Isha Upanishad

1. 1Everything that moves in this world belongs to God, the Lord who lives in all things as the true Self. Let go of the idea that things are yours, and then you can truly enjoy life. Do not be greedy for what belongs to someone else.
2. 2A person may hope to live a hundred years and keep working the whole time. If they work in this spirit, seeing all as God's, their actions will not trap them. There is no other way.
3. 3There are dark worlds, named after the Asuras, the demons, and they are wrapped in blind darkness. People who go through life only doing things, and never learn who they really are inside, go to those worlds after death.
4. 4The Self never moves, yet it is faster than thought. The senses, called Devas or gods here, can never catch it, because it is always ahead of them. It stays still but gets ahead of everything that runs. Matarisvan, the wind or moving spirit, gives powers to it.
5. 5The Self moves and does not move. It is far away and also very close. It is inside everything and also outside everything.
6. 6A person who sees all living beings inside the Self, and the Self inside all beings, never turns away from it and never hates anyone.
7. 7When a wise person sees that the one Self has become everything, sorrow and confusion fall away. Once someone has seen this oneness, what can make them sad or troubled?
8. 8The Self is everywhere. It is bright and has no body, no wounds and no muscles. It is pure and untouched by evil. It is a wise seer who exists by itself, and it has set all things in their proper order for all time.
9. 9People who only follow rituals and good works go into blind darkness. But people who only care about knowledge and ignore their duties go into even greater darkness.
10. 10The wise teachers said that knowledge brings one result and good works bring a different result. This is what was handed down to us.
11. 11A person who understands both knowledge and works together uses good works to get past death, and uses true knowledge to reach immortal life.
12. 12People who worship only the changing world go into blind darkness. People who worship only the hidden first cause of everything, and ignore the rest, go into even greater darkness.
13. 13The wise said that knowing the first cause brings one result, and knowing the changing world brings another. This is what our teachers told us.
14. 14A person who understands both the eternal cause and the body that dies uses the body and this life to get past death. Through knowing the true cause, they reach immortality.
15. 15The speaker prays to Pushan, the sun god who nourishes the world. The truth is hidden behind a golden disk, like the bright sun. He asks Pushan to open it so he can see what is truly real.
16. 16The speaker keeps praying to the sun, calling it Pushan, the one seer, Yama the judge, Surya the sun, and child of Prajapati the creator. He asks it to pull back its blinding rays so he can see its most beautiful light. Then he realizes that the person within the sun is the same as himself.
17. 17This is a prayer at the time of death. The speaker says his breath will return to the air and the immortal spirit, and his body will become ashes. He chants Om and tells his mind to remember all the deeds he has done.
18. 18The speaker prays to Agni, the god of fire, who knows everything. He asks Agni to lead us by a good path to the highest good and to keep crooked, evil ways far from us. In return, we will praise him with all our hearts.