Selected Verses From The Adhyatma Upanishad

Superimposition is the thought, ‘I am, and mine are the body, the senses, etc.’, which are all other than the True Self.
Through devotion to Brahman, the wise man should renounce those.

Knowing oneself to be the subject, the witness of intellect and its operations,
Reject the idea of the Self being other than the subject, identifying the ‘I’ with that (the subject).

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 1 – 2

Liberated from the grip of egoism, like The Moon after eclipse, Full, Ever Blissful, Self-Luminous, one attains one’s spirit.

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 11

At all places and by all means, perceiving everything as Spirit,
One achieves the dissolution of innate impulses as it strengthens the attitude of Universal Good Will.

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 13

The world is a hypothesis, as good as non-existent, in the one Reality that is immutable, formless, unqualified; whence is difference?

In the one Reality devoid of distinctions like the percipient, perception, and the perceived, and of all sufferings,
In the absolutely full, spiritual, Self, like unto the ocean at the time of cosmic dissolution, whence is difference?

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 22 – 23

Darkness implicit in It as in Light is the cause of delusion.
Whence is difference in the supreme non-dual and unqualified Reality ?

In this uniform and supreme Reality, how can the agent of differences dwell?
In deep sleep that is nothing but bliss who has perceived difference?

This perception of difference is rooted in the mind of the percipient; there is none of it in the absence of the mind.
Therefore, concentrate the mind on the supreme Self as the subject.

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 24 – 26

Upon realizing the Self that is impartite Bliss as one’s own spirit there follows the savoring of the timeless bliss that is the Self, both externally and internally.

Of detachment the fruit is knowledge: of knowledge the fruit is withdrawal.
Experience of Self as bliss leads to peace; again, peace is the fruit of withdrawal.

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 27 – 28

‘To listen’, thus is to pursue by means of sentences their import.
On the other hand, ‘thinking’ consists in perceiving its consistency with reason.

‘Meditation’ is indeed the exclusive attention of the mind fixed on the import rendered indisputable through listening and thinking.

‘Concentration’ is said to be the mind which, outgrowing the dualism between the meditator and meditation,
Gradually dwells exclusively on the object of meditation and is like a flame in a windless spot.

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 33 – 35

Mind’s modifications in regard to the Self are uncognized in that state;
They are only inferred as past, after quitting the state of Samadhi (Total Self Consciousness).

Crores (Millions) of karmas, accumulated in this beginningless transmigratory life, are dissolved by means of concentration: then pure virtue begins to flourish.

The best knowers of Yoga call this Concentration the cloud of virtues, since it rains the flood-waters of virtue in a thousand streams.

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 36 – 38

Who has no conceit of ‘I’ in regard to body and senses; nor the conceit of objects in regard to things other than them – Who is free from these two conceits in regard to anything whatsoever is liberated in-life;

Who, in his wisdom, perceives no difference between the Subject and Brahman;
Who neither concerns to the creator nor creation is liberated in life.

Whose attitude is the same both when he is honored by the virtuous and when he is persecuted by the wicked, is liberated in life.

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 45 – 47

He who has realized the truth of Brahman no longer transmigrates, as before;
And if he does, this truth has not been realized by him; he is but an Extrovert.

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 48

As long as the experience of pleasure, etc., lasts, so long operative karmas from the past are held to persist.
Causal actions precede the occurrence of effects; never is this unpreceded by actions.

Consequent on the experience ‘I am Brahman’, karmas accumulated in the course of eons are dissolved,
Even as the actions in dreams are, upon waking up.

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 49 – 50

Just as nothing clings to space, so to the sage, who knows the Self to be unattached and indifferent, future actions cling not in the least degree.

Just as Space is unaffected by the smell of liquor though it touches the pot containing the liquor, so the Soul is unaffected by the attributes of Its companions.

Karmas done before the dawn of knowledge perish not as a result of that knowledge; they must produce their proper effect even as an
arrow shot to hit a target stops not before hitting it.

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 51 – 53

‘I am un-ageing’; ‘I am immortal’ – how can one who knows his Self to be such and lives that knowledge fabricate operative past karmas?

Then only is operative past action real when one mistakes one’s Soul (Self) to be the body.
The treatment of the body as Self is improper; therefore reject the notion of operative past action.

The fabrication of operative past karmas is also, indeed, a delusion due to this body.

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 55 – 57

How can the superimposed be real ? How can the unreal be born ?
How can the unborn perish ? How can the unreal own operative karmas ?

To answer the dull-witted who doubtfully ask how this body persists if the entire effects of nescience with their cause are destroyed by knowledge, Shruti, with an outward eye, propounds the theory of operative past karmas; not to suggest to the wise that the body, etc., are real.

– Adhyatma Upanishad Verse 58 – 60

A total plenum, without beginning and end, measure and change.
Massed being and intelligence, massed eternal bliss, undiminishing,

With the sole enjoyer of the subject, full, endless, behold all,
Neither to be shunned nor seized, neither to be held nor propped;

Beyond inert forces and actions, subtle, certain, unblemished;
Whose essence is beyond thought, beyond mid and words;

Existent, a plenitude, self-proven, pure, awake and matchless.
One only is non-dual Brahman; here is no plurality at all.

– Adhyatma Upanishad 61 – 64

Adhyatma Upanishad Full PDF :- https://lakshminarayanlenasia.com/downloads/Upanishad-Complete.pdf

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.