Īśo 9: Śrī Īśopaniṣad

In this mantra there is a comparative study of vidyā and avidyā. Avidyā, or ignorance, is undoubtably dangerous, but vidyā, or knowledge, when mistaken or misguided, is even more dangerous. In modern human civilization this explanation of Śrī Īśopaniṣad is more applicable than at any other time, in the past. Modern civilization has advanced considerably in the matter of mass education, and yet the result is that people are more unhappy than before on account of too much stress on material advancement, without any taste for the most important aspect of life, the spiritual aspect.

As far as vidyā is concerned, the first mantra of Śrī Īśopaniṣad has explained very clearly that the Supreme Lord is the Proprietor of everything, and forgetfulness of this fact is called ignorance. The more a man forgets this fact of life, the more he is in darkness; and in view of this, a Godless civilization directed toward the so-called advancement of education is more dangerous than a civilization in which the mass of people are less advanced.

There are different classes of men, called karmis, jñānins and yogis. The karmis are those who are engaged in the activities of sense gratification. Almost 99.9 per cent of the people in modern civilization are engaged in the activities of sense gratification under the flags of various activities such as industrialism, economic development, altruism, political consciousness, and so on. But all these activities are more or less based on the satisfaction of the senses, without any reference to the sort of God consciousness described in the first mantra of Śrī Īśopaniṣad.

In the language of the Bhagavad-gītā, people who are engaged in gross sense gratification are mūḍhas—in darkness like the ass, the symbol of stupidity. People who are simply engaged in the pursuit of sense gratification, without any real profit in life, are in the estimation of Śrī Īśopaniṣad worshiping avidyā. And those who play the role of helping this sort of civilization in the name of educational advancement are doing more harm than those who are on the platform of gross sense gratification. The advancement of learning by the Godless people is as dangerous as a valuable jewel on the hood of a cobra. The cobra decorated with such a valuable jewel is quite as dangerous as one which is not so decorated.

Again, the advancement of educational activities by a Godless people is, according to the Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya [3.11], a decoration for a dead body. In India as in many other countries, some people follow the custom of leading a procession with a decorated dead body for the pleasure of the lamenting relatives. In the same sense, modern civilization is a patchwork of activities meant to cover the perpetual miseries of material existence. Such activities are targetted toward sense gratification, but above the senses there is the mind, and above the mind there is the intelligence, and above intelligence there is the soul. Therefore, the aim of education should be self realization, realization of the spiritual values of the soul. Any education which does not lead to such a realization of life must be considered avidyā, or nescience. And to culture such nescience means going down to the darkest region of ignorance.

Such mistaken educators are known in the Vedic language by four names:

1. veda-vāda-rata, [Bg. 2.42]

2. māyayā apahṛta-jñāna,
3. āsuraṁ bhāvam,
4. narādhama. [Bg. 7.15]

The veda-vāda-rata people pose themselves as very learned in the Vedic literature, but unfortunately they are completely diverted from the purpose of the Vedas. In the Bhagavad-gītā [15.15] it is said that the purpose of the Vedas is to know the Personality of Godhead, but these veda-vāda-rata men are not at all interested in the Personality of Godhead. On the contrary, they are fascinated by such results as the attainment of heaven.

As is said in Mantra One of Śrī Īśopaniṣad, we should know that the Personality of Godhead is the Proprietor of everything, and we must be satisfied with our alloted portion of the necessities of life. The purpose of the whole Vedic literature is to awaken this God consciousness in the forgetful living being, and the same principle is presented in various ways in the world's various Scriptures for the understanding of foolish mankind. Thus the ultimate purpose is to bring one back to Godhead.

But the veda-vāda-rata [Bg. 2.42] people, instead of realizing the purport of the Vedas, take it for granted that side issues such as the attainment of heavenly pleasure for sense gratification—the lust for which is the very cause of their material bondage in the first place—is the ultimate end of the Vedas. Such people misguide others by misinterpreting the Vedic literature, and sometimes they condemn the Purāṇas, which are authentic Vedic explanations for laymen. The veda-vāda-ratas make their own explanations of the Vedas, neglecting the authority of the great teachers, called ācāryas; and they tend to raise some unscrupulous person from among themselves as the leading exponent of Vedic knowledge.

These men are especially condemned by this mantra of Śrī Īśopaniṣad with the very appropriate Sanskrit word vidyā-rata. Vidyā means Veda, because the Veda is the original in all knowledge; and rata means engaged. Vidyā-rata means engaged in the study of the Vedas. As such, the so-called vidyā-ratas are condemned here because they do not know what the purpose of the Vedas is, on account of disobeying the ācāryas. Such veda-vāda-ratas are accustomed to finding meaning in every word of the Vedas to suit their own purposes. They do not know that the Vedic literature is not a collection of ordinary books and cannot be understood except through the chain of disciplic succession.

One must approach a bona fide spiritual master in order to understand the transcendental message of the Vedas. That is the direction of the Kaṭha Upaniṣad. But these veda-vāda-rata people have their own ācārya, who is not in the chain of transcendental disciplic succession. Thus they will progress into the darkest region of ignorance by misinterpreting the Vedic literature, even more so than those who have no knowledge of the Vedas at all.

The māyayā apahṛta-jñāna class of men are self-made "Gods." Such men think that they are themselves God, and there is no necessity of worshiping any other God. They will agree to worship an ordinary man if he happens to be rich, but will never worship the actual Personality of Godhead. Such foolish men cannot recognize their own foolishness, regarding the question of how God can ever have been entrapped by illusion. If God were ever entrapped by illusion, then illusion would be more powerful than God. But they also say that God is all powerful. If God is all-powerful, then how can He be over-powered by illusion? The self-made Gods cannot answer all these questions very clearly, but they are satisfied that they have become God themselves.