AWAKENINGS

Isa Upanishad sheds light on the following words: 1. Vidhya and Avidhya. 2. Manifested and Unmanifested. The explanations and indepths meanings of these four important words are dealt with in the six verses from 9 to 14 of the Isa Upanishad. Vidhya is normally attributed to knowledge. Such persons are devoid of rites or karma or work or avidhya. They are engaged only in vidhya i.e.spending their entire time in worshiping or meditation. They are of the strong faith that vidhya is enough to achieve the ultimate aim of salvation from the pranks of deaths. Avidhya is rites or karma or work or even ignorance. They are engaged in such religious duties driven due to the desires of senses which are the hallmark of ignorance. They do not worry much about ‘Vidhya’, as they feel that the paths chosen by them are enough to give them the salvation from this world. What does Isa Upanishad say about the adequacies of Vidhya and Avidhya? Isa Upanishad declares that if one practices only Avidhya, he en...

The characteristics of Soul are being described in stanzas 4 to 8. Hence it would be advisable to deal these four stanzas together. One will be bewildered on reading the most contradictory statements being stated in these stanzas. The soul, it declares, unmoving, but, moves faster than the mind. It is one, but, it is manifold. Remaining stationary, it outruns all other runners and it ran ahead. It is very near and it is far off. It is inside all and it is outside all as well. How can we reconcile such contradictory statements? On the face of it, one can simply view them as the statements of a mad man. Let us take the case of a man traveling in a train from Madurai to Madras. Actually the man had not moved himself, but, he was simply sitting or sleeping in the train. The train took him from Madurai to Madras. Without himself moving, the man could move a long distance and had reached the destined place. How is it possible? Simple. The locomotive power in the form of a train could make th...

Everyone wishes to live for long. A hundred years of life is the maximum period for any human being. For worthwhile life, a man should perform his work. Only by clinging with his work, a man can achieve his desire to live for long years. Work can be good or bad. But man should do only good work which alone will give him longevity, happiness and well being. Such work will not fetch the person any salvation from further births, as his work is being performed with desires to live long with health and wealth. Such an outlook is antithesis of renunciation which alone can make one to realize the Soul or Self which is the ultimate purpose of life leading to salvation i.e. birth-less state. ‘Live one hundred years on this earth by performing action. With such desire, one can cling to the work and not in any other way’ is the plain meaning of the second stanza. The next verse is to criticize those who perform work only to live longer and who do not apply their mind to realize the True Self wit...