The Isha Upanishad, a verse a day for 18 days
The Isha Upanishad (Ishavasya Upanishad), one of the shortest Upanishads, one verse a day for 18 days. Each day gives the Sanskrit, two public-domain English translations, a plain explanation and two classical readings, each named with its school: Shankara's (Advaita) and Anantacharya's (Vaishnava). Where readers take a verse differently, the explanation says so.
For every tradition. The Upanishad is shruti for every Vedanta school. Each verse shows two classical readings, each named with its school: Shankara's (Advaita) and Anantacharya's (Vaishnava). Each is one school's reading, and the explanation says where readers differ.
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Day 1: All this is covered by the Lord
The first verse gives the Upanishad its name. All that moves in this world is to be covered by the Lord, or dwelt in by him. The verse then asks for two things: enjoy by letting go, and do not covet anyone's wealth.
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Day 2: A hundred years of work
The verse speaks of a person who wishes to live a hundred years while doing their work, and says that for such a person deeds do not cling. Readers differ on whom the verse addresses: the one who has given up all, or the one still doing duties. The explanation gives both.
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Day 3: Worlds of blind darkness
The verse uses a strong image: worlds covered in blind darkness, for those who "kill the Self". The explanation shows what the translators take this to mean: losing sight of the Self, living as if it were not there.
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Day 4: Unmoving, yet faster than the mind
The Upanishad describes the One in pairs that seem to clash. It does not move, yet it is faster than the mind, and the senses cannot overtake it.
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Day 5: Far and near
It moves and it does not move; it is far and it is near; it is inside all this and outside all this. The Bhagavad Gita says much the same, in nearly the same words, at 13.15.
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Day 6: All beings in the Self
The one who sees all beings in the Self, and the Self in all beings, turns away from no one. Krishna says much the same in the Gita (6.29), and at 6.30 he says it of himself.
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Day 7: Where is grief?
The verse asks a question: for one who sees that all beings have become the Self, what delusion or grief can there be? The question itself gives the answer.
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Day 8: Bright, bodiless, pure
A description of the one who has gone everywhere: bright, without a body, pure, the seer who has set all things in order. Some commentators read it as a picture of the person who knows; the explanation shows both readings.
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Day 9: Knowledge and not-knowledge
Verses 9 to 11 are among the hardest in the Upanishads. This one sets vidya (knowledge) and avidya (not-knowledge) side by side, and says that holding to either alone leads into darkness. Commentators read the two words very differently; read the explanation and the two schools' readings slowly.
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Day 10: Different from both
One result comes from knowledge and another from not-knowledge, "so we have heard from the wise". The Sanskrit can also be read as "it is other than both"; the translations show the two readings.
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Day 11: Knowing both together
The verse joins the pair instead of choosing one side: the one who knows both together crosses death by the one and reaches the immortal by the other. What these words mean depends on how verses 9 and 10 are read.
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Day 12: Becoming and not-becoming
Verses 12 to 14 repeat the pattern of 9 to 11 with a new pair: sambhuti, what comes into being, and asambhuti, what does not. Reading them beside days 9 to 11 helps.
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Day 13: Heard from the wise
Like verse 10, this verse gives the two results and repeats the line about the wise who explained it. It can also be read as "it is other than both".
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Day 14: The pair joined again
Like verse 11, this verse asks that both be known together, coming into being and passing away, and closes the middle part of the Upanishad.
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Day 15: The golden lid
The last four verses are prayers. The first asks Pushan, the sun as nourisher, to uncover the face of the Truth, which is hidden by a golden disk.
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Day 16: The many names of the sun
The prayer calls the sun by many names and asks it to gather in its blaze, so that its most blessed form can be seen. It ends with a short line on the person in the sun and the one who prays.
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Day 17: Remember
A verse spoken at the end of life: the breath goes back to the wind, the body to ashes, and the mind is asked, twice, to remember what has been done.
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Day 18: Lead us by a good path
The Upanishad closes with a prayer to Agni that is also a verse of the Rigveda (1.189.1). It asks Agni to lead us by a good path and to keep far from us the sin that leads astray, and it offers him many words of praise.
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Explanation written for this site and checked against the cited edition. Free to quote with credit.