The Isha Upanishad goes straight to the heart of the problem of God and Nature, with its first 8 words: “Isavasyamidam sarvam yat kinca jagatyam jagat”.
- Isha and Jagat
- God and Nature
- Spirit and World are the two poles between which our consciousness revolves.
God/Isha/Spirit is the very basis of man’s existence. The Eternal is seated solely in all His creations. The Lord inhabits everything in this universe – that is the meaning of the first verse of the Isha Upanishad. From the brilliant sun to a beautiful rose, from the Gods to Titans, from man to the insect, which he crushes under his feet, everything is His temple and mansion. All was created in this universe for Him and His enjoyment of the multiplicity as well as the unity of His being. It is for the habitation of the Lord that all exists in the universe whether moving or unmoving.
The problem of a perfect life on earth and life free from all ills can only be achieved if we go back to the fundamental nature of existence. There are two words mentioned in the first verse of the Isha Upanishad: Isha and Jagat.
“The World is the habitation of the Lord” – understanding this truth with our mind, and realising it by our whole nature is the way to escape from evil, limitation and death.
Nature is a fleeting and inconstant motion preserved by the harmonious fixity of her laws. This subjection to the inconstancy of Nature is the reason for our bondage, death, limitation and suffering. We who are entangled in the modalities of Nature must realise that if we escape from the illusion of Nature we will reach the unqualified Spirit or God.
By rising to the God within us, we become free and stand liberated from the bondage of the world and death. For God is Freedom and God is immortality.
#SriAurobindo #IshaUpanishad
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