The Essence of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: 13. Swami Krishnananda.

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Thursday 15, Feb 2024. 06:45.

Scriptures

Upanishads

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 

Chapter -2. The Absolute and the Universe-9.

Post-13.

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The subject of the object of consciousness, is again continued in the further passage by way of description of what the Upanishad calls 'the food of the soul'. We are told that there are seven kinds of food which God has created for the satisfaction of the individuals. The ordinary food that we eat every day, is one kind of food. The milk that comes out from the breast of the mother, is another kind of food, natural to children, whether they are human or otherwise. The sacrifices offered to the gods or the divinities called Darsha and Purnanvasa, the offerings that we make to gods especially during the new moon and the full moon occasions, are two other kinds of food that sustains the gods, because that is the way we establish a connection between ourselves and the celestials.

There is then a threefold food which is psychological in nature, called in the Upanishadic language as speech, mind and Prana. These are the internal apparatus of the individual to come in contact with things outside and therefore they are called the instruments of food. By means of entanglement in this sevenfold food, the subject-individual gets caught up in the object-atmosphere. The objects catch hold of the subjects by attracting them towards themselves and making the subjects depend on them. Anything on which you depend is the food of yours, and all these seven things are mentioned as things on which individuals depend for their sustenance.

The internal or psychological foods—speech, mind and Prana—are further described in their cosmical connotation, and we are told that we are supposed to spiritualise these external forms of manifestation called the foods of the Jivas, and when we spiritualise them, they become universal in their nature. An object when it becomes universal ceases to be an object; it is particularised, and so it looks like an object. The Upanishad proffers certain meditations, or Upasanas, according to which these seven kinds of food, especially the speech, mind and Prana, get cosmically enlarged in their magnitude and become part-and-parcel of Hiranyagarbha-Prana. Anything can become a passage to God, provided it gets universalised in meditation.

Then we are told that, individually, no sense-organ can be an instrument or help in our contacting God. Neither the senses nor the mind can be an aid, but they become aids when they are universalised, when they are united back to their original sources, namely, the Deities presiding over them. If the senses and the mind act individually, as if they are disconnected from their sources, the divinities, then they cannot succeed in their attempts. When they are connected back to their divinities, they become cosmical in their nature, they become part of Virat, they gain their status in the cosmos instead of being located merely in the individual bodies. This is one kind of meditation whereby the individual limbs get transferred to their respective locations in the Cosmic Body.

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Continued

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