Īśo 3: Śrī Īśopaniṣad

A human life is distinguished from animal life on account of its heavy responsibilities. Those who are cognizant of these responsibilities and work in that spirit are called suras, the godly. And those who are either neglectful of the responsibilities or who have no information about them are called the asuras, or demons. There are only these two kinds of human beings all over the universe. In the Ṛg Veda it is stated that the suras always aim at the Lotus Feet of the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu, and act accordingly. Their ways are as illuminated as the path of the Sun.

Intelligent human beings must always remember that this particular form of body is obtained after an evolution of many millions of years of transmigration of the soul. This material world is sometimes compared with an ocean, and this human body is compared with a solid boat, designed to cross over the ocean. The Vedic Scriptures and the ācāryas or saintly teachers, are compared with the expert boatman, and the facilities of a human body are compared with favorable breezes, which can help the boat smoothly ply to the desired destination. If, with all these facilities, a person does not fully utilize his human life for self realization, such an asura must be considered ātma-hana, a killer of the soul. The killer of the soul is destined to enter into the darkest region of ignorance to suffer perpetually, and here is a warning by Śrī Īśopaniṣad in clear terms.

There are swine, dogs, camels, asses, etc. whose economic necessities are just as important as ours. But the economic problems of these animals are solved under nasty conditions, while the human being is given all facilities for comfortable life by the laws of Nature, because the human form of life, is more important than animal life. And why is man given a better life than the swine and other animals? Why is a highly placed servant given all the facilities of comfortable life, rather than an ordinary clerk? The answer is that the highly placed officer has to discharge duties of a higher nature. Similarly, the human being has higher duties in life than the animals who are engaged always in the business of feeding their hungry stomachs.

The modern soul-killing civilization has only increased the problems of a hungry stomach. We approach some polished animal, a modern civilized man, and he says that he wants to work for the satisfaction of the stomach and there is no necessity for self realization. But the laws of Nature are so cruel that in spite, of his eagerness to work hard for his stomach, there is always the question of unemployment, even after denouncing the prospect of self-realization.

We are given this human form of life not to work hard like the ass, the swine and the dog, but to attain the highest perfection of life. If we do not care for self-realization, it is by the law of Nature that we have to work very hard even though we do not want to do so. In this age the human being has been forced to work hard like the ass and the bull, pulling carts. These are some of the examples of the regions where an asura is sent to work, revealed by this verse of Śrī Īśopaniṣad. If a man fails to discharge his duties as a human being, he is forced to transmigrate to the planets called asurya in the degraded species of life, to work hard in ignorance and darkness.

In the Bhagavad-gītā [6.41-43] it is also stated that the half-self-realized men who in their previous lives could not complete the process of approaching Godhead but had sincerely tried for it—in other words, those who failed to attain success in realizing their relation with God—are given the chance of appearing in the family of śuci or śrīmata. Śuci means a spiritually advanced Brāhmaṇa, and śrīmata means a Vaiśya, or member of the mercantile community. This means that such fallen candidates are given a better chance for culturing self-realization on account of their sincere efforts in past lives. If the fallen candidates are given the chance of taking birth in respectable noble families, we can hardly imagine the state of those who have completely achieved success in the attempt.

Simply to make an attempt for realizing God is to guarantee that the next birth will be in a noble family. But those who do not make any such attempt at all, and who want to be covered by illusion, too materialistic and attached to material enjoyment, must enter into the darkest region of hell, as is confirmed in all the Vedic literature.

Such materialistic asuras sometimes make a show of religiousness with the ultimate aim of material prosperity. The Bhagavad-gītā [16.17-18], however, rebukes them as men called great on the strength of false perfection, empowered by the votes of the ignorant and by material wealth. Such asuras, devoid of self realization and the conception of īśāvāsya, the Lord, are sure to enter into the darkest regions.

The, conclusion is that we are not meant only for solving economic problems on a tottering platform, but we are also meant for solving the problems of the material life into which we have been placed by the conditions of Nature.