16 Facts About Isha Upanishad

Isha Upanishad is one of the shortest Upanishads, embedded as the final chapter of the Shukla Yajurveda.

The Upanishad is a brief poem, consisting of 17 or 18 verses, depending on the recension.

Phillips suggests that Isha Upanishad was likely one of the earliest Upanishads, composed in the 1st half of 1st millennium BCE, after Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya, but before Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kaushitaki, Kena, Katha, Manduka, Prasna, Svetasvatara and Maitri Upanishads, as well as before the earliest Buddhist Pali and Jaina canons.

Isha Upanishad has been chronologically listed by them as being among early Upanishads to being one among the middle Upanishads.

Deussen suggested, for example, that Isha was composed after ancient prose Upanishads – Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kaushitaki and Kena; during a period when metrical poem-like Upanishads were being composed.

Related searches

Further, he suggests that Isha was composed before other prose Upanishads such as Prasna, Maitri, Mandukya and all post-Vedic era Upanishads.

Winternitz, suggests that Isha Upanishad was probably a pre-Buddha composition along with Katha, Svetasvatara, Mundaka and Prasna Upanishad, but after the first phase of ancient Upanishads that were composed in prose such as Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kaushitaki and Kena.

Winternitz states that Isha was likely composed before post-Buddhist Upanishads such as Maitri and Mandukya.

Ranade posits that Isha was composed in the second group of Upanishads along with Kena Upanishad, right after the first group of Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya, but chronologically before Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kaushitaki, Katha, Mundaka, Svetasvatara, Prasna, Mandukya and Maitrayani.

Isha Upanishad is the only Upanishad that is attached to a Samhita, the most ancient layer of Vedic text known for their mantras and benedictions.

Max Muller notes that this does not necessarily mean that Isha Upanishad is among the oldest, because Shukla Yajur Veda is acknowledged to be of a later origin than textual layers of other Vedas such as the Rig Veda.

Isha Upanishad is significant for its singular mention of the term "Isha" in the first hymn, a term it never repeats in other hymns.

The Isha Upanishad, is reminding the reader that neither routine life and rituals are right nor are they wrong, states Max Muller.

Isha Upanishad suggests that one root of sorrow and suffering is considering one's Self as distinct and conflicted with the Self of others, assuming that the nature of existence is a conflicted duality where one's happiness and suffering is viewed as different from another living being's happiness and suffering.

In final hymns 15 through 18, the Upanishad asserts a longing for Knowledge, asserting that it is hidden behind the golden disc of light, but a light that one seeks.

The final hymns of Isha Upanishad declare the foundational premise, "I am He", equating one Self's oneness with cosmic Self.