Isha Upanishad 47

47

andhaṃ tamaḥ praviśanti ye 'vidyām upāsate |
tato bhūya iva te tamo ya uvidyāyāṃ ratāḥ ||

Here the first purport of the Vedas is devotedness to knowledge after renouncing all desires; and this idea has been expressed by the first verse thus: "All this should be covered by the Lord. . . . Do not covet anybody's wealth." And the second purport of the Vedas is that, in case this devotedness to knowledge is impossible for the man of ignorance, there should be continuance in the path of duty, which fact is stated in the second verse thus: "By doing karmas, indeed, should one wish to live." This division of paths of life, as shown in these verses, has also been indicated in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad. Thus from the text, "He desired, 'Let me have a wife'," etc. (Bṛ. I. iv. 17), it can be clearly understood that works are meant for a man who is ignorant and hankers after results. And from the sentence, "The mind is his soul, and speech his wife," etc. (ibid. I. iv. 17), it can be clearly understood that ignorance and desires are the characteristics of a man devoted to work. So the result of this work is the creation of seven kinds of fruitsfootnote{Bṛ. I. v. 1-3. (1) The common human food; (2-3) huta and prahuta or Darśa and Pūrṇamāsa, which are foods for gods; (4-6) mind, speech, and vital force, which are foods for the soul; (7) milk, which is food for animals.} and continuance in a state of identification with them under the idea that they are the Self. And by the text, "What shall we achieve through children, we to whom the Self which we have attained is the goal?" etc. (Bṛ. IV. iv. 22), it has been shown that for those who have realised the Self by renouncing the threefold desire for wife etc. (i.e. for son, wealth, and heavens), there can only be continuance in the Self Itself, as opposed to the continuance in the path of karma. After the condemnation of the ignorant man by the verse, "Those worlds of the devils" etc. (Īś. 3), the true nature of the Self has been revealed by the verses ending with, "He is all-pervasive," etc. (Īś. 8), to those men of renunciation who are steadfast in knowledge, so as to show that they alone are qualified for this and not those who have desires. So also in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (VI. 21) this has been separately spoken of thus: "To those (men of complete renunciation) who had gone beyond all (the four) stages of life,footnote{The student, the householder, the man who has repaired to the forest, and the formal anchorite, as distinguished from the man who renounces either after or for the sake of God-realisation.} he spoke this holiest of things which is fully adored by the seers as a class." But the present verse is meant for those men of activity who have desires and want to live by doing karma.