Mantra 3

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Īśa-upaniṣad mantra 3:

असुर्या नाम ते लोका अन्धेन तमसावृताः ।
तांस्ते प्रेत्याभिगच्छन्ति ये के चात्महनो जनाः ॥ ३ ॥

asuryā nāma te lokā andhena tamasāvṛtāḥ |
tāṃste pretyābhigacchanti ye ke cātmahano janāḥ || 3 ||

asuryāḥ—full of great sorrow, belonging to the asuras, miserable, terrible, fit only for asuric natures; nāma—named, certainly; te—those; lokāḥ—worlds, births; andhena—(adarśanātmakena, ajñānena) by blinding, deep; tamasā—by darkness; āvṛtāḥ—covered, pervaded; tān—them, refers to worlds; te—they, also refers to worlds; The word “ye” is understood (ye te lokāḥ, tān); pretya—dying; abhigaccanti—go down to, constantly revist; ye—who; ke—those; ca—and; ātma-hanaḥ—self-killing; worshipping Viṣṇu wrongly or not worshipping Him at all; Ātma = Viṣṇu, killers of Viṣṇu are those who renounce the worship of the Lord and go after false gods; janāḥ—men, creatures, subject to continual birth and death.

3. Those worlds called Asurya are covered with blinding darkness: dying to those worlds they go, who kill the Self.

Commentary: The Bhāṣya of Madhva (Madhvācārya):

(English translation of Madhva’s 13th-century commentary called the Īśāvāsyopaniṣadbhāṣya or Īśopaniṣadbhāṣya)

The word ‘asuryāḥ’ means ‘that where the asuras go’ and “where there is absence of good (su) enjoyment (ra).”

Note.—It does not mean the land where the sun (sūrya) does not shine. The authority for giving this interpretation to the word Asuryāḥ is the Bhāgavata Purāṇa again, which Madhva next quotes.)

For says the Bhāgavata Purāṇa “O! the killers of Ātman are those who worship by erroneous methods. They are called asuras or miserable for they do not (a) enjoy happiness (su + ra), and suffer great pains.” The Yamana Parana thus explains this Mantra:—“These Lokas are called Asuryāḥ, first because they are full of intense misery, secondly because they are the fit abode of asuras or materialists. To such Lokas they go who have turned their face away from the Lord.”

By the word “ye ke ca”—“whosoever” a general rule is declared. All who are opposed to Hari go to darkness, not that some go there, and some do not. As says a text: “All go to darkness who are opposed to Hari—this is the law.”