Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch.1.5 Lecture 35 on 23 May 2026

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

Opening Invocation

ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात् पूर्णमुदच्यते

पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः

OM PŪRṆAMADAḤ PŪRṆAMIDAM PŪRṆĀT PŪRṆAMUDACYATE PŪRṆASYA PŪRṆAMĀDĀYA PŪRṆAMEVA VAŚIṢYATE OM ŚĀNTI ŚĀNTI ŚĀNTIH

OM That Brahman is infinite, and this universe is also infinite. The infinite proceeds from the infinite. Taking the infinitude of the infinite universe, it remains as the infinite Brahman alone.

OM Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all.

The Great Discussion in the Ashrama

Let us not forget: a great discussion was going on in a great āśrama. And then, under the guidance of a great teacher, all the śiṣyas (disciples) were discussing the only subject that is worthy of discussion: how to progress in spiritual life, how to realise God. Only in Upanishadic terms, they call it Brahman and knowledge of Brahman (brahma jñānam).

We discussed already earlier that who is a real householder? Whoever identifies with anātman, which manifests in the form of this body and mind complex, is a householder. In other words, whoever thinks that "I am not the ātman; I am not divine; I am not potentially divine" – he is a householder. So it is incumbent upon every householder, even from the social point of view (not to speak of the spiritual point of view), that they should perform pañca mahāyajñas, because we are dependent upon five important factors.

The Fivefold Dependence and Pañca Mahāyajñas

We are dependent upon great teachers (ṛṣis), our ancestors, and presiding deities who are sustaining us from birth to death. We are indebted to every human being, directly or indirectly. We are also indebted to the whole world of what scientists call "non-living": the mountains, the rivers, the forests, the ice caps – everything. Because everything is related to everything. Everything is dependent upon everything.

We have seen, if you recollect in our Wednesday class (Taittirīya Upaniṣad), that in this world, everything can be divided into two: the supporter and the supported, the experiencer and the experienced. So, there is nobody exclusively an experiencer or a supporter, and exclusively a supported or the experienced. The whole universe is a beautiful drama, a cinema.

The Essence of Spiritual Life

Every aspirant here (householder means a sādhaka aspiring to conquer death, ignorance and suffering) – that is what is the essence of spiritual life – he must get rid of the debts he owes to these five factors, beautifully called pañca mahāyajñas. Therefore, the proper discharge is called karma yoga:

स्वकर्मणा तमभ्यर्च्य सिद्धिं विन्दति मानवः । svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya siddhiṃ vindati mānavaḥ |

as Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa categorically states in the Bhagavad Gītā – that without discharging one’s duties in the form of worshipping God, one cannot progress not only in spiritual life but also in secular life. This is called karma yoga:

शिव ज्ञाने जीव शिव । śiva jñāne jīva śiva |

So to perform that is the duty of every aspiring sādhaka.

Everything Is Fivefold

And then, everything in this world is divided into five categories:

यज्ञः पङ्क्ताः, पशु ह पङ्क्ताः, पुरुषः पङ्क्ताः, इदं सर्वं इदं किञ्च । yajñaḥ paṅktāḥ, paśu ha paṅktāḥ, puruṣaḥ paṅktāḥ, idaṃ sarvaṃ idaṃ kiñca |

So the sacrifice is fivefold; fivefold is the animal, fivefold is the person, and fivefold is all this – whatever exists. And he who knows it,

तदिदं सर्वमाप्नोति य एवं वेद । tad idaṃ sarvam āpnoti ya evaṃ veda |

One who really understands, realises; then he is the greatest performer of paṅkta. Paṅkta is, in other words, ahaṃgraha upāsanā: "I am my neighbour, I am my God, I am the whole creation, I am everything." Nothing is excluded. That is the essence of the fourth section of the first chapter of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad.

The Fifth Brāhmaṇam – Introduction

Now comes the fifth brāhmaṇam, equally important. It is very beautiful, but at the same time very essential points are presented here by the Upaniṣad. This fifth section (a section in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad is called a brāhmaṇam). If you remember, there are six chapters; every chapter is called kāṇḍa, and every section within every kāṇḍa is called brāhmaṇam. So this is the first chapter (prathama kāṇḍa), and this is the fifth brāhmaṇam, and it has got twenty-three mantras. A beautiful idea is presented here.

We saw, not only in Bṛhadāraṇyaka but even more explicitly in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, how Bhagavān (I am using the word deliberately; Upaniṣads do not use the word bhagavān – either they say Brahman or, to be more precise, saguṇa brahma, i.e., īśvara) – but it doesn’t matter. We saw God created this universe, or even to be more precise, God Himself is manifesting in the form of these five great elements, the subtle as well as the gross. So He became the creation. He became the gods, humans, non-humans. This is called beautifully in Sanskrit: ādhidaivika, ādhibhautika, adhyātmika.

The Threefold Creation: Adhyātmika, Ādhibhautika, Ādhidaivika

The whole creation is nothing but interdependence of these three:

• Adhyātmika means I – each individual (I, you, everyone of us).
• Ādhibhautika means this world which we are experiencing and which also, of course, is experiencing all of us.
• Ādhidaivika means every creation, every organisation, every social institution requires a plan. Certain rules and regulations must be enforced for the wellbeing of that organisation. That is called ādhidaivika. Some rules are there – "do this, do not do this" – they are also called vidhi and niṣedha.

So God has become this creation. God has become each individual soul (jīva), which is called adhyātmika. He became the creation, which is called ādhibhautika. And the one who connects, enables the individual to interact with this creation external to each one of us – that is called ādhidaivika, like a triangle. A triangle cannot be called a triangle if even one angle is missing. So the entire creation, according to the Vedantic perspective, is for ease of understanding divided into this triangle: the creation, the experiencer of the creation, and He who regulates. This we have seen.

Involution and Evolution

Then everything is ready, but one thing is lacking. We are all created fine, but after creation we have to function. What is the function? Swami Vivekananda had explained beautifully: when God or Brahman started descending, manifesting Himself into grosser and still grosser until He became the grossest, that process is called involution. Once the rock bottom is reached, now evolution has to start. So inorganic became organic. First it was one-celled, then multi-celled. Then we can see how the plant kingdom, insect kingdom, bird kingdom, animal kingdom, finally human kingdom – and we are not separate from the non-living. We are all a mixture of living and non-living: consciousness plus prāṇa plus what you call pañcabhūtas. Everything is mixed up.

Somebody has to maintain this, enforce that the organisation called creation runs properly. So we had created certain enforcers; they are called presiding deities. But if we have to survive, we require food – and that is what is going to be beautifully, symbolically, spiritually explained in this fifth section (fifth brāhmaṇam).

The Theme: Creation of Food (Annakāṇḍa)

This fifth brāhmaṇam has twenty-three mantras, and we saw how God created this universe by manifesting Himself in the form of the pañcabhūtas. He became the gods, humans, non-humans, living, non-living, but He must create food for the creation to continue. That is the theme of this fifth section. That is why this fifth section of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad is popularly known as the Annabrāhmaṇam (annam means food, brāhmaṇam means section). This is the section where Bhagavān Himself became the annam.

From Involution to Evolution – The Purpose of Life

In the preceding sections, we saw the jīva depicted as a bhogyavastu (an object of experience) meant to serve the world in the form of the pañca mahāyajñas. Now he has to evolve. What is the purpose of creation? Involution. What is evolution? Now what should be done? Evolution. What is evolution? First, to understand that I am potentially divine. But until the evolution manifests as an intelligent human being, it is not possible to understand that we are potentially divine. We may read any number of books, but bookish knowledge is not going to really enlighten us.

Slowly we are evolving, and we discussed how we evolved, first in the form of four castes. That is to say, the first stage is tamoguṇa dominant, the second stage is rajoguṇa dominant, and the third stage is sattvaguṇa dominant. All the three guṇas are involved in every caste, but which guṇa is prominent (bosses, dominates) and which guṇas are assistant (subsidiary) makes the varṇas. Then from varṇa we come to the āśrama. Āśrama means our different stages of progress in life.

The Three Fundamental Questions

The first factor that we have seen is: one has to, with faith, sit under the feet of a teacher and learn at least three facts:

1. Who am I?
2. What is life?
3. What is the goal of life?

That is what Swami Vivekananda said: "Each soul is potentially divine." Who are you? Who am I? I am divine, but I am not aware of it. But now I am learning for the first time from the mouth of the teacher (who is nothing but a mouth of the scriptures, a vehicle). And then, what is life meant for? Why am I given this body, this mind and this food? That is called body + mind + food = living. Here I have to clear the point: food means in Sanskrit annam, but food doesn’t mean only what we eat physically to keep the physical body alive. Food means whatever is experienced is food. Whole life is nothing but billions and billions of experiences, and every experience is a teacher. But all experiences are to help us to evolve, to aid our progress towards God – or even better, towards knowing and knowing only who we are, who we really are – like the prince who was lost in babyhood and later found out: "You are not a beggar; you are the prince, the would-be king of this very kingdom."

So life is an opportunity, a destination, a travel towards unfolding our own true nature. And that is the purpose of life.

How to Progress: The Four Yogas

How to progress in life? Through karma, more precisely karma yoga. Whether it is the path of devotion, path of yoga, or path of knowledge – everything involves only karma. Everything is karma yoga only:

• Bhakti yoga is nothing but karma yoga in the form of devotion to God.
• Rāja yoga is nothing but karma yoga involving the control, concentration, and refocusing of the mind towards unravelling our own true nature.
• Jñāna yoga is to develop all the requisite qualities; then only we can succeed.

So every yoga of the four yogas involves all the other four yogas. Every faculty of a human being – whether emotion, activity, willpower, or intellect – they are all inseparable. We have to find out which is dominant and take the help of the other three, and that is how we have to proceed. That is the methodology.

The Deeper Meaning of Annam (Food)

Thus, the three important answers:

1. Who am I? I am divine, but at this moment I am only called "potentially divine" or "would-be realiser of God or Brahman" (would-be brahmajñānī).
2. The goal of life: whatever I do – whether I eat, whether I breathe, whatever I do – has only one purpose: how to slowly progress.

The whole universe is nothing but annam. How do we understand it? Suppose I eat food: what for? I get strength. Then I have to use this strength (energy) to express myself. Every expression of myself falls into three categories: I do not want to be unhealthy or subject to death – at least prolong as long as possible. Gradually, I must expand my knowledge, and that knowledge is not knowledge of many, but knowledge of my own self.

Every experience, if analysed, makes me a better person. If I am an intelligent person, then I want to be happy. Every creature wants to live. Every creature wants to know. Why does the creature want to know, want to live? No creature wants to live or much less know that "I am subject to suffering." So:

आनन्दाद्ध्येव खल्विमानि भूतानि जायन्ते । आनन्देन जातानि जीवन्ति । आनन्दं प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्तीति । ānandāddhyeva khalvimāni bhūtāni jāyante | ānandena jātāni jīvanti | ānandaṃ prayantyabhisaṃviśantīti |

These were the teachings we have been studying in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad. So that is the answer: God has created us so that we can realise.

But don’t ask inconvenient questions: "God was God; He knew 'I am God'. Where was the need for Him to involve, come down, forget Himself and again struggle to remember Himself?" First of all, the answer: there is no answer. Secondly, we are asking that question because we are already in the situation of ignorance. God doesn’t ask the question, "Why am I? Why have I forgotten myself?" God will never ask. Brahman is pure knowledge, and there is no time when He can forget Himself. Our doubts about God, our doubts about Brahman, all stem from only one factor: our mind. And the mind is severely limited. Limitation is another name for ignorance.

So we are here, and we know we are subject (as body, as mind) to death (death means change), to ignorance, to suffering. So evolution really means: how can I reach such a state where I know I have no death, no ignorance, no suffering? Call it nirvāṇa, call it paradise, call it kingdom of heaven, call it mukti, mokṣa – by whatever blessed name you want to call it. So we have this purpose.

Annam as All Experience

Now, to continue in life we require food. As mentioned, the normal meaning of the word "food" is that which sustains our body, but the deeper meaning of the word annam is: whatever helps us to evolve towards our true nature – that is called annam. So now this whole universe can be divided into gods, human beings and non-human beings. For these three types of jīvas (living creatures), three types of food are necessary, and that is being said. The ultimate mystical, esoteric meaning of these saptānnas (seven types of food) is how we can progress through our experiences.

Every experience is an annam. Just as annam gives us strength and then understanding – without strength the body will not be healthy, without strength the mind will not be healthy. By the way, if somebody is arrogant, egotistic, proud – actually that person is to be more pitied, because he is more in the downward spiral rather than progressing towards God. The more the identification with the body and mind, the worse the ahaṃkāra; therefore the struggle is also hard. But an ordinary person who is not that egotistic, his struggle becomes less. That is how we have to understand.

The Seven Types of Food (Saptānnas) – Symbolical Meaning

The Upaniṣad now cleverly gives a symbolical meaning of the seven types of food. As we see that briefly (which is the essence of this fifth section of the first chapter of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka), we will understand it. Otherwise, it can create a lot of confusion: "What is this 'foods' talking about?" I am eating food, and that is good for the body – that is what we call proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, etc. But when I am looking through my eyes, that is called form, and that form is the food for the eye. And that knowledge is the food for the mind. A thought is generated there: "I see this is a friend; I see this is a tiger, a dangerous animal; I see that this is my pet, my beloved child." So this knowledge comes through our five sense organs. God has given us ten sense organs: five of input, five of output. A combination of these is what we call pañcakośas, and that is what the body plus mind is. Five of action, five of knowledge, plus mind – this is the personality of each one of us.

So we require food. Anything that is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched – that is all nothing but food. And to aid this knowledge, our legs have to take us, our hands to grasp, etc. So the whole body is designed exclusively to experience this annam (or what we call "experience"). And through this experience, we have to analyse what these experiences really are, then exercise discrimination, discard what is not useful, strengthen what is useful. That is how progress is maintained, life after life, until we expand identifying ourselves with everything in this universe. One day will come when I do not say anything other than "myself". That is the ekam eva – the highest ascent of the soul into its own nature. That is called brahmajñānam; call it nirvikalpa samādhi. Thereafter, if still the body-mind functions, then that person says nothing but "Brahman everywhere".

Bhogya Universe Divided into Seven Categories

For the convenience of spiritual practice and progress, the Upaniṣad now divides this entire creation (bhogya universe) into seven distinct categories of objects of experience. As said, annam means food, but here food means whatever is experienced – anubhūyate is the annam. So the pitā (creator of the universe) generates these seven foods through medhā upāsanā (meditation) and tapas (action). We have seen earlier, especially in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, that Brahman created this universe through tapasyā – He thought deeply, and through tapasyā (awakening the intelligence, honing it to the finest point and using it: "How best can creation be made?"). This is what we do also in our dreams.

The Phenomenon of Dream and Mind

Beautiful example: we have to understand the phenomenon of dream much more than what we understand our waking state. In fact, our whole waking state – and I dare say even the deep sleep state – is dependent upon our mind. Simple example to illustrate what I just stated: Suppose my mind is full of hesitating, worrying, fearful thoughts. Then my dreams will be disturbed dreams, and my understanding of the physical universe will be distorted – just like a person who fears snakes sees snakes everywhere; even a rope appears to be a snake because of fear.

I gave you this illustration; you must recollect it. Suppose there is a person who is terribly frightened of snakes. Anything resembling a snake – whether a garland lying down in semi-darkness, a streak of water, or a piece of rope coiled up – instantaneously he remembers "a snake!" and then he gets scared. He suffers from fear. But reverse the example: suppose a snake-catcher whose living is totally dependent upon snakes beholds it, and his heart swells in joy: "I can add one more collection to my snakes." So it depends upon what previous experience we had. Everything depends upon our mind. What is our mind? Nothing but a conglomeration of thoughts. This is what is called vṛtti prapañca – everything is a vṛtti. What is God? That is also a vṛtti.

How much blood – rivers of blood – has flowed because good people understood or misunderstood about God, about religion, about dogmas. If you study the fight between Catholics and Protestants, how many people have been tortured so inhumanly – perhaps even Nazis did not do it. But you know, we are such innocent, so-called innocent people; we don’t even open our eyes to not only what happened but even what is happening even today. So what are we talking about? That our world is nothing but a world of thoughts. A dung-beetle is living in the world of dung. An ordinary worldly person is living in the world of worldliness. Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, Swami Vivekananda, myriads of saints and sages (men and women) – they were all living in the world of saintliness, in the world of God, in the world of angels. Same creation, but looked at through the stained windows of our prison of time, space, and causation – that makes our world.

The Process of Discrimination

Here we have to understand what food means. What are we talking about? Every experience that we have, we have to separate from it, then think about it, analyse it, see what can be discarded and discard it, what can be accepted and accept it. That is how we wake. This is called the process of discrimination. But before we proceed, keep this in mind: food means not merely proteins and carbohydrates. Any experience is food. Through normal what we call "food", we keep the body healthy. When the body is healthy, mind is healthy. When the mind is healthy, it can think rationally. We have to train our mind to think discriminately – viveka and vairāgya – and we must have that willpower to give up attachment to what is not conducive for our own progress or welfare.

Summary of the Fifth Brāhmaṇam (23 Mantras)

With this background, let us briefly summarise this fifth section consisting of twenty-three mantras. The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad in this fifth section summarises seven types of food – only seven types of food:

• One for humans,
• One for all humans and paśus,
• Two for devatās,
• Three for every jīva’s spiritual progress (internal progress).

Two Categories: Sādhya Anna and Sādhana Anna

All these seven types of foods (or experiences) must be divided into two categories:#Sādhya Prapañca (Sādhya Anna): That which I want to attain – the desired state of consciousness. For example, our goals: to manifest, to know progressively, to approach nearer and nearer to self-knowledge, to know who I am.

1. Sādhana Anna: What should I do in order to obtain what I decided to obtain? How to fulfil my desire?

First of all, we have to understand why should I attempt? Because if I don’t know what I want, I will not even attempt to obtain it. At first, a human being thinks that if he can get five objects which can satisfy him through the five sense organs (tasting, smelling, looking, hearing, touching), but then he understands these are only symbols. These symbols must have a meaning. What is that? I am looking for myself in the mirrors of these objects. Every object is a food. So am I looking? I am looking. Do I reflect well? No – so discard it. Try to find out something.

Simple example: If I go to a worldly person, then the attempt to know myself will be much hampered. But if I go to Sri Ramakrishna, for example, then my chances of knowing myself will be better. So my desire (sādhya prapañca) should be: I want to cultivate holy company; I want now and then to go into solitude; I would analyse this world and discriminate what is permanent and what is not; and finally, how am I to conduct my life in this world? This is called sādhya prapañca.

What is the sādhanā? I must first cultivate slowly. The scripture is telling: even at the lowest level, even for a child (suppose a child has entered elementary school or nursery school), the teaching starts: "Do this, don’t do that; you must do this, you must never do that." So the training starts there.

Learning from History, Science, and Life

In high school, for example, we are taught history. What is the point of teaching history? It is not to know certain facts – "such and such people were living at such and such place, certain events like war etc. have taken place, and how some persons tried to destroy others causing terrible pain, suffering, inflicting unimaginable pain like it happened in the 1940s in Germany by Hitler and his party" – no, that’s not the point. What can we learn from this history? How to avoid such mistakes. Whole life is nothing but to look at the history of our own selves and find out: where have I gone wrong? Let me take care not to repeat the same thing. Where have I done right? Because by the results I will know where I have done wrong and where I have not done wrong. That is the process of discrimination; that is called learning the lessons. That is the purpose of learning history. History includes everything; nothing else is left out.

For example, science: nobody would think science is history. No – study the history of science: what people have learned, how they learned printing press, how they learned to make gunpowder, then guns, then destructive weapons. Now they are using AI to inflict punishment. Nobody is thinking: "How can we help our own people?" Billions of people in the most powerful countries are suffering untold difficulties, and there is something we can do about it. But these rulers are not thinking about anybody else except themselves. So we are repeating the same story within our lives. Don’t think the Prime Minister or president of some country is an evil person. We are all mini vice-presidents, mini presidents, mini prime ministers. In our own life, we are doing it. This is called learning history, and if we do it intelligently, discriminatively, there is a good chance that we progress in life quickly.

Sādhya Annāni and Sādhana Annāni

This is called sādhya annāni – those experiences I have to deliberately try for, through the foods provided by the creator. For that purpose, sādhana annāni. For example:

• If I eat healthy food, my body becomes healthy.
• If I eat healthy mental food (read healthy books, listen to healthy things):

भद्रं कर्णेभिः शृणुयाम देवाः । भद्रं पश्येमाक्षभिर्यजत्राः । स्थिरैरङ्गैस्तुष्टुवांसस्तनूभिर्व्याशेम देवहितं यदायुः । bhadraṃ karṇebhiḥ śṛṇuyāma devāḥ | bhadraṃ paśyemākṣabhir yajatrāḥ | sthirair aṅgais tuṣṭuvāṃsas tanūbhir vyāśema devahitaṃ yadāyuḥ |

May I worship gods who are providing for me; may I listen to what is conducive to my own development; may I see everything and derive the lesson, and see that we do not repeat. By seeing what we are doing and by seeing what others are doing, we can learn great lessons.

So these are called sādhana annāni. God has provided sādhana and sādhya. This is the purpose of these seven kinds of food.

The Seven Foods Explained Briefly

How it works out, very briefly, we will discuss:

First Annam: Common Physical Food

The first annam is the regular common food consisting of proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, etc., for all living beings including humans. Anything that is living – if you analyse the food of even an insect – is nothing but proteins, minerals, carbohydrates, and other elements that are needed. So it applies to every living creature. Therefore, there is a strong moral value: any jīva who is selfish and wants to enjoy this kind of physical food only for oneself and doesn’t want to share it with anybody – that person is called a selfish person, in the Gītā what is called a sthena (a thief), because God is giving this food, and without showing our gratitude to the gods (God in the form of gods like the seasons, etc.), we become sinners, and the result of sin is suffering. So one should never eat alone without sharing with others.

We have seen also in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad:

अन्नं न कन्याच्छवास्थौ प्रत्याक्षाक्षीत । annam na kanyācchavāsthau pratyākśākṣīta |

If somebody comes, one should never reject that person without sharing one’s own food.

अन्नं बहु कुर्वीत । annam bahu kurvīta |

अन्नं न परिचक्षीत । annam na paricakṣīta |

Food should not be criticised, food should not be wasted; food is a vow to God; food must be multiplied as much as possible with the sole idea of sharing it with somebody else. And if somebody approaches, then we will have to share that food. Never reject that person. This idea is beautifully brought out in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad in the form of three boons granted to Naciketā by Yamadharmanāja himself.

Second and Third Annam: Offered to the Gods

Then two types of food are given to the gods. What are the two types?

1. Hutam – that which is offered (if you have seen homa etc., you take and dip a bilva leaf in clarified butter and put it; that is called hutam).
2. Prahutam – the same type of ritual, but with devotion: "O Indra, O Varuṇa, O Śiva, O Viṣṇu, You are my protector, You are my provider." This is like saying grace in Christian rituals (sacraments). These two types (hutam and prahutam) are the true types of food offered to the gods.

Fourth Annam: Animal Food (Milk)

The fourth annam is called paśu annam – animal food, that is milk. Every living creature requires milk, practically in one shape or another. So not only human beings but non-human beings – everything whatever is necessary for the baby to live and grow satisfactorily. That is the fourth annam (the external annam). Therefore, the gods should be pleased because they are the providers, and it should be shared; nobody should be deprived of food.

There is a curious custom (mentioned quite a number of times): when an orthodox brāhmaṇa sits to eat food, he takes small parts of it and, using the word tapāyāmi, says: "I offer this to the five beings" – ṛṣis, pitṛs, etc. – indirectly mentioning the living, non-living, everything symbolically. It is symbolically offering, but it should be put into practice actually whenever the occasion comes for us to practise it.

Common Food: Milk for Sustenance

Then one food is common – milk – for sustenance, etc.

Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Annam: Mental Food (Mind, Speech, and Prāṇa)

Then there are three types of food which are called mental food – for the mind, for speech (vāk), and for prāṇa (action). The external food is meant to strengthen our mind, our speech, and our prāṇa (thoughts, speech, and action). These beautiful ideas we will further explore in our next class.

Closing Prayer

ॐ जननीं शारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगद्गुरुम् ।पादपद्मे तयोः श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहुः

Om Jānānāṃ Śāradāṃ Devīṃ Rāmakṛṣṇaṃ Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Śṛtvā Praṇamāmi Muhur Muhuh

May Rāmakṛṣṇa, Holy Mother, and Swami Vivekānanda bless us all with Bhakti.

Jai Rāmakṛṣṇa!