Namaste friends,

There are 6 verses which have always given me pause from Isha Upanishad, which I currently re-reading carefully. For some reason I had never really given them much thought until I read over them carefully. Perhaps this has been discussed before on this board, but I have scrolled through a few of the pages here and I couldn't find the exact quote I am referring to. I'm speaking of verses 9-11 (although it actually goes on until verse 14), and I'm using Eknath Easwaran's English translation of the text:

andhaM tamaH pravisHanti ye'vidyâmupâsate,
tato bhûya iva te tamo ya u vidyâyâM ratâH.
anyadevâhurvidyayâ'nyadâhuravidyayâ,
iti sHusHruma dhîrânâM ye nastadvicacakSire.
vidyâñcâvidyâñca yastadvedobhayaM saha,
avidyayâ mRityuM tîrtvâ vidyayâmRitamasHnute.

"Into dark night live those for whom the world without alone is real; in night darker still , for whom the world within alone is real. The first leads to a life of action, the second to a life of meditation. But those who combine action with meditation cross the sea of death through action and enter into immortality through the practice of meditation. So have we heard from the wise."

And it continues on in a similar vein:

andhaM tamaH pravisHanti ye'sambhûtimupâsate,
tato bhûya iva te tamo ya u sambhûtyâM ratâH.
anyadevâhuH sambhavâdanyadâhurasambhavât,
iti sHusHruma dhîrânâM ye nastadvicacakSire.
sambhûtiñca vinâsHañca yastadvedobhayaM saha,
vinâsHena mRityuM tîrtvâ sambhûtyâ'mRitamasHnute.

"In dark night live those for whom the Lord is transcendent only; in darker night still, for whom he is immanent only. But those for whom he is transcendent and immanent cross the sea of death with the immanent and enter into immortality with the transcendent. So we have heard from the wise."

I have read through several different English translations and I think I am getting caught up more on the phrasing now than on the real meaning. Is the lesson here that one must not dedicate themselves solely to Purusha (Consciousness) or Prakriti (Nature and the Physical World) because neither path solely by itself leads to understanding of Ultimate Reality? Just wanted to clarify this with someone who has better understanding of this part of the passage.

Om namah Shivaya