Mantra 7

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Īśa-upaniṣad mantra 7:

यस्मिन्सर्वाणि भूतान्यात्मैवाभूद्विजानतः ।
तत्र को मोहः कः शोक एकत्वमनुपश्यतः ॥ ७ ॥

yasminsarvāṇi bhūtānyātmaivābhūdvijānataḥ |
tatra ko mohaḥ kaḥ śoka ekatvamanupaśyataḥ || 7 ||

yasmin—in whom, ie, in the Supreme Self; sarvāṇi—all; bhūtāni—beings, (exist) the word tiṣṭhanti is understood here; He is their support; ātmā—the Supreme Self; eva—even, indeed; abhūt— was, existed, or exists inside those beings also; that the Supreme God is the controller of all beings by dwelling within them; vijānataḥ—who understands, (by differentiating the jīva from Īśvara) understanding; tatra—in those beings; kaḥ—what; mohaḥ—delusion; kaḥ—what; Śokaḥ grief. ekatvam—unity, the indissoluble and eternal relation between God and jīvas, as between attribute and substance, life and form; The unity of the Lord in all creatures and of all beings in one Lord. anuapaśyataḥ—experiencing, seeing, realising;

7. “That Supreme Self in whom all beings exist, has existed indeed within all beings (from eternity.)”—How can he who knows this have delusion or sorrow? For he realises the unity; (by which the Supreme is in all, and all in Him.)

Commentary: The Bhāṣya of Madhva (Madhvācārya):

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

“That Supreme Self, in whom are ail creatures, is indeed that same Supreme Self, who exists, and has existed within all creatures too (from eternity).” This is the Truth. He who knows this truth, and sees the Supreme Self thus residing in all creatures as a unity, can have no delusion. That Atman in whom are all-creatures, is all pervading and is inside of all beings. He who thus sees Viṣnu everywhere, has no delusion nor sorrow, for he has known the truth.

Note.—The life-giving truth is this that in the Supreme Lord exist all beings, and He dwells in them all from eternity. He who has realised this truth and knows that the Lord is still a unity, existing in all and all existing in Him, transcends all sorrow and delusion. Both the words vijānataḥ and anupaśyataḥ have the same meaning, viz., vijānataḥ “Of him who knows.” That Supreme Self in whom stay all the beings, is the same Supreme Self who already was in those beings. As the support of all beings He exists in all beings from eternity. He who knows the Supreme Self thus—intellectually as well as by realisation—and also knows that though the beings are many, yet the Supreme Self in them is one,——and thus knows that the Lord is merciful and he, the devotee, is the object of His mercy——has no delusion and no grief. But how can this mere knowledge remove all grief, &c.? To this the commentator answers

“Since the knower of the Lord completely attains the Lord, hence takes place the cessation of all sorrow and delusion” thus says the Pippalāda Śruti. The last verse declared that the knower of Brahman becomes fearless; this verse makes an additional statement that such a knower has no delusion and sorrow.

Note.—In verse 6 it was declared that he who sees (i.e., knows) Brahman as the Support of all and pervading all, becomes fearless. The present verse is not a mere repetition of the same idea. It further states that the same knower of Brahman transcends sorrow and delusion. The same person who had become fearless on account of the knowledge of Brahman, becomes also free from delusion and grief as a result of the same knowledge. So there is no tautology. The last verse described the fruit of seeing Brahman as pervading all and the support of all. The present verse declares that something more is gained when this knowledge of Brahman becomes more specific, when his unity is perceived in all the diversity of the universe.

(But verse 5 also expressed the same idea that Brahman is the support of all and is All-pervading—for the phrase ‘He is far, he is near, He is outside, He is inside’ denotes the same thing. What was then the necessity of verse 6, which expresses the same proposition? This objection is next answered by the commentator.)

The repetition is for the sake of explaining the full significance of the All-pervading-ness of Brahman,