Book Description

Isha Upanishad is the first among eleven principal Upanishads on which Shankara has written a commentary. He shows that the performance of actions cannot remove our ignorance. Knowledge alone can dispel it. I have done a comprehensive analysis of this fact in the preface due to its importance. If we are attached to the results of our actions, the scriptures prescribe the performance of rituals; however, if we seek liberation, it is the path of knowledge that the scriptures prescribe. Our ignorance hides the ever-present non-dual reality as the clouds hide the sun that creates them by absorbing the water. Self-knowledge destroys this veil of ignorance. In this state, one identifies with the universal oneness, where there is no second. Hence, there cannot be any hatred, illusion, or disappointment.