Isha Upanishad 67

67

tatra kena mārgeṇāmṛtatvamaśnuta ityucyate /
tadyattatsatyamasau sa ādityo ya eṣa etasminmaṇḍale puruṣo yaścāyaṃ dakṣiṇe 'kṣanpuruṣa etadubhayaṃ satyam /
brahmopāsīno yathoktakarmakṛcca yaḥ so 'ntakāle prāpte satyātmānamātmanaḥ prāptidvāraṃ yācate 'hiraṇmayena pātreṇa' iti /

Hiraṇmaya means golden, appearing as though made of gold, i.e. resplendent; by that; pātreṇa, by the vessel, which is like a lid that hides from view; apihitam, is concealed, covered; mukham, the face, the door, satyasya, of Truth, of that very Brahman who is in the solar orb. Tat tvam pūṣan, that thou, O Sun; apāvṛṇu, do open, i.e. remove. I who have got the quality of Truth, by meditating on you as Truth, am satyadharmā; so satyadharmāya means, for my sake who am of that kind (truthful); or it means, for the sake of one (i.e. me) who performs the rightful duties. Dṛṣṭaye, so as to be seen; so that you yourself, who are the Truth, may be realised.

It is indicated by the scriptures that absorption into Prakṛti is the highest result attainable through human and divine wealth.footnote{"Cattle, land, gold, etc, are human wealth; meditation on gods is divine wealth."—A.G.} Up to this is the course of worldly existence. Beyond this is the identification with the Self in all, as indicated earlier in the verse: "When to the man of realisation all beings become the very Self" (Īś. 7), which is the result of devotion to knowledge after renouncing all desires. Thus has been revealed the twofold purport of the Vedas consisting in desire for and desisting from activity. As to this, the (Śatapatha) Brāhmaṇa, ending with the Pravargya ritual, is devoted to the revelation as a whole of the Vedic purport indicated through injunction and prohibition of activity. And the Bṛhadāraṇyaka thereafter is devoted to the revelation of the Vedic purport characterised by desisting from activity. In this connection, the verse, "He who knows these two—vidyā and avidyā—together, attains immortality through vidyā, by crossing over death through avidyā" (Īś. 11), has been cited for the person who wants to live by doing rites—beginning from conception and ending in death—in conjunction with meditation on the lower Brahman. Now, then, the question, "By what route will he achieve immortality?" is being answered. "Now, That which is the Truth (Brahman), is the Sun—who is the Person in the solar orb, as also the Person in the right eye" (Bṛ. V. v. 2)—he who has meditated on both these (Persons) as the Truth (Brahman) and performed the rites as mentioned (in the scriptures), prays at the time of death, to the Self, for the door leading to the Self, in the verse: "The face of Truth is concealed with a golden vessel" etc.