Isopanisad

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Sri Isopanisad, text 10:

 

"The wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of

knowledge and that a different result is obtained from the culture of

nescience."

 

 

PURPORT

As advised in Chapter Thirteen of the Bhagavad-gita (13.812), one

should culture knowledge in the following way:

 

(1) One should become a perfect gentleman and learn to give proper respect

to others.

 

(2) One should not pose himself as a religionist simply for name and fame.

 

(3) One should not become a source of anxiety to others by the actions of

his body, by the thoughts of his mind, or by his words.

 

(4) One should learn forbearance even in the face of provocation from

others.

 

(5) One should learn to avoid duplicity in his dealings with others.

 

(6) One should search out a bona fide spiritual master who can lead him

gradually to the stage of spiritual realization, and one must submit

himself to such a spiritual master, render him service and ask relevant

questions.

 

(7) In order to approach the platform of self-realization, one must follow

the regulative principles enjoined in the revealed scriptures.

 

(8) One must be fixed in the tenets of the revealed scriptures.

 

(9) One should completely refrain from practices which are detrimental to

the interest of self-realization.

 

(10) One should not accept more than he requires for the maintenance of

the body.

 

(11) One should not falsely identify himself with the gross material body,

nor should one consider those who are related to his body to be his own.

 

(12) One should always remember that as long as he has a material body he

must face the miseries of repeated birth, old age, disease and death.

There is no use in making plans to get rid of these miseries of the

material body. The best course is to find out the means by which one may

regain his spiritual identity.

 

(13) One should not be attached to more than the necessities of life

required for spiritual advancement.

 

(14) One should not be more attached to wife, children and home than the

revealed scriptures ordain.

 

(15) One should not be happy or distressed over desirables and

undesirables, knowing that such feelings are just created by the mind.

 

(16) One should become an unalloyed devotee of the Personality of Godhead,

Sri Krsna, and serve Him with rapt attention.

 

(17) One should develop a liking for residence in a secluded place with a

calm and quiet atmosphere favorable for spiritual culture,

knowledge is permanent whereas material knowledge ends with the death of

the body.

 

These eighteen items combine to form a gradual process by which

real knowledge can be developed. Except for these, all other methods are

considered to be in the category of nescience. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura,

a great acarya, maintained that all forms of material knowledge are merely

external features of the illusory energy and that by culturing them one

becomes no better than an ass. This same principle is found here in Sri

Isopanisad. By advancement of material knowledge, modern man is simply

being converted into an ass. Some materialistic politicians in spiritual guise

decry the present system of civilization as satanic, but unfortunately

they do not care about the culture of real knowledge as it is described in

the Bhagavad-gita. Thus they cannot change the satanic situation.