Isavasyopanishad: With the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya

The Isavasyopanishad, or the Samihitopanishad as it is known to distinguish it form the other Upanishads, comprises of 18 verses and falls into four sections. The Isavasyopanishad belongs to the Vajasaneyi school of Yajurveda. It deals with the problem of the material causality of the world and of man’s relation thereto. This is considered one of the most beautiful Upanishads both in thought and in expression. The Isavasyopanishad explores our relationship with the universe and the idea of self. “He who uniformly sees all beings even in his self and his own self in all beings, does not feel repelled thereform (i.e. from beings).” Through the renunciation of the not-Self there accrues to the self the highest enjoyment, everything becomes it, and it experiences the Bliss of Liberation. It is a law that the greater the renunciation, the greater is the joy experienced because of the absence of desires. Negating the concept of the Mimamsakas it asserts that the true Self has no comparison, non-doer, non-enjoyer, pure and ever untainted by sin.