Principal Upanishad · Shukla Yajurveda
Isha Upanishad 1
Enjoy through renunciation; covet nothing
ईशावास्यमिदं सर्वं यत्किञ्च जगत्यां जगत्। तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा मा गृधः कस्यस्विद्धनम्॥
All this — whatever exists in this changing universe — is pervaded by the Divine. Enjoy through renunciation. Covet not the wealth of any man.
What this verse points to
The opening verse of the Isha, and its structure is unusual: it establishes that everything is pervaded by the divine, and then immediately gives an instruction about property. The metaphysics is not left abstract for even one line.
"Enjoy through renunciation" — tena tyaktena bhunjitha — is the hinge. Enjoyment and grasping are separated, and only the grasping is asked for.
Sit with it
Take one thing you use daily and hold it today as borrowed rather than owned. Notice whether it becomes more or less enjoyable.
About the Isha Upanishad
One of the shortest of the principal Upanishads at eighteen verses, the Isha takes its name from its opening word. It is unusual among the Upanishads for being embedded directly in a Vedic samhita rather than a Brahmana, and it argues that renunciation and engaged life are not opposites.
References to this text are given as verse — here, 1.