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Isha Upanishad VOLUME17 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO ©SriAurobindoAshramTrust2003 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA Isha Upanishad ii Publisher’s Note
This volume contains Sri Aurobindo’s translations of and commentaries on the Isha Upanishad. His translations of and commentaries on other Upanishads and Vedantic texts, and his writings on the Upanishads and Vedanta philosophy in general, are published in Kena and Other Upanishads, volume 18 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. The present volume is divided into two parts. The first con- sists of Sri Aurobindo’s final translation and analysis of the Isha Upanishad. This is the only work in this volume that was pub- lished during his lifetime. It contains his definitive interpretation of the Isha Upanishad. Before publishing this final translation and analysis, Sri Aurobindo wrote ten incomplete commentaries on the Isha Upa- nishad. These appear in approximate chronological order in Part Two. Ranging in length from a few pages to more than a hundred, they show the development of his interpretation of this Upanishad from around 1900 to the middle of 1914, when he began work on his final translation and analysis. The texts in both parts have been checked against the rele- vant manuscript and printed versions. Guide to Editorial Notation
The contents of Part Two of this volume were never prepared by Sri Aurobindo for publication. They have been transcribed from manuscripts that sometimes present textual difficulties. In this edition these problems have been indicated as far as possible by means of the notation shown below.
Notation Textual Problem [...... ] Word(s) lost through damage to the manuscript (at the beginning of a piece, sometimes indicates that a page or pages of the manuscript have been lost) [word] Word(s) omitted by the author or lost through dam- age to the manuscript that are required by grammar or sense, and that could be supplied by the editors [note] Situations requiring textual explication; all such information is printed in italics CONTENTS
Part One Translation and Commentary Published by Sri Aurobindo Isha Upanishad 3
Part Two Incomplete Commentaries from Manuscripts Isha Upanishad: All that is world in the Universe 95 The Ishavasyopanishad with a commentary in English 101 The Karmayogin: A Commentary on the Isha Upanishad 169 Ish and Jagat 303 The Secret of the Isha 307 Chapters for a Work on the Isha Upanishad 311 The Upanishad in Aphorism 351 The Life Divine [Draft A] 361 The Life Divine [Draft B] 429 The Life Divine [Draft C] 551 ii Sri Aurobindo in 1908
Part One
Translation and Commentary Published by Sri Aurobindo
Isha Upanishad
Isha Upanishad
IfA vA yEmd sv yt Ek c jg yA jgt