Īśa Upanishad

ईशा वास्यमिदं सर्वं यत्किञ्च जगत्यां जगत् ।
तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा मा गृधः कस्यस्विद्धनम् ॥ १ ॥

īśā vāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat |
tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam || 1 ||

All this — whatever moves in this moving world — is to be covered by the Lord. Protect yourself through that renunciation; do not covet, for whose indeed is wealth?

Śaṅkara reads vāsyam as 'to be covered': the whole world of names and forms is to be mentally clothed in the awareness of one's own Self as the Lord, the way bad odour is covered by sandal paste. For the knower, renunciation (tyāga) is the natural consequence — nothing remains to be desired, since nothing is other than oneself. The closing question 'whose is wealth?' dissolves ownership itself: nothing ever belonged to anyone.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 1 (tr. Gambhirananda, Eight Upaniṣads Vol. 1)

कुर्वन्नेवेह कर्माणि जिजीविषेच्छतं समाः ।
एवं त्वयि नान्यथेतोऽस्ति न कर्म लिप्यते नरे ॥ २ ॥

kurvann eveha karmāṇi jijīviṣec chataṁ samāḥ |
evaṁ tvayi nānyatheto 'sti na karma lipyate nare || 2 ||

Performing action here alone, one should wish to live a hundred years. For a person such as you, there is no way other than this whereby action does not cling.

Where mantra 1 spoke to the renunciate-knower, mantra 2 addresses the one who cannot yet renounce: for such a person the right course is a full life of prescribed action performed as duty. Śaṅkara stresses the division of adhikāra — the two mantras address two eligibilities, not one contradictory teaching. Acted upon in this dedicated spirit, karma purifies rather than binds.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 2; cf. Gītā 3.5–9 on the same theme

असुर्या नाम ते लोका अन्धेन तमसावृताः ।
तांस्ते प्रेत्याभिगच्छन्ति ये के चात्महनो जनाः ॥ ३ ॥

asuryā nāma te lokā andhena tamasāvṛtāḥ |
tāṁs te pretyābhigacchanti ye ke cātmahano janāḥ || 3 ||

Sunless indeed are those worlds, covered in blinding darkness. To them, after death, go those people who slay the Self.

The 'slayer of the Self' is not a literal killer: Śaṅkara explains that the ever-present Ātman is 'slain' when it is veiled by ignorance — one who lives as though the Self did not exist has, in effect, murdered it, and reaps birth after birth of un-illumined existence. The mantra is the Upaniṣad's negative motivation: the cost of ignoring the very first verse.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 3

अनेजदेकं मनसो जवीयो नैनद्देवा आप्नुवन्पूर्वमर्षत् ।
तद्धावतोऽन्यानत्येति तिष्ठत्तस्मिन्नपो मातरिश्वा दधाति ॥ ४ ॥

anejad ekaṁ manaso javīyo nainad devā āpnuvan pūrvam arṣat |
tad dhāvato 'nyān atyeti tiṣṭhat tasminn apo mātariśvā dadhāti || 4 ||

Unmoving, one, swifter than the mind — the senses could not overtake it, for it went before them. Standing still, it outruns all who run; in it, the cosmic energy supports all activity.

The classic paradox-language of the Upaniṣads: the Self does not move because it is already everywhere; it is 'swifter than mind' because wherever the mind arrives, consciousness is there first. 'Devāḥ' Śaṅkara glosses as the sense-organs (from div, to illumine). Mātariśvā — the cosmic prāṇa or Hiraṇyagarbha — administers the whole web of action only on the changeless substratum of that Self.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 4

तदेजति तन्नैजति तद्दूरे तद्वन्तिके ।
तदन्तरस्य सर्वस्य तदु सर्वस्यास्य बाह्यतः ॥ ५ ॥

tad ejati tan naijati tad dūre tad v antike |
tad antar asya sarvasya tad u sarvasyāsya bāhyataḥ || 5 ||

It moves, and it moves not; it is far, and it is near; it is within all this, and it is outside all this.

Far for the ignorant — unreachable even in millions of years, says Śaṅkara — and nearer than near for the wise, being their very Self. It 'moves' only through its apparent conditioning by moving bodies; in itself it is motionless. Inside as the witness of every experience, outside as the all-pervading reality: the mantra deliberately breaks the intellect's either/or categories.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 5

यस्तु सर्वाणि भूतान्यात्मन्येवानुपश्यति ।
सर्वभूतेषु चात्मानं ततो न विजुगुप्सते ॥ ६ ॥

yas tu sarvāṇi bhūtāny ātmany evānupaśyati |
sarva-bhūteṣu cātmānaṁ tato na vijugupsate || 6 ||

But he who sees all beings in the very Self, and the Self in all beings — he thereafter shrinks from nothing.

Anupaśyati — 'sees following' the teaching of the śāstra and teacher: not physical sight but realized vision. Hatred, disgust and fear all require a second thing; when everything is seen as one's own Self, the very basis of aversion collapses. This mantra and the next are, for Śaṅkara, the fruit of mantra 1 stated as direct experience.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 6

यस्मिन्सर्वाणि भूतान्यात्मैवाभूद्विजानतः ।
तत्र को मोहः कः शोक एकत्वमनुपश्यतः ॥ ७ ॥

yasmin sarvāṇi bhūtāny ātmaivābhūd vijānataḥ |
tatra ko mohaḥ kaḥ śoka ekatvam anupaśyataḥ || 7 ||

When, for the knower, all beings have become the Self alone — then what delusion, what sorrow, for the one who sees oneness?

Sorrow and delusion — śoka and moha, the same pair the Gītā opens by treating — are diagnosed as effects of ignorance of oneness. The questions are rhetorical negations: they have no possible object. Śaṅkara notes this verse shows the total uprooting of saṁsāra, with its causes, for the knower of Brahman.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 7; echoed at Bṛhadāraṇyaka 4.4.14

स पर्यगाच्छुक्रमकायमव्रणमस्नाविरं शुद्धमपापविद्धम् ।
कविर्मनीषी परिभूः स्वयम्भूर्याथातथ्यतोऽर्थान् व्यदधाच्छाश्वतीभ्यः समाभ्यः ॥ ८ ॥

sa paryagāc chukram akāyam avraṇam asnāviraṁ śuddham apāpa-viddham |
kavir manīṣī paribhūḥ svayambhūr yāthātathyato 'rthān vyadadhāc chāśvatībhyaḥ samābhyaḥ || 8 ||

He, the all-pervading, is radiant, bodiless, scatheless, without sinews, pure, unpierced by evil — the seer, the master of the mind, transcendent, self-existent. He has duly allotted their functions to the eternal years.

Eight negations and affirmations in one breath: 'bodiless, without sinews, without wound' deny the gross body; 'pure, unpierced by evil' deny the subtle; what remains is the self-luminous witness. Being self-existent, the Self depends on nothing — yet it is on its basis that the cosmic order (the 'eternal years,' the Prajāpatis and cycles) is faithfully arranged. Metaphysics and cosmic ethics meet in one verse.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 8

अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्ति येऽविद्यामुपासते ।
ततो भूय इव ते तमो य उ विद्यायां रताः ॥ ९ ॥

andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti ye 'vidyām upāsate |
tato bhūya iva te tamo ya u vidyāyāṁ ratāḥ || 9 ||

Into blinding darkness enter those who worship ignorance; into darkness greater still, as it were, those who delight in knowledge.

A famously debated verse. In Śaṅkara's reading, avidyā here means karma — ritual action — and vidyā means upāsanā, meditative knowledge of deities; neither, pursued exclusively, liberates. Karma alone yields the 'darkness' of continued mortality; deity-knowledge alone yields subtler but still bound states. The critique is of exclusivity, preparing the synthesis of mantra 11.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 9 (avidyā = karma; vidyā = devatā-jñāna)

अन्यदेवाहुर्विद्ययाऽन्यदाहुरविद्यया ।
इति शुश्रुम धीराणां ये नस्तद्विचचक्षिरे ॥ १० ॥

anyad evāhur vidyayā 'nyad āhur avidyayā |
iti śuśruma dhīrāṇāṁ ye nas tad vicacakṣire || 10 ||

Distinct, they say, is the result of knowledge; distinct, they say, the result of action — thus have we heard from the wise who explained it to us.

An appeal to the unbroken teaching lineage (śuśruma — 'we have heard'): the results of upāsanā (attainment of higher realms, deva-loka) and of karma (the world of the manes, continued becoming) are categorically different, so neither can substitute for the other. The verse establishes the premise the next mantra resolves.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 10

विद्यां चाविद्यां च यस्तद्वेदोभयं सह ।
अविद्यया मृत्युं तीर्त्वा विद्ययाऽमृतमश्नुते ॥ ११ ॥

vidyāṁ cāvidyāṁ ca yas tad vedobhayaṁ saha |
avidyayā mṛtyuṁ tīrtvā vidyayā 'mṛtam aśnute || 11 ||

He who knows these two — knowledge and action — together, crosses death through action and attains immortality through knowledge.

The famous samuccaya (combination) verse. For Śaṅkara: action purifies and carries one across 'death' — the natural pull of unrighteous tendencies — while deity-meditation lifts one to relative 'immortality,' the state of Hiraṇyagarbha; absolute liberation still requires Self-knowledge beyond both. Later Vedāntins read here the whole architecture of karma-yoga preparing jñāna: act to purify, know to be free.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 11 (amṛta here = relative immortality)

अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्ति येऽसम्भूतिमुपासते ।
ततो भूय इव ते तमो य उ सम्भूत्यां रताः ॥ १२ ॥

andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti ye 'sambhūtim upāsate |
tato bhūya iva te tamo ya u sambhūtyāṁ ratāḥ || 12 ||

Into blinding darkness enter those who worship the Unmanifest; into darkness greater still, as it were, those who delight in the Manifest.

A parallel critique on the cosmological plane. Asambhūti Śaṅkara identifies as unmanifest prakṛti, sambhūti as the manifested Hiraṇyagarbha (kārya-brahman). Fixation on either — dissolution into the unmanifest cause, or attainment of the highest manifest effect — is still within the created order, hence 'darkness' relative to liberation.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 12

अन्यदेवाहुः सम्भवादन्यदाहुरसम्भवात् ।
इति शुश्रुम धीराणां ये नस्तद्विचचक्षिरे ॥ १३ ॥

anyad evāhuḥ sambhavād anyad āhur asambhavāt |
iti śuśruma dhīrāṇāṁ ye nas tad vicacakṣire || 13 ||

Distinct, they say, is the result from the Manifest; distinct, they say, the result from the Unmanifest — thus have we heard from the wise who explained it to us.

Structurally identical to mantra 10, now applied to cosmological meditation: worship of Hiraṇyagarbha yields extraordinary powers (aṇimā and the rest, in Śaṅkara's gloss), absorption in prakṛti yields dissolution into the unmanifest. Different means, different — and both limited — ends.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 13

सम्भूतिं च विनाशं च यस्तद्वेदोभयं सह ।
विनाशेन मृत्युं तीर्त्वा सम्भूत्याऽमृतमश्नुते ॥ १४ ॥

sambhūtiṁ ca vināśaṁ ca yas tad vedobhayaṁ saha |
vināśena mṛtyuṁ tīrtvā sambhūtyā 'mṛtam aśnute || 14 ||

He who knows these two — the Manifest and Destruction — together, crosses death through Destruction and attains immortality through the Unmanifest.

Śaṅkara reads 'sambhūti' here as elliptical for asambhūti (the Unmanifest), and 'vināśa' as the perishable Manifest named by its property. The combined meditation carries the aspirant past ordinary mortality to prakṛti-laya — absorption into the unmanifest — the highest attainment within saṁsāra, still short of mokṣa. The triads 9–11 and 12–14 are deliberate mirrors: combine, don't absolutize.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 14

हिरण्मयेन पात्रेण सत्यस्यापिहितं मुखम् ।
तत्त्वं पूषन्नपावृणु सत्यधर्माय दृष्टये ॥ १५ ॥

hiraṇmayena pātreṇa satyasyāpihitaṁ mukham |
tat tvaṁ pūṣann apāvṛṇu satya-dharmāya dṛṣṭaye || 15 ||

The face of Truth is covered by a golden lid. O Pūṣan, remove it, for one devoted to truth, that he may see.

The dying devotee's prayer begins. The 'golden lid' is the very brilliance of the solar orb — the dazzling attractiveness of manifest glory that hides the Puruṣa within it. Even light can conceal, when we stop at it. Śaṅkara frames mantras 15–18 as the prayer of one who has combined action and meditation, seeking the way of the gods (devayāna) at death.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 15; the verse recurs at Bṛhadāraṇyaka 5.15.1

पूषन्नेकर्षे यम सूर्य प्राजापत्य व्यूह रश्मीन् समूह तेजः ।
यत्ते रूपं कल्याणतमं तत्ते पश्यामि योऽसावसौ पुरुषः सोऽहमस्मि ॥ १६ ॥

pūṣann ekarṣe yama sūrya prājāpatya vyūha raśmīn samūha tejaḥ |
yat te rūpaṁ kalyāṇatamaṁ tat te paśyāmi yo 'sāv asau puruṣaḥ so 'ham asmi || 16 ||

O Nourisher, sole Seer, Controller, Sun, son of Prajāpati — withdraw your rays, gather in your light. That most auspicious form of yours, that I behold. The Person who is there — He I am.

The climax: so 'ham asmi, 'He am I.' The prayer moves from asking the light to soften, to beholding the auspicious form, to the recognition that the Puruṣa in the sun and the person within one's own heart are one Self. Śaṅkara notes the identity of adhidaiva and adhyātma — the cosmic and the individual — as the constant teaching of Vedānta.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 16

वायुरनिलममृतमथेदं भस्मान्तं शरीरम् ।
ॐ क्रतो स्मर कृतं स्मर क्रतो स्मर कृतं स्मर ॥ १७ ॥

vāyur anilam amṛtam athedaṁ bhasmāntaṁ śarīram |
oṁ krato smara kṛtaṁ smara krato smara kṛtaṁ smara || 17 ||

Let this breath merge into the immortal cosmic air; let this body end in ashes. Om! O will, remember — remember what has been done. O will, remember — remember what has been done.

The deathbed mantra, still recited in Hindu last rites. As the individual prāṇa returns to the cosmic and the body to its elements, what carries forward is kratu — the shaped resolve of a lifetime, its accumulated meditation and deeds. The repetition enacts urgency. Śaṅkara: at the final moment, what one has practised is all one has; hence the lifelong discipline of remembrance, sealed with Om.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 17; cf. Gītā 8.5–6 on the final thought

अग्ने नय सुपथा राये अस्मान् विश्वानि देव वयुनानि विद्वान् ।
युयोध्यस्मज्जुहुराणमेनो भूयिष्ठां ते नमउक्तिं विधेम ॥ १८ ॥

agne naya supathā rāye asmān viśvāni deva vayunāni vidvān |
yuyodhy asmaj juhurāṇam eno bhūyiṣṭhāṁ te nama-uktiṁ vidhema || 18 ||

O Agni, knowing all our deeds, lead us by the good path to the wealth of our actions. Remove from us the crooked sin. To you we offer the fullest word of salutation.

The Upaniṣad closes as it must for the combined path: with prayer, humility and surrender. The 'good path' is the northern way of the gods, contrasted with the 'crooked' path of repeated return. Being able to offer only salutation — 'we are spent; namas is all we have' — Śaṅkara reads as the exhaustion of self-effort into grace. The śānti-pāṭha 'pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idam' traditionally frames the whole text.Source: Śaṅkara-bhāṣya on Īśa 18; Ṛgveda 1.189.1 parallel