हिरण्मयेन पात्रेण सत्यस्यापिहितं मुखम् ।
तत्त्वं पूषन्नपावृणु सत्यधर्माय दृष्टये ॥ १५ ॥
पूषन्नेकर्षे यम सूर्य प्राजापत्य व्यूह रश्मीन्समूह ।
तेजः यत्ते रूपं कल्याणतमं तत्ते पश्यामि योऽसावसौ पुरुषः सोऽहमस्मि ॥ १६ ॥
hiraṇmayena pātreṇa satyasyāpihitaṃ mukham |
tattvaṃ pūṣannapāvṛṇu satyadharmāya dṛṣṭaye || 15 ||
pūṣannekarṣe yama sūrya prājāpatya vyūha raśmīnsamūha |
tejaḥ yatte rūpaṃ kalyāṇatamaṃ tatte paśyāmi yo’sāvasau puruṣaḥ so’hamasmi || 16 ||
The door of the Truth is covered by a golden disc. Open it, O Nourisher! Remove it so that I who have been worshipping the Truth may behold It.
O Nourisher, lone Traveller of the sky! Controller! O Sun, Offspring of Prajapati! Gather Your rays; withdraw Your light. I would see, through Your grace, that form of Yours which is the fairest. I am indeed He, that Purusha, who dwells there.
Commentary:
(Commentary for verses 15 & 16)
Here are two very beautiful prayers that the Isha Upanishad Rishi teaches us. The Rishi told us about the Spiritual Ideal. Then he told us what results to expect when the Ideal is realised in life. Now, the Rishi tells us about the way to realise that Ideal in our life. The way is Prayer.
In a letter written from USA on the 30th November, 1894 to Alasinga, Swamiji writes: The life of Shri Ramakrishna was an extraordinary searchlight under whose illumination one is able to really understand the whole scope of Hindu religion. He was the object-lesson of all the theoretical knowledge given in the Shastras (scriptures). He showed by his life what the Rishis and Avataras really wanted to teach. The books were theories; he was the realisation. This man had in fifty-one years lived the five thousand years of national spiritual life and so raised himself to be an object-lesson for future generations.[42] This is an incredible analysis of the life of Sri Ramakrishna. The oldest of Upanishads is considered to be the Isha Upanishad. And the spiritual practice enunciated by this oldest of Upanishads is Prayer. This Upanishad doesn’t mention about Yoga, Vidya, Vichara, Japa, Dhyana, Puja, Bhajana, Parayana, etc. The original spiritual practice of the Hindus, from which all other spiritual practices have evolved, is Prayer.
In Sri Ramakrishna’s life, we see this simple fact manifested clearly. The young Ramakrishna got a job as a priest in the newly built Kali Temple at Dakshineshwar. He took his job very seriously. He very soon started questioning the object of his daily worship. To whom do I offer worship daily? This enquiry took a very intense form and he started praying intensely to that presence to whom he was supposedly making offerings daily. This prayer became so intense that he one day had a most glorious spiritual vision of the Being to whom he was worshipping. Purely by prayer, he was able to perceive the Being to whom he offered daily worship. So, Sri Ramakrishna’s life was a microcosmic map of the entire religious history of Hinduism, covering the whole gamut of spiritual practices and spiritual experiences recorded in it.
Let me quote in-extenso from Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play[43]: As the days went by, the Master’s love and longing continued to increase. Because of his uninterrupted current of thought towards the Divine Mother, some external signs manifested in his body. His appetite and need for sleep diminished. As blood flowed continually to his chest and head, his chest turned crimson and his eyes were often drenched with tears. He was filled with a constant and intense desire to see the Divine Mother, and repeatedly asked himself: “What shall I do? How can I see Her?” Signs of anxiety and restlessness were therefore always visible in his body except when he meditated and performed worship.
We heard from the Master that one day at that time he was singing to the Divine Mother and praying and crying bitterly. He implored piteously: “Mother, I have been praying to You so long! Why don’t You listen to me? You showed Yourself to Ramprasad. Why won’t You show Yourself to me?”
The Master described what happened then: “There was an unbearable pain in my heart because I could not have a vision of Mother. Just as a man wrings out a towel with all his strength to get the water out of it, so I felt as if my heart were being wrung out. I began to think I should never see Mother. I was dying of despair. In my agony, I asked myself: ‘What’s the use of living this life?’ Suddenly my eyes fell on the sword that hangs in the Mother’s shrine. I decided to end my life then and there. Like a madman, I ran to the sword and seized it. Then I had a marvellous vision of the Mother and fell down unconscious. Afterwards what happened in the external world, or how that day and the next passed, I don’t know. But within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss that I had never before experienced, and I felt the immediate presence of the Divine Mother.”
On another occasion, the Master narrated to us in detail the same wonderful vision: “It was as if the room, doors, temple, and everything else vanished altogether; as if there were nothing anywhere! And what I saw was an infinite shoreless ocean of light; that ocean was consciousness. However far and in whatever direction I looked, I saw shining waves, one after another, coming towards me to swallow me up. They were madly rushing towards me from all sides, with a terrific noise. Very soon they were upon me, and they pushed me down into unknown depths. I panted and struggled and lost consciousness.” Thus, the Master told us that during his first vision he saw a shining ocean of consciousness. But was this pure consciousness the Divine Mother Kali, bestowing boons and fearlessness? Did the Master see Her in that ocean of light? It seems that he did. We heard that when he partially regained his consciousness after the first vision, he uttered plaintively, “Mother, Mother!”
When this vision ended, an incessant and violent urge for a constant, uninterrupted vision of the Divine Mother’s luminous form arose in the Master’s heart. Although this longing did not always manifest itself externally through signs such as weeping, it remained in his heart all the time. Sometimes it would increase to such a point that he could not contain it anymore. Restlessly rolling on the ground with agony, he would pray: “Mother, be gracious unto me. Reveal Yourself to me.” He would cry so bitterly that people would gather around him to watch. He was completely unconcerned about what people might say when they saw him in that condition. He later said: “I scarcely realized the presence of people around me. They looked more like shadows or painted pictures than real objects, and so I did not feel any shame or embarrassment at all. Sometimes I would lose outer consciousness from that unbearable agony. Immediately after that I would see the Mother’s luminous form bestowing boons and fearlessness! I used to see Her smiling, talking, consoling, or teaching me in various ways.”
Many years later, Sri Ramakrishna got a Guru in the great Vedantic monk Tota Puri, under whose guidance, he attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi. But, this attainment was most strenuous and difficult, even for an aspirant of the calibre of Sri Ramakrishna. The path was so difficult that at one point of time, the extraordinary disciple almost gave up. After attaining Nirvikalpa Samadhi, with superhuman effort, as guided by Tota Puri in the traditionally accepted Jnana-Marga, also known as the Via-Negative or the Neti-neti path, Sri Ramakrishna realised that this supreme state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi was the same state that he had achieved years ago purely by prayer! Hence, we find him saying the following to his disciples: “Let me assure you that a man can realize his Inner Self through sincere prayer.” [44]
After he had attained perfection in various Sadhanas, Sri Ramakrishna had many unique intuitive perceptions. Some of them were related to himself and others to spirituality in general:
- He is an incarnation of God.
- There is no liberation for him.
- He knew the time of his death.
- All religions are true: as many faiths, so many paths.
- Human beings adopt dualism, qualified non-dualism and non-dualism according to their temperaments.
- Ordinary people will progress through karma yoga
- A religious organization based on this catholic attitude should be founded.
Regarding the 6th perception, Swami Saradananda elaborates: The Master indicated the limits of action when he said, “The action of a sattvic person drops off automatically. He cannot work even if he tries to; the Lord does not allow him to work. It is just as when a young wife advances in pregnancy. She is given less and less work to do; and when the child is born, she gives up household work altogether and is busied exclusively with the infant. But an ordinary person must try to do his duties with detachment, depending on the Lord, like the maidservant who does everything for her master, knowing in her heart that her home is elsewhere. This is known as karma yoga. As far as possible one should take the name of the Lord and meditate on Him while discharging one’s everyday duties in an unattached way.”[45]
Prayer is thus an integral part of karma yoga, the path for the present age, as revealed by the Divine Mother of the Universe to Sri Ramakrishna. Prayer is therefore an integral part of Sri Ramakrishna’s Mission on earth. Everyone works in this world. What distinguishes work from Karma Yoga is prayer.[46]
Coming to the words used in these mantras: Who is this prayer addressed to? Nourisher is the common name in both the mantras. The ancient Hindus (in fact, the ancient people of all civilizations) looked upon the Sun as the nourisher of all life on earth. If the Nourisher is meant to be the Sun, then the other words used for addressing in these mantras makes sense: Lone traveller (in the sky); Controller; son of Prajapati. How is Sun the controller? It appears as though the entire world’s activity is determined by the movement of the axial earth around the Sun. Moreover, the seasons are also determined by the orbital movement of earth around the Sun. Even during the times of the Isha Upanishad, the Hindus seem to have had some sort of mythology, wherein, the Sun was the offspring of the god Prajapati, which in fact denotes the Lord of Creation.
Mantra #15 prays to the Nourisher, i.e. the Sun, to open the golden disc that covers the Truth, so that I, who am an honest and moral person, may perceive the Truth. Swamiji uttered a very similar statement during a lecture in San Francisco: The Guru is the bright mask which God wears in order to come to us. As we look steadily on, gradually the mask falls off and God is revealed.[47] In the light of Swamiji’s words, we might have to understand that Pushan refers to the Guru and not necessarily to the Sun. Referring to the great individual – the divine incarnation, the Guru, and the Rishi Swamiji used to say to Sister Nivedita: “You do not yet understand India! We Indians are man-worshippers, after all! Our God is man!” [48] Hindus have always been a poetic people. They have never been literalists. It is the Westerners who are literalists. All the adjectives used in this mantra – Nourisher, Lone traveller, Sun, son of Prajapati – are all synonyms for Guru also! Spirituality stands on the Guru-Shishya parampara, the ethereal, unbroken lineage of the Preceptor and the Disciple. Prayer can be offered to Guru. And Guru responds to the sincere prayer of the disciple. We have seen this phenomenon in innumerable Guru-Shishya relations all through history, across religions, not just in Hinduism. Swamiji writes in a letter to Pramadadas Mitra from Ghazipur on 3rd March 1890: Never during his life did he refuse a single prayer of mine; millions of offences, has he forgiven me; such great love even my parents never had for me. There is no poetry, no exaggeration in all this. It is the bare truth and every disciple of his knows it. In times of great danger, great temptation, I wept in extreme agony with the prayer, “O God, do save me,” but no response came from anybody; but this wonderful saint, or Avatara, or anything else he may be, came to know of all my affliction through his powers of insight into human hearts and lifted it off – in spite of my desire to the contrary – after getting me brought to his presence.[49]
Notice the words in mantra #16: I am indeed He, that Purusha, who dwells there. Just look at the psychology involved in this mantra. I am praying to Guru, or the Personal God. I am imploring the object of my prayer to reveal the Truth. And then, I slip in the words ‘I am indeed He, that Purusha, who dwells there.’ How can this be?
Swamiji says: The Bhakta should be ready to stand up and say, ‘I do not want anything from you, Lord, but if you need anything from me I am ready to give.’ Love knew no fear.[50] Prayer is a powerful transformative tool in the hands of a person whose character is strong. Swamiji points out that Prayer has many stages. In the lower stages of prayer, we ask for trivial things. He says that as long as we are weak, we might need to make such prayers. But, he says, such prayers can never be made to God, but only to saints and the Personal God. All those senseless ideas of prayer, the low stages of prayer, which are simply giving words to all sorts of silly desire in our minds, perhaps, will have to go. In all sensible religions, they never allow prayers to God; they allow prayers to gods. That is quite natural. The Roman Catholics pray to the saints; that is quite good. But to pray to God is senseless. To ask God to give you a breath of air, to send down a shower of rain, to make fruits grow in your garden, and so on, is quite unnatural. The saints, however, who were little beings like ourselves, may help us. But to pray to the Ruler of the Universe, prating every little need of ours, and from our childhood saying, “O Lord, I have a headache; let it go,” is ridiculous. There have been millions of souls that have died in this world, and they are all here; they have become gods and angels; let them come to your help. But God! It cannot be. Unto Him we must go for higher things. A fool indeed is he who, resting on the banks of the Ganga, digs a little well for water; a fool indeed is he who, living near a mine of diamonds, digs for bits of crystal.
And indeed we shall be fools if we go to the Father of all mercy, Father of all love, for trivial earthly things. Unto Him, therefore, we shall go for light, for strength, for love. But so long as there is weakness and a craving for servile dependence in us, there will be these little prayers and ideas of the worship of the Personal God. But those who are highly advanced do not care for such little helps, they have well-nigh forgotten all about this seeking things for themselves, wanting things for themselves. The predominant idea in them is – not I, but thou, my brother. Those are the fit persons to worship the Impersonal God. And what is the worship of the Impersonal God? No slavery there – “O Lord, I am nothing, have mercy on me.” You know the old Persian poem, translated into English: “I came to see my beloved. The doors were closed. I knocked and a voice came from inside. ‘Who art thou?’ ‘I am so-and-so’. The door was not opened. A second time I came and knocked; I was asked the same question, and gave the same answer. The door opened not. I came a third time, and the same question came. I answered, ‘I am thee, my love,’ and the door opened.” Worship of the Impersonal God is through truth. And what is truth? That I am He. When I say that I am not Thou, it is untrue.[51]
Prayer is actually meant for the strong person. It is a very effective spiritual tool only if the person feels himself pure and strong. Purity and strength both spring from one’s interconnectedness to everything that exists. If I feel I am different from something, I feel impure. I also feel weak. If I am one with everything that exists, I feel pure; I also feel strong.
When I say I am separate from you it is a lie, a terrible lie. I am one with this universe, born one. It is self-evident to my senses that I am one with the universe. I am one with the air that surrounds me, one with heat, one with light, eternally one with the whole Universal Being, who is called this universe, who is mistaken for the universe, for it is He and nothing else, the eternal subject in the heart who says, “I am,” in every heart – the deathless one, the sleepless one, ever awake, the immortal, whose glory never dies, whose powers never fail. I am one with That.
This is all the worship of the Impersonal, and what is the result? The whole life of man will be changed. Strength, strength it is that we want so much in this life, for what we call sin and sorrow have all one cause, and that is our weakness. With weakness comes ignorance, and with ignorance comes misery. It will make us strong. Then miseries will be laughed at, then the violence of the vile will be smiled at, and the ferocious tiger will reveal, behind its tiger’s nature, my own Self. That will be the result. That soul is strong that has become one with the Lord; none else is strong. In your own Bible, what do you think was the cause of that strength of Jesus of Nazareth, that immense, infinite strength which laughed at traitors, and blessed those that were willing to murder him? It was that, “I and my Father are one”; it was that prayer, “Father, just as I am one with you, so make them all one with me.” That is the worship of the Impersonal God. Be one with the universe, be one with Him.[52]
So, mantra #16 can be seen as having two parts: the first part is: Nourisher, lone Traveller of the sky! Controller! O Sun, Offspring of Prajapati! Gather Your rays; withdraw Your light. I would see, through Your grace, that form of Yours which is the fairest. The second part of the mantra is: I am indeed He, that Purusha, who dwells there. The 1st part is a prayer, a supplication. The 2nd part is the result of the prayer, the transformation that occurs in the one who prays. As Swamiji said above: The whole life of man will be changed. That soul is strong that has become one with the Lord; none else is strong.