. God is in the wealth that you enjoy. He is in the desire that rises in your mind. He is in the things you buy to satisfy your desire; He is in your beautiful attire, in your beautiful ornaments. This is the line of thought. All will be metamorphosed as soon as you begin to see things in that light. If you put God in your every movement, in your conversation, in your form, in everything, the whole scene changes, and the world, instead of appearing as one of woe and misery, will become a heaven.
‘The kingdom of heaven is within you,’ says Jesus; so says the Vedanta, and every great teacher. ‘He that hath eyes to see, let him see, and he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.’ The Vedanta proves that the truth for which we have been searching all this time is present, and was all the time with us. In our ignorance, we thought we had lost it, and went about the world crying and weeping, struggling to find the truth, while all along it was dwelling in our own hearts. There alone can we find it.
If we understand the giving up of the world in its old, crude sense, then it would come to this: that we must not work, that we must be idle, sitting like lumps of earth, neither thinking nor doing anything, but must become fatalists, driven about by every circumstance, ordered about by the laws of nature, drifting from place to place. That would be the result. But that is not what is meant. We must work. Ordinary mankind, driven everywhere by false desire, what do they know of work? The man propelled by his own feelings and his own senses, what does he know about work? He works, who is not propelled by his own desires, by any selfishness whatsoever. He works, who has no ulterior motive in view. He works, who has nothing to gain from work.
When we have given up desires, then alone shall we be able to read and enjoy this universe of God. Then everything will become deified. Nooks and corners, by-ways and shady places, which we thought dark and unholy, will be all deified. They will all reveal their true nature, and we shall smile at ourselves and think that all this weeping and crying has been but child’s play, and we were only standing by, watching.
This is a ground-breaking achievement by Swamiji. The danger in India arises from plunging headlong into sensuality in the name of deifying the world. Even from the most ancient times in India, as recorded in the Upanishads, the point of conflict in religion has always been how much importance to be given to the Ideal and how to the real world? When Indians found that they cannot safely strike a balance between the two, the then leaders of society guided people towards complete renunciation of the world and to plunge into the inner world. This kept up a constant flow of spiritually realised souls in our society at all times. Then came Buddha. He said that there was no sense in practicing religion in this manner, and proclaimed that it is far better to serve one’s fellow beings than to isolate oneself and pray for one’s own salvation. Buddha’s call touched millions of hearts and over a period of time, it started taking the shape that there was no need to give-up the world to achieve spiritual goals. Engaged with this world itself, one could reach spiritual goals! In 500 years, people ended up concluding the exact opposite of what the Bhagavan preached! So, to clear up this confusion, Acharya Shankara once again went to the other extreme of claiming that even the least bit of engagement with this world will deprive you of spiritual knowledge! This was necessary to purify the dirty environment in Indian society during the post-Buddhist decadence. He has been able to do that with incredible efficiency, as we can learn from studying the beliefs of the people at present. In India, serious spiritual aspirants still believe that real religion can be had only by all-renouncing monks and nuns. The rest of the married folks are on an interminable journey of purification. It is interminable because, each time they purify themselves by visiting holy men or holy places, they again come back to their family, which is impure! Family life is impure! This is the deep-rooted belief on the common Indian today. No amount of political revolt or economic reformation will raise up a society when its members feel that life in society is impure and degrading! There is an extremely delicate balance between using this world and renouncing this world. Throughout the Lectures from Colombo to Almora, it is this fine balance that Swamiji strove to teach to the Indians.
Swamiji undertook the arduous task of staying clear of the post-Buddhist degradation and at the same time, correcting the post-Shankara conclusion that married life and life in society is impure. And the scriptural basis for this attempt by Swamiji is to be found here, in the mantras of Isha Upanishad.
What is noteworthy in this mantra is the dictum – Enjoy this life by renunciation. We understand that in order to enjoy this life, we need to possess and protect things, people and intangibles. If we renounce, can we enjoy? I have a wife and a son; I enjoy my relations with them. If I renounce my wife and son, how can I enjoy life? In this mantra, the Upanishad Rishi is hinting at a whole new level of enjoyment. None of our possessions need to be renounced. But, our attitude towards everything we possess can be altered and an attitude of service enters into our sense of possession. Everything that we possess as ours calls for our dedicated service. It is no longer a matter of ‘using’ something or someone; it is now a matter of serving something or someone. Utility has to be gauged in terms of the service we offer to something or someone. Academic knowledge, for instance. It is quite possible that we can grow arrogant about the knowledge we possess. And in order to escape from this egotism, we might have to renounce acquiring knowledge all together. This mantra opens up a new avenue in this regard. The mantra says, ‘Acquire more and more knowledge; but acquire it only to give it to others, not to hoard and grow arrogant.’ The same thing applies to everything that we can possess, be it persons, things, or intangibles. Swamiji thundered, “The secret lies there. The national ideals of India are Renunciation and Service. Intensify her in those channels, and the rest will take care of itself. The banner of the spiritual cannot be raised too high in this country. In it alone is salvation.”[12] This is the real translation and meaning of this Upanishad mantra. Bhunjita is to be translated as ‘Service’. Enjoyment can be seen as a graded concept. What starts as a sensory experience, graduates into dedicated service, and at each stage, it is indeed enjoyment.
In a poignant statement, Swamiji says: The highest Advaita cannot be brought down to practical life. Advaita made practical, works from the plane of Vishishtadvaita.[13] This mantra is the best example for the principle that Swamiji stated so beautifully. I exist. God exists. And this world exists. The effort will be to merge both myself and this world in God. That is Vishishtadvaita. If I don’t have an existence separate from God and if the world also doesn’t have an existence separate from God, that is Advaita. So, Advaita, if it has to be made practical, like it has been done in this mantra, it takes the form of Vishishtadvaita.
Swamiji says: The infinite human soul can never be satisfied but by the Infinite itself. Infinite desire can only be satisfied by infinite knowledge — nothing short of that. Worlds will come and go. What of that? The soul lives and for ever expands. Worlds must come into the soul. Worlds must disappear in the soul like drops in the ocean. And this world to become the goal of the soul! If we have common sense, we cannot he satisfied, though this has been the theme of the poets in all the ages, always telling us to be satisfied. And nobody has been satisfied yet! Millions of prophets have told us, “Be satisfied with your lot”; poets sing. We have told ourselves to be quiet and satisfied, yet we are not. It is the design of the Eternal that there is nothing in this world to satisfy my soul, nothing in the heavens above, and nothing beneath. Before the desire of my soul, the stars and the worlds, upper and lower, the whole universe, is but a hateful disease, nothing but that. That is the meaning. Everything is an evil unless that is the meaning. Every desire is evil unless that is the meaning, unless you understand its true importance, its goal. All nature is crying through all the atoms for one thing – its perfect freedom.[14] Hence, we don’t have any other option but to cover by the Lord all this – whatever exists in this changing universe. For, the Infinite Soul will be satisfied only by the Infinite Lord, and not by anything else.
What you only grasp intellectually may be overthrown by a new argument; but what you realise is yours for ever. Talking, talking religion is but little good. Put God behind everything — man, animal, food, work; make this a habit.
Ingersoll once said to me: “I believe in making the most out of this world, in squeezing the orange dry, because this world is all we are sure of.” I replied: “I know a better way to squeeze the orange of this world than you do, and I get more out of it. I know I cannot die, so I am not in a hurry; I know there is no fear, so I enjoy the squeezing. I have no duty, no bondage of wife and children and property; I can love all men and women. Everyone is God to me. Think of the joy of loving man as God! Squeeze your orange this way and get ten thousandfold more out of it. Get every single drop.”[Source]
Related Incident from the Life of Swami Chinmyananda (Chinmya Mission):
Once, a young boy asked Swami Chimayananda, “What made you renounce the world? You were a postgraduate in English Literature and Law, and a very successful journalist:
Swamiji asked him in return, “When will you spit that thing out?” referring to the chewing gum in the boy’s mouth. “Oh! I am just about to spit it out. There is no juice left in it,” said the boy. “Ah! I, too, did just that,” laughed Swamiji. “I had chewed the world sufficiently and did not find any more juice in it.”
IF YOU WOULD ENJOY THE FUN!
WHEN a man attains the knowledge of Brahman he clearly feels and sees that it is God Who has become everything. He has nothing to give up and nothing to accept. It is impossible for him to be angry with anyone.
One day I was riding a carriage. I saw two prostitutes standing on a verandah. They appeared to me to be embodiments of the Divine Mother Herself. I saluted them.
When I first attained this exalted state I could not worship Mother Kali or give Her the food offering. Haladhari and Hriday told me that on account of this the temple officer had slandered me. But I only laughed; I wasn’t in the least angry.
A holy man came to a town and went about seeing the sights. He met another sadhu, an acquaintance. The latter said: “I see you are gadding about. Where is your baggage? I hope no thief has stolen it.” The first sadhu said: “Not at all. First I found a lodging, put my things in the room in proper order, and locked the door. Now I am enjoying the fun of the city.”
Attain Brahmajnana and then roam about enjoying God’s Lila.
Swami Chetanananda: “In the West, so many people come to us: some are depressed, some are deluded. Do you have any advice for them?”
Swami Bhuteshananda: “Lust and greed are the source of all trouble. Nothing can be achieved unless one develops some dispassion. One needs the knife of renunciation, just as nowadays the doctors use a laser to cut through cataracts. One has to learn to love the Ideal, leaving aside the pleasures of the world.”
(Source: Stories of Vedanta Monks, Vol 1)
Source: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
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