Ishopanishad - Shanti Mantra

II ॐ श्री गं गणपतेय नमः II

II ॐ श्री शिवाय नमः  II

II ॐ श्री देव्यै नमः II

II ॐ श्री सद्गुरुवे नमः II

इशोपनिषद

Ishopanishad

शांतिः मंत्र

Invocation of peace

ॐ पूर्णं अध: पूर्णम इदं , पूर्णात  पूर्णम  उदच्यते II

पूर्णस्य पूर्णम आदाय पूर्णम एव अवशिष्यते II

ॐ  शांतिः  शांतिः  शांतिः II

अधः = " ते " ,that  ,  इदं =" हे " ,this  ,  उदच्यते = उदय होते , वर येते , उद्गमन  emerges or arises  , आदाय = काढून घेणे / वजा करणे  remove/substract  ,   also  बरोबर घेणे  taking along  ,   अवशिष्यते  = शिल्लक राहते, उरते remains

ॐ  ते पूर्ण आहे , हे  पूर्ण आहे .पूर्णा पासूनच  पूर्णा  ची  उत्पत्ती ( पूर्णातूनच पूर्णा चे  उद्गमन ) होते .( त्या ) पूर्णाचे   ( हे ) पूर्ण काढून घेतले किंवा ( त्या ) पूर्णात ( हे ) पूर्ण बरोबर घेतले तरी  पूर्णच शिल्लक उरते  . ॐ शांतिः  शांतिः  शांतिः

ॐ That is complete (Whole  without any deficiencies ) , This is Complete (Whole  without any deficiencies ). From the (That)Complete(Whole) , arises or emerges  the  (This)Complete (Whole) . If (this)Complete(Whole) is removed from or added to (that)Complete(Whole ). What remains still is Complete(Whole) .ॐ Let there be peace , peace , peace .

This peace invocation ( shanti mantra ) is a little intriguing in the sense that  the  "That" &  “This”  in this mantra are not clearly defined .So naturally there have been numerous interpretations & opinions regarding these twosome. I feel that in the above shanti mantra “That” means The Bramham while “This” means The Atman . It is stated above that both “That” & “This” are complete in their wholeness and hence their meaning should be derived & analysed from this point of view .

That “That”  means or indicates The Bramham should not have any second thoughts . “That” is a neuter gender and is deliberately used to show that “That” is neither masculine or feminine . The Bramham is also neither masculine or feminine , if it had been either of the only one then it could not have been complete in its wholeness .Since The Bramham is both masculine & feminine simultaneously , the neuter gender “That” is used to represent it .

That The Bramham is complete in its wholeness cannot be denied or falsified .Whatever is from yonder to yonder , seen & unseen , visible & invisible ,moving & unmoving , micro & macro is nothing but The Bramham . It is everywhere , nothing exists outside of The Bramham . So in the mantra “That” means The Bramham .

Now lets turn our attention  to “This” in the mantra . What was the Rishi’s (Sage’s) intention when he said “ This” ? What did he mean when he said “ This ”  is Complete(Whole  without any deficiencies ).

If we deduce that “This” means our World , then by our World we generally mean the Earth .So did the sage mean Earth when he said “This” ? Then it means that the Earth is Complete ! But to say this would be wrong .As we know that the  Earth is totally dependent on the Sun for its functioning and is only a part of the Sun’s planetary system .Without the Sun the Earth would certainly perish . How can a dependant and perishable thing which is just a part of something bigger be considered complete ? So the sage certainly didn’t mean the Earth (World) .

Lets read the mantra again and see what we can primarily conclude .

1.       The word “This” in the mantra indicates that there appears to be this something which is different from The Bramham .

2.      That “This” is near to us . How can we conclude that “This” is near to us ? Because the mantra doesn’t say “That” and “That” but it says “That” and “This” . “ That “ is used to refer to something which is farther(at a great distance) to us while “This” is used to refer something which is very near to us .

So from the above what is that thing which appears (only appear different due to circumstances) to be different from The Bramham , which is also near to us and at the same time is also Complete?

There is of course only one such thing which meets all these conditions . It is The Principle of Life ,Feeling ,Thought and Action in humans , regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body , and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body .We call this Principle The Atman .Hence it is “The Atman” which is indicated in the mantra by “This”.

Is the “Atman” Complete(Whole  without any deficiencies ) in its nature ? Yes it certainly is , As it arises or emerges from The Bramham itself which is Complete. The Atman is not born out of The Bramham rather it arises or emerges from The Bramham.

For The Atman there is  never birth nor death .Nor having once been does it cease to be .It is unborn ,eternal , ever-existing, undying and primeval .It is not slain when the body is slain (Bhagvat Geeta Chapter 2 , Verse 20 ).

In fact it would not be wrong to say that What we call The Bramham has actually risen or emerged from the One Supereme Atman of all the Atmans in the beginning .They called it Singularity (Advaita).This Singularity exploded (Dvaita) with a big bang and is ever expanding ever since .From this Singularity was born the Universe with its unlimited galaxies , stars within the galaxies , planetary systems of the stars . satellite systems of the planets and life distinct with its support systems all interdependent .This ever expanding expanse is what we refer to as  The Bramham  and so does the sage of this mantra . The Bramham is the ParamAtman itself .It is ,was and will always be Complete(Whole  without any deficiencies ). Therefore The Atman referred to by “This” in the mantra is also as Complete(Whole  without any deficiencies ) as The Bramham .

Hence

ॐ The Bramham is complete ,So The Atman is Complete. As from the Complete (Whole) , arises or emerges the Complete (Whole).

Now moving further we come across the line which says –

If Complete is removed from or added to the Complete , What remains still is Complete. This seems to be absurd in the view of our general Mathematics. If something is added to another it should increase and if subtracted or removed in that case it should decrease. That is the rule per say. But here in the mantra the sage says that nothing changes .Complete remains Complete .How can that be possible? We have to see how?

Consider us . We are born out of conjugation of a sperm and an egg as a single placental cell. Both the sperm and the egg are complete in terms of their functionality ,they must be .For if either of them is incomplete they will not combine to form a single living placental cell. So here we see that when two Complete(wholes) are brought/added  together  what remains is Complete(whole) single entity .This placental cell later undergoes cell division ( mitosis  & meiosis ) to form 2 cells from the original placental cell & goes on dividing to form 2, 4, 16 … cells and so on to form an embryo. Here we again see that when from one Complete(whole) cell another Complete(whole) cell is removed/emerges , What then remains is Complete(whole) one single entity. The human body is made up of trillions of such cells but yet it is one Complete(whole) entity.

Thus we see  that the 2^nd statement in the mantra –

“If Complete is removed from or added to the Complete , What remains still is Complete” also holds true .

Let there be Peace , Peace ,Peace .

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Inspired by Dr. P. V. Vartak’s  उपनिषदांचे विज्ञान निष्ठ निरुपण .