asuryā nāma te lokāḥ (īśa 3)

After discussing the three paths, the īśāvāsya upaniṣad discusses the truly ignorant.

asuryā nāma te lokā andhena tamasā’’vṛtāḥ || 3

Undivine are those worlds enveloped in blinding darkness (profvk translation)

The word lokāḥ is quite interesting, because it is not merely understood in the sense of the world in the universal sense, but as the world that the deluded experiences through the limiting adjuncts of the repeated birth in a womb.

lokāḥ karmaphalāni, lokyante dṛśyante bhujyanta iti janmāni (bhāṣyam)

The prasāda commentary calls this the lokastha-tattad-yonayaḥ, or all possible births in these lokas. And, in line with bhāṣyakāra’s statement – devādayo’pi asurāḥ – that even devas who are ignorant of the self are truly asuras who reside in the hells called asuryā, the maṇiprabhā says:

lokāḥ karmaphala-bhūtāḥ sva-sūkarādi-dehaviśeṣāḥ, īśvarāpekṣayā ajñadevā’pi asurā eva (maṇiprabhā)

Thus, any yoni can be the ignorant hell named asurya, be it because of birth in a body that supports no reasoning beyond animal reactions (like that of a dog or a pig in which the external im

purity signifies the internal impurity), or be it in a divine body that is none the less characterized by a lack of self-realization, or by a sense of kartṛtvam.

Who is a sura, and who is an asura? Says the maṇiprabhā –

suṣṭhu ramante iti surā ātmārāmā vidvāṁsaḥ, tebhyo ‘nye ‘surāḥ

Those who truly sport by abiding in the self are suras, and anyone else is an asura. What happens to the asura? yathākarma yathāśrutam – he gets what he deserves.

ātma-ghātasya prāyaścitta-vidhānādarśanāt saṁsaraṇam eva phalam (ānandagiri)

V. Panoli points the strong connection to the following gītā verse:

āsurīṁ yonim āpannā mūḍhā janmani janmani |
mām aprāpyaiva kaunteya tato yāntyadhamāṁ gatim || (gītā 16.20)

as well as the almost identical phrasing in the bṛhadāraṇyaka

anandā nāma te lokā andhena tamasā’’vṛtāḥ  (4.4.12)

The bhāṣya thereupon is worth looking at:

ye … sādhya-sādhana-lakṣaṇām upāsate karmānuvartante … (te) tamaḥ saṁsāra-niyāmakaṁ praviśanti (bhāṣyam).