issue 22: winter 2020
Ishavasya Upanishad: A translation
Introduction
Ishavasya Upanishad is a short poem packed with a range of concepts similar to the Gita; in addition, it has a speculative tone that makes it provocative and engaging to read. Commentators have interpreted the term ‘Isha’ in many ways— as a ruling deity, as Brahman, and as Atman. Translated literally, the title means ‘clothed in Isha,’ which could mean both that Isha is hidden in the world, or embodied by it.
Translations of Ishavasya tend to be similar. For instance, the standard way to translate the word ‘purnam’ of the famous opening verse is ‘wholeness.’ ‘Amrtam’ is usually translated as ‘immortality.’ I question some of these assumptions, and present alternative readings. For many of the difficult concepts in the poem (‘vidya’/’avidya’, ‘sambhuti’/‘asambhuti’, etc) translations tend to follow the commentary of Shankara. Rather than offering a singular solution, I offer multiple ways of interpreting these terms. If previous translations fix the meaning, I rescue the source-text from such closure and reopen it for reflection and discussion, aiming for a more open text. My own commentarial voice in this translation is in italics, reflecting and speaking freely with the reader. The reader will find herself entering the process of interpretation.
The idea in Verse 1 of ‘renounce and enjoy’ (‘tena tyaktena bhunjitah’) has been traditionally explained thusly-- ‘renounce the world and enjoy atman, for that is the higher joy.’ My reading sees it this way: if you consider what precedes (that Isha/god is in and lives in everything) and connect it with what follows (don’t be greedy about what belongs to someone else), all is god’s so don’t think it’s yours (= renounce) + it’s all yours once you feel oneness (= enjoy). Shankara interprets ‘avidya’ as ritual-observing-piety and ‘vidya’ as knowledge of deities. Translating ‘vidya’ as knowledge leaves it to reader’s interpretation.
Ishavasya opens with a sense of completion and ends on the brink, on a sharp sense of mortality. There is a precise structure to the poem. Verses 12, 13, and 14 repeat the consequences in the exact pattern of verses 9, 10, 11 but instead of knowledge/lack of knowledge, refer to ‘asambhuti’/’sambhuti’. This is a pattern, and a link, too obvious to ignore for the interpretation of either set. Breath is returned to air in verse 18, and the reversal of air fills Isha with life in verse 4. There is resonance between the blind darkness of the sunless worlds some go to, and the blinding rays of the sunlight. The speaker pleads with the solar deity to move aside, so the face/mouth of truth may be visible. The poem proceeds using a steady method of compare and contrast. Knowledge/lack of knowledge and ‘asambhuti’/’sambhuti’ seem as if clearly differentiated but they are really in the same category – both lead to dark and demonic worlds. In verse 17, we see a fervent soliloquy and repetition – ‘Mind, remember.’ In verse 18, the poet seems to step aside to address a solar deity with an appeal. As a poem, Ishavasya is haunting.
Translation
0.
That’s perfect Creator
This’ perfect Creation From perfection can only come
perfection
That minus this
Perfect!
1.
In all this
God is
In all this
God lives
Whatever’s alive in life
It’s all God’s
By letting go
proprietorship Enjoy it
Don’t be greedy for
what is others’
what isn’t yours It’s all yours
2.
Carry on working – do your duty –
Carry on living
Wish for a 100 years
This way –
and there’s no other way –
Work won’t get you down
What else is there here eh
Say all this is yours, Mani Rao, happy as you may be about that, you can’t be idle for ever, and it won’t hurt to work
Besides:
3.
Those who deny themselves
go to dark places visionless sunless
when they die
or
Those who deny God go
to demonic places
thick darkness
A warning for the lazy or suicidal? An argument against lack of faith? Back to that which is perfect: Īshā
4.
Doesn’t move and yet
Faster than thought
Not even the devas senses get it
devas gods often interpreted as senses because gods illuminate senses
Way ahead of the curve
It stays put
Outruns everything else
In it
Wind supports activity
Because breath
5.
It moves
Doesn’t move
Far away
Within
In everything
Outside everything
6.
The good news:
He who sees all beings in himself
And himself in all beings
Does not hate/hide
7.
When he knows all beings are himself
When he who sees unity
Where’s the excitement the grief?
Nowhere
Switchback:
8, 9.
Omnipresent
Radiant
Bodiless – no sinews – unhurtably so
Pure Unflawed
Poet Omniscient
Above-all
Self-born happened on his own
Runs things as they should be
10.
Is there a choice?
Those who lack knowledge enter darkness visionless
Those who relish knowledge all the more so
11.
Although
We heard from the wise
who spoke to us:
Knowledge is one thing
Lack of knowledge another
12.
But there’s also
He who has both
How can you have both? Does not one cancel the other?
Because of the lack of knowledge crosses mrityu death
Because of knowledge reaches amritam deathlessness
Just what is amritam? Deathlessness? Immortality? Fame? Ambrosia? Does crossing mean to go through, or to go past? To die, or to overcome death?
13.
Sambhuti, asambhuti.
What do the terms mean?
What did the terms mean?
Creationism, Nature
Creationism, Evolutionism
Manifest, Unmanifest
Materialism, Idealism
Idealism, Materialism
Theism, Existentialism
Believer, Philosopher
Occurrence, Inertia
Belief, Disbelief
Perhaps:
Mere philosophers enter darkness visionless
Mere believers even more so
14.
Although
We heard from the wise
who spoke to us:
Philosophy is one thing
Faith another
15.
But there’s also
He who knows both
Creation and Destruction
Because of Destruction crosses death
Because of Creation reaches deathlessness
Sounds like a win-win, but what does it mean?
Maybe one day the meaning will be clear, even obvious. As the next verse hopes:
16.
A golden lid covers the mouth of truth
Remove it O Sun
So it may be seen by the truthful and righteous
The Sun is the door to truth. Only the righteous go through.
17.
O’ Pushan/Sun
One and only
Sage
O’ Yama /God of Death & Dharma
O’ Surya/Sun
O’ Prajapati/Creator
Remove these dazzling rays around you
Show your milder form – That – That Person –
Oh That I Am!
That’s who I am!
18.
At the end
Breath to deathless air
Body to ash
Om -- Mind, remember what’s been done – Mind, remember what’s been done
19.
O Agni/Fire-God
You who know all the world’s deeds
Take us to riches by an easy path
Take gnarly sins away
We say
Namaste
These excerpts from Bhagavad Gita (with Ishavasyopanishad) (2015) by Mani Rao have been reprinted here with permission from Fingerprint! Publishing.
Mani Rao is a poet, translator and independent scholar.Mani has ten poetry collections including Sing to Me (Recent Work Press Australia, 2019), New & Selected Poems (Poetrywala India 2014), Echolocation (Math Paper Press Singapore, 2014; Chameleon Press Hong Kong, 2003) and Ghostmasters (Chameleon Press Hong Kong, 2010). Her books in translation from Sanskrit are Bhagavad Gita (Fingerprint India 2015; Autumn Hill Books USA 2010), and Kalidasa for the 21st Century Reader (Aleph Books India, 2014). Her latest book Living Mantra— Mantra, Deity and Visionary Experience Today (Palgrave Macmillan 2019) is an anthropology of mantra-experience among tantric practitioners in south India.
Journals and anthologies with Mani’s poems and essays include Almost Island, Poetry Magazine, Wasafiri, Meanjin, Washington Square, Fulcrum, West Coast Line, Interim, Colorado Review, The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem, Zoland Poetry, W.W.Norton’s Language for a New Century, Penguin’s Sixty Indian Poets, and the Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poet. She has participated in literary gatherings including Almost Island Dialogues, The Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival, Chicago Humanities Festival, New York PEN World Voices, and The Man Hong Kong International Literary FestivalTranslations of her poems have been published in Latin, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, French and German. She has held writing residencies at the Iowa International Writing Program (2005 and 2009), the University of Iowa International Programs (2006), Omi Ledig House USA (2018) and International Poetry Studies Institute Canberra (2019). Mani was born in India in 1965, and worked for nearly two decades as a creative professional in the advertising and television industries in Chennai, Mumbai and Hong Kong. Turning to writing and study full-time in 2004, she did an MFA in Creative Writing from UNLV (2010), and a PhD in Religious Studies from Duke University (2016).