The first Upanisad : The ISA Upanisad

Disclaimer : All views expressed here are from the limited understanding of the author from his limited knowledge of this unlimited topic. It does not or rather might not represent the true Isa Upanisad. User discretion is requested as the matter can be objectionable to closed dogmatic minds.

The first Upanisad is the Isa Upanisad. It serves to reveal the true nature of the self. It is not associated with any form of meditation or yoga. It is not even associated with any God. It does not recognize religion. It does not recognize ideology, no rituals. It has nothing to do with worshiping or temples. Hence, who so ever preaches the Isa Upanisad with reference to Gods and ideology, are talking nonsense. In fact who so ever preaches it too - is an idiot. (I am one too.) It is pure realization - it is pure knowledge. No one can help you achieve it. No one can guide you to achieve it. No one can tell you, you achieved it. You just need to jump~! May be you will realize it.

Karma and the Isa Upanisad
The ideas mentioned in the Isa Upanisad are completely ill-suited for the Karma ideology. In true essence, according to Hinduism - the self is nothing more than energy; energy which is neither created or destroyed. It is neither pure nor impure. It is eternal. Hence, it doesn't apply to Karma as Karma tries to achieve purification of the Self. It cannot be purified which doesn't distinguish being impure and pure. It is purest. Karma separates the energy into positive and negative. Isa Upanisad accepts the negative and positive as one. It doesn't distinguish. Hence, Isa Upanisad is the superset of the Karma ideology. A person who lives by the Isa Upanisad - needn't bother about Karma.

Isa Upanisad and 3 sides
The Isa Upanisad is close to Law 4 of "The book about everything in this world" - 3 sides : core philosophy article. It eliminates positive and negative distinction. And hence, there is no agent which can enjoy or suffer, there is only an agent (you). In fact watched closely, there is no agent also, there is only energy. There is no distinction between rich and poor, brahmin and shudra, hindu or muslim or jew, animal or tree or man... Everything is one - everything is ENERGY.

- How many times have we been told - know thy self! Every scripture, every self-help book mentions it... However, all focus know thou's negative qualities. The Isa Upanisad states - know thyself - good or bad doesn't matter. Knowing the true you is more important. Because this knowledge will rid you of sorrow, delusion, etc.

- Since birth we, humans have been taught and learn from our surroundings the idea of classifying things into GOOD and BAD. It is this classification, which creates a schizophrenic world between illusion and reality. And in the end, most of us suffer chasing the illusion, forgetting the reality.

- We suffer from boredom for the very fact - that society has drilled into us a work-play divide. However, crazy this might sound ~ most people work because they must. The definition of enjoyment has come down to watching movies and drinking and parties. Hence, more and more people are getting BORED to say.

How to achieve Law 4?
It can be fully achieved only through renunciation. The book about everything in this world - talks about a prince, Gautam Buddha who renounces everything. He doesn't distinguish between good or bad.

If this is the best, then why study Karma?
The preachings and approach of the Isa Upanisad are very abstract and difficult to implement for an average human. Well, though the attempt must be in as many cases to follow the approach of indifference - wherever you cannot - follow karma. If the attachment to worldly things becomes greater, then follow the worldly rule of Karma for an appropriate living.

So, what exactly is an asurah (demon)?
Heheh... well, cinema and art show an asurah as 10 headed or 20 handed, evil looking monster. But this is not the case. However, the Isa Upanisad defines any Self-Ignorant human as a demon. He is a demon for he fails to see / know about his immortal (in form of energy) yet fleeting (in form of human body) existence. Such a asurah (demon) gets into ~ segregating things into positive and negative. Thus, only Isa Upanisad demons follow Karma. They aim to achieve immortality by achieving balance by good deeds. A God is one who lives infinitely - he lives by the Isa Upanisad. However when a God steps down on the Earth as an incarnation, an avataar - even he is eligible to suffering and is an Isa Upanisad demon. He steps down to fix some negative and hence must live by Karma too. No Godly incarnation has ever gone without suffering.

Practical Isa Upanisad
The Isa Upanisad or Law 4 focuses on moving the mind rather than the body. In fact there is no body at all - it is only energy. Hence, all food become provider of energy - thus taste is not a factor. The body doesn't exist hence it cannot either enjoy or suffer. Hence, craving for sex, lifestyle, ... are removed too. The mind of the Isa Upanisadian is clearer because it removes all discriminations between right and wrong, class, society, religion, etc. It has a goal - and it has only one path. This path is the clearest and the most straight.

Why is the Isa Upanisad so rarely highlighted and taught?
- Well, the Isa Upanisad is too high an approach towards life. It is just too finesse to be mass produced. It happens once in a millenia that probably an Isa Upanisadian is reborn. I use the words reborn because no one is born with anything. He needs to discover himself and his approach.
- For society to function, Isa Upanisad demons are needed to follow Karma. Else there shall be no food, no workers, no civilization. Hence, Isa Upanisad as an approach is rarely taught to all.
- The history of all mankind is dictated and directed by the life of a few handful. These are the men, who if followed the Isa Upanisad - would have taken mankind to a higher level else would have brought mankind to a lower level.

The power attributed to an Isa Upanisadian
Materialistically speaking, the Isa Upanisadian doesn't classify between people, energies, moral, ideologies, nations, etc. Hence, his reach is greatest. Nothing is alien to him. Everything appeals to him and he appeals to everything. The men, the resources applicable to such a person are limitless. Spiritually speaking, the Isa Upanisadian doesn't see things in its form as seen by the eyes but sees the ONE energy behind it and harnesses it. Thus, again he is ONE with everything and everything is ONE with him. He is the infinite for he can harness any energy and use it.

The Isa Upanisadian Gods
The Hindu Gods of creation and destruction are attributed to the Isa Upanisad. Brahma, the God of creation can harness any energy and transform it to create something new. Shiva, the God of destruction too can destroy anything for he simply eliminates the form of the energy. There is no one force which can create and destroy everything unless you deal with the underlying factor of the everything - energy in this case. Not to mention, even if we go through the records of Shiva - we find him always giving powers and blessings to demons. A God making mistakes like this, failing to identify the true motive of a human?? It's not a mistake - he doesn't distinguish between demon and non-demon. Shiva is also attributed and connected to Shakti Mata or the Goddess of pure energy.

Krsna, on the other hand - the God who sustains the world is an Isa Upanisadian demon. Only that can be sustained which is separated into 2 : positive and negative. The inseparable theory (Isa Upanisad) doesn't need to be sustain.