Thirteen Principal Upanishads · Chapter 8
Īśā Upaniṣad
Translated by Robert Ernest Hume (1921, *The Thirteen Principal Upanishads*, public domain), 1921. Public domain.
- 1.1
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By the Lord (isa) enveloped must this all be — Whatever moving thing there is in the moving world. With this renounced, thou mayest enjoy.
- 1.2
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Even while doing deeds here,
- 1.3
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Devilish (asurya*} are those worlds called,3 With blind darkness (tamas) covered o'er! Unto them, on deceasing, go
- 1.4
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Unmoving, the One (ekam) is swifter than the mind.
- 1.5
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The whole stanza is a variation of Brih. 4. 4. n.
- 1.6
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So Com. But apas may refer, cosmogonically, to ' the [primeval] waters/
- 1.7
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In whom all beings
- 1.8
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He has environed. The bright, the bodiless, the scatheless, The sinewless, the pure (suddha), unpierced by evil (a-papa-
- 1.9
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Into blind daikness enter they That worship ignorance ,
- 1.10
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Other, indeed, they say, than knowledge! Other, they say, than non-knowledge1 5 — Thus we have heard fiom the wise (dhira) Who to us have explained It,6
- 1.11
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Knowledge and non-knowledge —
- 1.12
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Into blind darkness enter they
- 1.13
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Other, indeed — they say — than origin (sambkava)\ Other — they say — than non-origin (a-samlkava] \ — Thus have we heard from the wise
- 1.14
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Becoming (sambhuti) and destruction (w,iasa)
- 1.15
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With a golden vessel2
- 1.17
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[My] breath (vayu) to the Immortal wind (anila)^ This body then ends in ashes ! Om \
Commentary
section.verse where section tracks the Upanishad's internal subdivisions (adhyāya / brāhmaṇa / khaṇḍa / vallī / praśna / muṇḍaka, depending on the text). Hume's translation is rigorously literal; modern accessible translations (Olivelle 1998) are cited but not reproduced.