isha upanishad in English | isha upanishad chanting verse 18 | ishavasya upanishad | Karma, Life After Death, Heaven, Hell, Rebirth, Virtue, Sin Explained

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Dear readers,

Welcome back to our blog. Today we will discuss eighteenth shloka of Isha Upanishad.

You can recite the shloka with me.

अग्ने नय सुपथा राये अस्मान्‌ विश्वानि देव वयुनानि विद्वान्‌।

युयोध्यस्मज्जुहुराणमेनो भूयिष्ठां ते नम‍उक्तिं विधेम ॥

“agne naya supathā rāye asmān viśvāni deva vayunāni vidvān |

yuyodhyasmajjuhurāṇameno bhūyiṣṭhāṁ te namauktiṁ vidhema ||”

Translation in English:

O Fire God, knowing all our good deeds lead us to the good path for the enjoyment of results of deeds and remove from us all the crooked sins. We offer you many words of salutation.

Let me tell you a short story from the Mahabharata. After the great Kurukshetra war ended, Yudhishthira became the king to the throne of Hastinapur. After serving the years to the people of Hastinapur, Pandavas renounced their kingdom and began their journey to heaven from the Himalayas. During the journey a dog accompanied them. While ascending the Himalayas, Draupadi became the first one to fall, followed by Sahadeva, Nakula, Arjuna, and Bhima due to various sins committed during their lifetime. Only Yudhishthira and the dog continued on their journey. As the dog and Yudhishthira climb up the mountain, Lord Indra appears and asks Yudhishthira to come to heaven with him. Yudhishthira insisted on taking the dog along with them. Lord Indra disapproved of the request, but Yudhishthira remained adamant. The dog was Dharma, who was satisfied with Yudhishthir’s virtues, and appreciated him. Eventually, he entered Indra’s chariot to heaven.

Before we understand this Shloka, we recommend you to read previous Shloka to know what we should do before death and other shlokas if you missed them. Links to those blogs are given at the bottom of this page.

This shloka again seems to be for a dying person because after death our dead bodies go into fire. Hence the person is appealing to Fire God to remember good Karmas and forget all sins and promote him / her to heaven for the enjoyment of results of good deeds. Heaven is the chocolate for the ignorant readers to make them moral, honest, law abiding, rule following citizens in a society. Otherwise defining good or bad Karma and virtue or sin is not an easy task. The topic is very subjective and relative to subject, place, time, space, situation etc. As an example, eating a potato is a sin for some people but for other people it’s eating for survival and not considered as sin. Same goes with meat. Eating chicken was sin 30-40 years back in many places in India but nowadays it is not considered as sin. Many social norms were treated as virtue a few years back but nowadays they are treated as sin. As an example, polygamous marriages were a norm in society but today it is considered a sin. Killing a person is considered a sin but killing an enemy is a virtue.

Hence, a knowledgeable person does not differentiate between virtue and sin. The person sees oneness in both and does not care about heaven or hell. The person does not care about the result of the actions. His or her actions are unattached and without any desire. Like he / she shares the knowledge with others without thinking about name and fame. While living this life there will be some actions which can’t be sin free or some actions need desire. The person is well aware of those and does not get disturbed. Like wearing a tiny cloth is also a desire and a sin because that cloth was made on the dead bodies of thousands of insects. So, the Gyani experiences oneness in everything. For him / her good deeds are meditation, gaining knowledge and giving knowledge to others, any service without any desire, devotion etc. Anything other than those are not considered as good karma. They are karma and can be considered as sin in some situations and in this Shloka Rishi is talking about those as sin. Without second thought good karma will make that person more aware and liberated even if he / she does not request it and the sins will be ignored. As an example, when we talk about Ramakrishna Paramhansa, can we imagine any bad karma or sin that was caused by him? As a human being he was not sin free, but they became invisible or ignored in front of his dazzling good Karma, similar to the sunlight that has many colors in it, but we can experience white light only.

But, for a common ignorant person I would like to advise you, be a good human being. Be a law-abiding citizen for your nation. Cultivate moral values into your character. Try to be ethical in all your businesses. Buddha’s noble eightfold path is a good way to start. You don’t have to be religious for that. All the actions have certain definite results. Some of the results are instant and some take time. But all results will be experienced in this universe only, you may see it during your lifetime, or you may miss it. As an example, you slapped someone. The result will be instant. Either the person will cry or slap you back or say some bad words to you or you continue to keep yourself in a loop of thought to analyze yourself whether it was right or wrong action. Let me give you another example, you studied well for 2 years. You could get the result after appearing for an exam or maybe the knowledge will be utilized in years to come. And in the last example, you did research in your whole lifetime, and you did not get any recognition when you were living. Maybe 40 years after your death your research is used to create a new technology. This is how karma works. It does not work like people say that you will get heaven or hell after your death based on your Karma, or your next life will be comfortable or struggling based on your Karma of this life. These stories are told to make you a good human being and nothing else. So, read them and get inspiration from them.

But be cautious, don’t get brainwashed by any Babaji or Mataji or Maulana. In the name of Karma or heaven and hell or life after death or rebirth of soul etc., you would become their toys to make their own business or mission successful. One such deadly example is innocent children brainwashed to become terrorists or suicide bomber in the name of Jihad because someone promised them and made them visualized the life after death is full of enjoyment, sex with beautiful angels etc.

In the 21st century most countries have a good legal system and constitutions. Even if you just follow them, you will not do any bad karma and if you really want to learn more and practice good Karma then get Upanishads, Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, other scriptures; read them and practice any or all Yogas (Knowledge, Karma, Meditation, Devotion). Then you will find heaven on this earth only and in this birth only. You don’t have to die to see heaven or get the results of your karma in the next life. Neither of them exists.

Dear readers, be with us in this journey of Universal Vedanta movement.

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Readers' List

Isha Upanishad - Shloka - 17

https://universal-vedanta.blogspot.com/2023/10/isha-upanishad-in-english-isha-verse-17-what-we-should-do-before-time-of-death.html

Isha Upanishad - Shloka - 16

https://universal-vedanta.blogspot.com/2023/10/isha-upanishad-in-english-isha-verse-16-aditya-l1.html

Isha Upanishad - Shloka - 15

https://universal-vedanta.blogspot.com/2023/09/isha-upanishad-in-english-isha-verse-15-discover-your-true-nature.html.html