Isha Upanishad

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Sri Isha Upanishad: <br><br>Eighteen Pearls of

Vedic Wisdom - Mantra One <br>[ With commentary by Sri

Siddhaswarupananda ] <br><br> <br><br>ishAvAsyam idam sarvam

<br><br>yat kinca jagatyAm jagat <br><br>tena tyaktena

bhunjIthA <br><br>mA gRidhah kasya svid dhanam <br><br>

<br><br>"Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe

is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should

therefore accept only those things necessary for himself,

which are set aside as his quota, and one should not

accept other things, knowing well to whom they

belong."<br><br>One of the definitions of God is that He is the

origin of everything, the original cause of all causes.

Everything animate (living) and inanimate (nonliving) comes

from Him. All energies emanate from Him. In the

Bhagavad-gita (7.4-5) the Supreme Lord states: <br><br>

<br><br>"Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and

false ego -altogether these eight comprise My separated

material energies. Besides this inferior nature, O

mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine, which

is all living entities who are struggling with

material nature and are sustaining the universe." <br><br>

<br><br>Since all energies emanate from the Supreme Lord,

everything -both living and nonliving-is His. In this world,

people are always fighting over property. They want to

stake their claims of ownership on both the living and

the nonliving. According to the Sri Ishopanishad,

these people are like thieves fighting over stolen

loot. If we look at the question from the relatively

short-term view, we may find it hard to accept that no one

is really an owner of anything. But if we adopt the

point of view of the Sri Ishopanishad - which sees the

universe not in terms of decades, centuries, or even

thousands of years, but in terms of many millions of

years-then we can understand this point. For example, who

owns the moon? Both the Americans and the Russians,

for instance, have contemplated mining the moon in

order to build artificial planets called space

colonies. According to the Sri Ishopanishad it is God who

owns outer space, the earth, and, all living beings. A

piece of God's property may be controlled to a limited

extent by a temporarily powerful man or nation, but in

due course-whether over hundreds of years or hundreds

of thousands of years-such men die and such nations

dissolve.