ISAVASYA UPANISHAD
(from the Sukla Yajur Veda)

Original translation by Vidyavachaspati V. Panoli
Re-translated by James Swartz

1. All this…everything in this impermanent world…is pervaded by the Self, pure awareness. Protect the Self by renunciation. Don’t lust after wealth. 

2. If you see yourself as a human being and wish to live a long life you should perform action without concern for the results; there is no other way to keep action from clinging to you. 

3. Those who live out of the light of Awareness slay the Self and go to dark worlds when they die. 

4. Though it never moves, the non-dual Self is swifter than the mind. The senses can never catch it for it runs far in front of them. Though standing still, it passes everything that moves. The Self causes everything to live and move. 

5. It moves and it moves not; It is far and near. It is inside and outside all this.

6. The wise behold all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings; for that reason they do not hate. 

7. The one who sees, sees everything as Awareness. There is no suffering for the one with non-dual vision.

8. It is pure Awareness, bright and bodiless and unaffected evil that is the omniscient, transcendent and uncreated Seer. Awareness assigns the creators of the worlds their respective tasks.

9. Those who devote themselves to religious rituals suffer the darkness of ignorance…even more so those whose understanding is confined to the knowledge of deities alone.

10. The fruit of knowledge and ignorance are quite different.  Thus we have been taught by the wise.
 
11. Whoever understands both knowledge and ignorance overcomes death and obtains immortality.

12. The minds of those who worship unseen gods as well as the minds of those who worship visible forms are shrouded in darkness.

13. One result is obtained from the worship of visible forms and another from the worship of unseen dieties. Thus we have heard from the wise.

14. The one who knows that both the seen and unseen should be worshipped as one overcomes death and obtains immortality.

15. The door to the Self is covered by a golden disc.  Remove it, O Nourisher, that I may behold the Truth!

16. O sun, lone traveller of the sky, child of the creator and controller of everything on earth, gather your rays and withdraw your light that I might see that form of yours which is the fairest.

Indeed, I am that Being who dwells there!

17. Now may my breath merge into the universal life breath.  May this body be burnt to ashes!  Om!  O mind, remember, always remember what you have realized!

18. O Fire of Awareness, lead us by the good path to the enjoyment of the fruits of our actions. You know, O Self, all our deeds.  Destroy the sin of deceit.  We offer, in words, our salutations to you.

 
The Peace Chant

Om. The unseen Self is full; this visible Self full.
 This fullness has been projected from that fullness.
When this fullness merges in that fullness,
 all that remains is fullness.

Om. Peace! Peace! Peace