Isha Upanishad: The Practical Guide for Divine Life : ( Part 12)

You may like to read Part 11 here.

Verse 12 :

andhaṃ tamaḥ praviśanti ye’sambhūtimupāsate | 

tato bhūya iva te tamo ya u saṃbhūtyāṃ ratāḥ || 12 ||

Literal Meaning :

Into blind darkness, they enter who follow after the Non-Birth, they as if into greater darkness who devote themselves to the Birth alone.

My Personal Understanding :

Following non-birth here mean all those activities that lead to the dissolution of the body. Here, the text says that the extreme ways of going into solitude might be required for some time to attain salvation and intensify the yogic practices and are required for a certain duration if one wants to move from birth to a pure non-becoming. However, staying in yogic samadhi for a very long time will lead to the disintegration of the body, and mind in complex indiscriminate Nature.

The text says that, although oneness can be experienced by the way of samadhi. Staying only in samadhi is not the sole purpose of divine life.

Following Birth means a constant self-limitation and an interminable round of egoistic births in the lower forms of egoism without issue or release. The text in the very next line declares that those who devote themselves to birth alone live in the greater darkness. This is to emphasize the point that although staying absorbed into pure non-becoming is not the ideal way, it is definitely superior to those who completely live a worldly life devoted to individual well-being alone for it is ignorant even of the impulse of release.

To be continued…

🌼🌼🌼All Glories to Swamiji Alone 🌼🌼🌼