BHUMA-VIDYA 13

August 16, 2006

Om Namah Sivaya

The Chhandogya Upanishad

SANATKUMARA'S INSTRUCTIONS ON BHUMA-VIDYA

Section 9

Food

Annam vava balad-bhuyah, tasmed-yady-api dasa ratrirna'sniyat yadi u ha jivet, atha va adrasta'srota'manta 'boddha'karta'vijnata bhavati, atha'nnasyayai drasta bhavati, srota bhavati, manta bhavati, boddha bhavati, karta bhavati, vijnata bhavati, annam upassveti.

That which gives strength is superior to strength, and it is metaphorically called here anna, food. It is a peculiar term occurring many times in the Upanishad. Etymologically, anna is of course, food. Anything that feeds the other is called food. It may be rice, barley, wheat, or anything else. It can be even some psychological substance. Something that is contributory to the sustenance of something else is called food. Sometimes matter in its generality also is called food in the language of the Upanishads. In that sense also, we can interpret the word anna mentioned here. There is a combination of the objective and the subjective in the generation of any kind of power. It is not one aspect alone that works when there is success in life. Success is due to the application of some strength of action. But this strength does not come up to the surface of one's consciousness or experience unless the two aspects, the objective and the subjective combine together. It is

not true that the object alone works independently. It is also not true that the subject alone works independently. There is a mutual blend of these two aspects. Without air we cannot breathe, but without lungs also we cannot breathe. This is a gross example of how the subjective and the objective both have to combine to ensure success. This is the case with everything that happens in social life. We live by coordination, cooperation and mutual understanding. This, the coming together of the forces of nature in their co-relativity with the powers that are in the individual, applies to every realm of being and every type of action. This is the source of strength. When we are harmonious with nature and the forces of nature are in harmony with us, we become strong persons. This feeding principle, the element that is responsible for the generation of strength, is food, and that is what is called anna here, which is superior to understanding.

Now, Sanatkumara gives a well-known example to show how food is the source of strength. If one does not eat for ten days, what happens? Of course he will live. He will continue to be a human being, but he cannot see, hear, think or understand. This is because he has not eaten food for ten days. The objective principle has been taken away and only subjective principle is alive in him. Prana is there, but food has gone. One immediately feels elated the moment food comes near one.

As we go further and further in this chapter, we will find it is more and more difficult to understand the intention of the Upanishad. The instructions are very cryptic in their language. Even the Sanskrit language that is used is very archaic, giving way to various types of interpretations. But, the general background of the thought of the teacher here seems to be that there is necessity to rise gradually from the lower level to the higher level of comprehension. Here, by comprehension we mean the capacity of consciousness to include within its being, not merely within its thought or understanding, the reality that is outside. The more the extent of the reality outside that gets absorbed into our own being, the more is the power we can exercise over that realm of reality. This is a point, of course, that will be clear to anyone. Power is not merely imposed on us by any kind of ordinance or mandate. It is an outcome that arises automatically on account of the

identity of our Being with that extent of reality with which we have become one.

Sa yo'nnam brahmety-upaste, annavato vai sa lokan panavato'bhisidhyati. Yavad-annasya gatam, tatrasya yatha kamacaro bhavati yo'nnam brahmety-upaste, asti, bhagavah, annad-bhuya iti, annad vava bhuyo'stiti, tanme, bhagavan, bravitv-iti.

So, the point that is driven into the mind of Narada by the teacher is that to become strong and powerful is to have this aspect of strength as the object of his meditation because, to the extent of the application of this kind of power, one will be successful and one will be free in that particular realm of one's contemplation. "Still," says Sanatkumara, "there is something more than that." And that is water which is superior to food, as mentioned here. The intention of the teacher here is to show to us that food is not merely the food that we eat, but it is the entire material content of the universe. The whole of the earth element is represented by the word 'food'. That is why he says that water principle is superior to the food principle. Everything that is solid has ultimately come out of liquid. The whole earth in its solid form has come out of a liquid condition. Not only this particular earth, but also everything that is material in content, everything that

is solid in nature, anywhere in the whole astronomical universe, was originally in a liquid condition. The liquid was, once upon a time, in a hot gaseous condition, and so on and so forth. There are subtler and subtler causes and precedents behind the grosser expressions thereof.

"O, Narada, this thing called food, which I say is superior to everything that I have mentioned up to this time, is the element of matter, the entire objective universe in its solid form, and superior to it is the water principle," says Sanatkumara. The identification of the water principle with the ultimate reality of things is a common way of explaining the nature of the origin of things in the sacred scriptures. Sanatkumara says that originally it was all water, though it need not necessarily mean that the original waters were the liquid that we see in this world. And perhaps there was some sort of undifferentiated state of things and it is towards that concept that the mind of Narada is being taken now, by being told that superior to solid is liquid, superior to the earth is water.

----Sri Swami Krishnananda

Sivaya Namah

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