Mantra 4

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Īśa-upaniṣad mantra 4:

अनेजद् एकं मनसो जवीयो नैनद्देवा आप्नुवन्पूर्वमर्षत् ।
तद्धावतोऽन्यानत्येति तिष्ठत् तस्मिन्न् अपो मातरिश्वा दधाति ॥ ४ ॥

anejad ekaṃ manaso javīyo nainaddevā āpnuvanpūrvamarṣat |
taddhāvato'nyānatyeti tiṣṭhat tasminn apo mātariśvā dadhāti || 4 ||

anejat—untrembling, ie, fearless unagitated; ekam—one, because supreme: and not because there is no other object than He; manasaḥ—than mind; javīyaḥ—swifter; na—not; enat—it, the Supreme Brahman; devāḥ—the shining ones, like Brahmā and other devas; āpnuvan—obtain, fully comprehend; Pūrvam, from before (the beginning of time), beginningless, eternal; arṣat—knowing, He knows all from before; tat—that Brahman; dhāvataḥ—running; anyān—these others; atyeti—goes beyond, surpasses; tiṣṭhat—staying at one place, resting, sitting; tasmin—in that ātman or Hari; apaḥ—lit. that which protects from all side, namely, karmas; mātariśvā—the Principal Vāyu, or Spirit, the mover in space, Sūtrātmā, the Prāṇa, the Marut; dadhāti—offers as pūjā, supports, allots for, establishes; The karmas done by all beings are stored up in Him, by the Spirit, the great Saviour, called Christ in the West and the Thread-soul or Vāyu here.

4. He is fearless, supreme, and swifter than the mind. The Devas even know Him not fully, but He knows them all, as He is the Eternal. He staying in one place surpasses them all, though they be running. In Him, the Mātariśvan offers up all karmas of all creatures.

Commentary: The Bhāṣya of Madhva (Madhvācārya):

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

‘Anejat’ means not trembling, because He is fearless, and so also, He is ekam or one, because He is Supreme. ‘The devas even cannot reach Him’ means that they even are incapable of understanding Him fully and completely. By His very nature He knows everything, from before the beginning of time. And because His powers are inconceivable, and He is All-pervading, therefore, though others be running lie surpasses them. And Marut places all karmas in Him. Because all activities proceed from Prāṇa or Marut, therefore, let men resign all their actions into the Lord. For says the Brahmāṇḍa Parana: “Since all actions depend upon Spirit (Prāṇa) let one resign all actions to Hari.”

The word arṣat comes from the root “ṛṣa”—‘to know.’

Note.—There is no such root as “ṛṣa jñāne” in the Dhātupātḥa, but in the Mahā Bhāṣya it is said, there is such a root.

Note.—This verse describes the nature of the Lord or the Ātman. A wrong knowledge of this atman leads to darkness, as has been taught in the last mantra. The Ātman is fearless and supreme. He is swifter than the mind. The Devas even know Him not fully: but He knows them all from eternity. Though all may be straining their utmost to catch Him and be running after Him, yet He by merely staying in one place is beyond their reach. The great Mediator, Mātariśvan, the Son of the Mother-Space, offers to Him all the actions of creatures. When a person does an act with perfect humility, believing that the true agent is Hari and not he, that all acts are sacred and must be performed with the idea of their being sacred, and with full love and devotion towards God, such acts become holy and are carried by Vāyu to the Lord. Since the man has renounced all fruits of action and does all act for the Lord, they remain in Him. This of course refers to karmas of good men.