Sri Isopanisad Invocation

Sri Isopanisad Invocation means to invoke Auspiciousness:

om pürnam adah pürnam idam; pürnät pürnam udacyate; pürnasya pürnam ädäya; pürnam evävasisyate

meaning:

“The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.”


Mangaläcarana, or Auspicious Invocation:

Main contribution of this verse—it defeats two Mayavadi arguments:

1.Because God is all-pervading, He has lost His personal existence:

  • i) Because God is complete, He includes everything within and beyond our experience;
  • ii) Therefore, He includes personality and form;

2.Because God is unchangeable, the material world is only an illusion:

  • i) Even though so many units come from Him He remains the complete balance;
  • ii) What comes from Him are His energies and they are interchangeable, but He remains unchanged Himself.


1) The Personality of Godhead is the complete realization of transcendence:

om: non-different from Brahman and Lord Krsna; the impersonal sound of Krsna is om, but the sound Hare Krsna contains om and it is more personal address.

pürnam: complete & perfect, sat-cit-änanda-vigraha (Brahma-samhitä 5.1).

2) Each feature of the Absolute Truth contains increasing realization of sat, cit and änanda:

Three features of the Absolute Truth: Brahman = sat (eternity); Paramätma = sat + cit (knowledge); Bhagavän = sat + cit + änanda (bliss).

The Personality of Godhead is fully complete because He has vigraha, or form, as well: If the Personality of Godhead was formless, like Brahman, then the Absolute Truth would lack something that exists within the creation and would therefore be incomplete (SP); The SPG as the most complete realization of the transcendence.

3) The potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are also complete:

pürnät—from the all-perfect; pürnam—complete unit; udacyate—is produced [The material universe, an emanation of Krsna, is designed to be self-contained. The 24 material elements are arranged to produce all necessary items for the maintenance of the universe. The material universe runs in a fixed and complete cycle of time.]

The living entities are complete in relationship with Krsna. The energies’ completeness must be understood in relationship with Krsna and not independently. Analogy of the screw and the machine: The screw is valuable and complete when functioning as a part of the machine. It is, however, useless when separate.

All forms of incompleteness are experienced due to incomplete knowledge of the Complete Whole


Complete Balance:

pürnasya—of the Complete Whole; pürnam—completely, all; ädäya—having been taken away; pürnam— complete balance; eva—even; avasisyate—is remaining. 1 + 1 = 1 & 1- 1 = 1 (the spiritual math!).


Sambandha-Jnana:

om pürnam= Krsna; pürnam idam = prakrti; pürnät pürnam = jiva, or the living entity.


Three Descriptions of the Completeness:

1.The Supreme Lord Himself: He is a person & knows beyond what we know & Has everything beyond our experience.

2.The Lord & the living entity, especially the human form of life: The sea-worthy boat analogy.

3.The Lord & the material nature, or prakrti.


The sea-worthy boat analogy:

The Vedic scriptures and the äcäryas, or saintly teachers, are compared to expert boatmen—the captain and the crew of the ship. The facilities of the human body are compared to favorable breezes that help the boat ply smoothly to its desired destination. If, with all these facilities, a human being does not fully utilize his life for self-realization, he must be considered ätma-hä, a killer of the soul (Mantra 3). Sri Isopanisad warns in clear terms that the killer of the soul is destined to enter into the darkest region of ignorance to suffer perpetually.


What are the two ways the universe is complete?

1.Complete in itself for its sustenance: Composed of 24 elements, Self sustenance and maintenance, but of temporary manifestation.

2.The universe functions on its own time scale, which is fixed by the energy of the Complete Whole: When that schedule is completed --> complete annihilation by the Complete Arrangement of the Complete Whole.


What the living entity has to do?

Proper discharge of his free will --> submissive surrender unto the Lord & curtail his selfish material desires --> learn the art of dove-tailing all his desires and activities in the service of the Lord. Serve in guru-paramparä, a bona fide disciplic succession.