The abundance of Hindu Vedic, Vedāntic, and post-Vedāntic literature is simply overwhelming. Like a child gathering pebbles along a pristine seashore, I often find myself irresistibly drawn to collecting the most intriguing verses from this vast and inexhaustible repertoire.
My choice is, obviously arbitrary, like a child, collecting glistening stones without committing to an order or reason — they are picked as they come by or because of their intrinsic brilliance.
1.To begin with, I will take up Isha Upanishadha because Shankaracharya while writing his commentary of Upanishadhs followed the same order.
Isha Upanishadha has just 18 mantras and most of them have actually been lifted from the 40th chapter — the last one – of Shukla Yajurveda. My first pick is the 14th mantra of Isha Upanishadha (numbered 11 in Shukla Yajurveda):
सम्भूतिञ्च विनाशञ्च यस्तद्वेदोभयं सह।
विनाशेन मृत्युं तीर्त्वा सम्भूत्याऽमृतमश्नुते ॥
Two words sambhutim (सम्भूतिम्) and vināśham (विनाशं) are the bedrock of this mantra and their meaning has been given in more than one way. The AI bots mostly rely on Shankaracharya’s interpretation because that’s what has been fed on the Internet.
The standard translation of the word sambhawa (सम्भव) is “possible”. Shankaracharya in his commentary on Isha Upanishadha defines the word सम्भूतिम् as “सम्भवनम् सम्भूतिः” meaning “all that is possible”, or as Ludwig Wittgenstein said in Tractatus “all that is the case” — the manifested world. The next word Pralay (प्रलय) has been picked from the philosophy of Sankhya and has a technical overtone. Sankhya philosophy, the oldest and the most powerful one amongst the Hindu philosophies lays down a systematic order. According to this philosophy Prakriti (प्रकृति) or Nature unfolds itself or makes itself possible following combination or desirability of Purush or the Supreme Man. Once Prakriti (प्रकृति) or Nature has fully manifested itself, it gradually folds or withdraws itself into primordial proverbial seed. This is called Pralay (प्रलय) or the Doomsday. Somewhat like Genesis and Doomsday, Sankhya philosophy lays down a systematic order of Nature that repeats itself on and on. In Isha Upanishadha mantra 14 above the word Pralay (प्रलय), that is doomsday, has been substituted for vināśham (विनाशं) – meaning annihilation.
Thus, the translation of the Isha Upanishadha mantra 14 works out to mean:
One who fully understands both the manifested world and the immutable principle underlying the cycle of birth and death attains immortality here itself, in this very world and in this embodied existence.
For the benefit of English readers, the essential idea may be expressed as follows: one who has fully comprehended both the phenomenal and the noumenal realms, does not fear crossing from one to the other.
Isha Upanishadha 15
2. The mantra that comes next in Isha Upanishadha is another gem in this series, numbered 15.
हिरण्मयेन पात्रेण सत्यस्यापिहितं मुखम्।
तत् त्वं पूषन्नपावृणु सत्यधर्माय दृष्टये ॥ 15
As stated above most of mantras of Isha Upanishadha are lifted from Shukla Yajurveda which, Sanskrit linguists say, may have been codified almost a millennium before Isha. In Yajurveda this mantra is numbered 17 and is the concluding mantra of Yajurveda. The brilliance of the mantra just makes it stand out.
हि॒र॒ण्मये॑न॒ पात्रे॑ण स॒त्यस्यापि॑हितं॒ मुख॑म् ।
यो॒ऽसावा॑दि॒त्ये पुरु॑ष॒: सोऽसाव॒हम् ।
ओ३म् खं ब्रह्म॑
The first verse of both the mantras is same:
हिरण्मयेन पात्रेण सत्यस्यापिहितं मुखम्।
Which means simply: “The face of the Truth lies hidden behind glittering, golden lid (of a pot).” The comparison ends there. It is the second verse of Isha and Shukla Yajurveda that makes all the difference.
Isha Upanishadha verse says:
हिरण्मयेन पात्रेण सत्यस्यापिहितं मुखम्।
तत् त्वं पूषन्नपावृणु सत्यधर्माय दृष्टये ॥ 15
The face of the Truth lies hidden behind glittering, golden lid.
O’ Pushan (Sun/Lord), uncover the Truth for the earnest devotees/seekers.
But to me the second verse of the Shukla Yajurveda 40.17 sounds more intriguing. Compare:
हि॒र॒ण्मये॑न॒ पात्रे॑ण स॒त्यस्यापि॑हितं॒ मुख॑म् ।
यो॒ऽसावा॑दि॒त्ये पुरु॑ष॒: सोऽसाव॒हम् ।
ओ३म् खं ब्रह्म॑
The face of the Truth lies hidden behind glittering, golden lid (of a pot).
That, the one who is in core of the Sun, (आदित्ये). That verily am I.
The crucial identification is “सः असौ अहम्” — “that very one am I”: the Purusha in the Sun is identified with the speaker’s own aham (“I”).
Om*—space/ether is Brahman.
In the Isha verse the second stanza becomes a logical follow up of the first stanza, pleading the Pushan (Sun/Lord) to lift the lid off.
In Shukla Yajurveda 40.17 the second verse startles you by an unexpected statement that is loaded with mysticism. Mind you, nearly a millennium separates the composition of these two verses.
*Om will be explained separately.