Chandogya Upanishad 5.6.1-5.7.2 Lecture 168 on 28 December 2025

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

Opening Invocation

ॐ जननीं सारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगदगुरुम पादपद्मे तयो: श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहु :

Om Jananim Saradam devim Ramakrishnam jagadgurum Padapadme tayoh shritva pranamami muhurmuhuh.

ॐ आप्यायन्तु ममाङ्गानि वाक्प्राणश्चक्षुः

श्रोत्रमथो बलमिन्द्रियाणि च सर्वाणि।

सर्वम् ब्रह्मोपनिषदम् माऽहं ब्रह्म

निराकुर्यां मा मा ब्रह्म

निराकरोद निराकरणमस्त्व निराकरणम् मेऽस्तु।

तदात्मनि निरते य उपनिषत्सु धर्मास्ते

मयि सन्तु ते मयि सन्तु।

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः॥

oṃ āpyāyantu mamāṅgāni vākprāṇaścakṣuḥ

śrotramatho balamindriyāṇi ca sarvāṇi.

sarvam brahmopaniṣadam mā’haṃ brahma

nirākuryāṃ mā mā brahma

nirākaroda nirākaraṇamastva nirākaraṇam me’stu.

tadātmani nirate ya upaniṣatsu dharmāste

mayi santu te mayi santu.

oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ

Translation

May my limbs, speech, vital force, eyes, ears, as also strength and all the organs become well developed. Everything is the Brahman revealed in the Upanishads. May I not deny Brahman. May not Brahman deny me. Let there be no spurning of me by Brahman. Let there be no rejection of Brahman by me. May all the virtues that are spoken of in the Upanishads repose in me who am engaged in the pursuit of the Self. May they repose in me. Om. Peace. Peace. Peace be unto all.

Introduction to the Study

We are studying the marvelous Pañcāgni Vidyā. In our case studies class, we have been dealing with the sixth section. This sixth section is also describing one of the five fires.

The Third Fire: Pṛthivī (Earth)

Description of the Third Yajña

And what is this third yajña? Third fire: Pṛthivī vāva Gautama Agniḥ, tasyāha, saṃvatsara eva samit, ākāśaḥ dhūmaḥ, rātriḥ arciḥ, diśaḥ aṅgārāḥ, avāntara-diśaḥ viṣpuliṅgāḥ.

The earth indeed is the fire, O Gautama. Of that, the year is the fuel. Ākāśa is the smoke. Night is the flame. All the directions are the embers. And the intermediate directions are the sparks.

This is a brief description of the fire that has been lit, and it is a marvelous comparison the ṛṣis have exercised.

The Significance of Earth

So what is this fire? This is the third fire. And what happens? Pṛthivī, this earth. We have seen earlier that the second fire results in rains, and the rains have to fall upon the earth.

Just close your eyes for a moment and think: what happens to the earth if there were to be no rains? Do you think there will be any life? And life means consciousness. And if there is no life, there is no consciousness. And if there is no consciousness, who is to cognize? This is earth. We are living. This is our world. Who is going to recognize it?

But there must be rain. But rain—imagine what happens when there is what you call absolutely no rain, or ativṛṣṭi (too much rain) or complete lack of rain. Everywhere we see, the earth becomes broken up into several parts. That is the effect when there is no rains at all.

The Divine Process

So that is called jala, waters. And water is not the ultimate cause. Where from does it come? It comes because of the fire. And the fire also cannot come unless there is air. Only when air is fast-moving, it turns into agni.

So here we have seen that what happens in the first fire—that is when the soul, after enjoying his well-deserved happiness from a higher loka, has to come down again to earn. That means every human being has to continuously go on making the fire brighter. One day of good thoughts will not do. Again and again, continuously, we have to think good thoughts.

So then, the process of coming down has been described so far. And then it becomes rains. And the rains have to fall just as clarified butter has to be offered. Why can't we say rain is falling down, but rain is offered, not falling down? Why? Because the gods who have been guiding us—they want to make this pṛthivī, that is the earth, our living planet, into a fire so that it produces apūrva, karma-phala.

Prayer for Timely Rains

So what do they do? Prithivī sasya-śālinī kāle varṣatu Parjanyaḥ —there is a beautiful prayer. Sarve janāḥ sukhinaḥ bhavantu—May all beings be happy. Kāle varṣatu Parjanyaḥ—Let the rain god give us rains, kāle, at the right time and in right quantities.

But it depends upon the pleasure of the God, Varuṇa Deva. And how is Varuṇa Deva pleased? Just as a baby wants to offer something, wants to feel well, good feeling—so when mother is feeding, she takes a little bit of the food from that tiny cup and then with the small finger wants to put it into the mother's mouth. It is not how much is put, but the feeling: I want my mother also to be fed. And I am feeding, I am serving her. And mother doesn't require it, but she is highly pleased.

The Concept of Yajña

That is what in the beginning of the third chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā, we say: Saha yajñāḥ prajāḥ sṛṣṭvā purā uvāca Prajāpatiḥ—Brahmā Prajāpati, He created yajñas. And that is what exactly we are talking about. So yajñas are conducted by the gods, and as a result, we are benefited. We reap the fruits in the form of food, etc., good climate, etc. And we have to be extremely grateful. It is not our right, but it is our privilege to have because of the grace of God in the form of the gods.

So we have to offer. Therein Bhagavān says: you worship the gods and gods will in their turn bestow upon you more than what you need to make you happy, because we are children of these pañca-bhūtas. They don't want anything. They just want gratefulness. And that is all. Whatever we are offering to them is only what they really provide us. We have nothing of our own to call our own and offer it to you. "This is mine. You don't have it. I am offering it to you." That feeling is an idiotic feeling, ignorant feeling. But they are pleased.

But those who do not offer or please the gods—stena eva sa—he who cooks for himself and tries to enjoy. Cooking means not only food, every enjoyable thing.

Example of the Farmer

Just look: a farmer is cultivating and he has got several acres of land. He doesn't require for his family, then he sells it and then he might become a rich man. With those riches, he can buy good horses, good cows, good fields, everything that is available at any given time. And he would like to enjoy them. But always with a sense: this is all due to, O Lord, your grace. And God's grace comes in the form of the grace of these gods—Indra, Candra, Āditya, Varuṇa, Agni Devatā, etc. That is what is said.

The Components of the Earth Fire

So, the gods are helping this virtuous soul to come down slowly. So, O Gautama, now he has come to the third one. Third one is the pṛthivī, this earth. And this earth has to become very, very fertile. How can it become fertile? Only when there are rains. Not only should there be rains, they should come at the right time, in the right quantity.

And if any one of us are finding there are floods, there is snow, there are famines, there are earthquakes, we have to understand the gods are displeased in the form of nature. For a scientist, materialist, all nature is jaḍa, lifeless. But for a religious person, everything is the grace of God. That is why Christians, before eating food, they say grace: "Thank you, God." That is what every Hindu does, and he does offer it in their own way, or we do it with a Brahmārpaṇam, with wholehearted devotion. "Lord, you have given us this one." Then we will be discharging our Deva-ṛṇa.

The Five Sacrifices (Pañca-yajña)

This is one of the yajñas. We have to do it. What is this yajña? Pañca-yajña. Here, pañca-yajña—every human being has to do five sacrifices. Here, sacrifice means grateful acknowledgement in the form of service. We are indebted to the ṛṣis, to gods, to our ancestors, every human being on earth, and every being, even non-living—what is called non-living? According to Hinduism, there is no non-living at all. Everything is living, whether consciousness is manifest or not manifest.

Detailed Explanation of the Components

So coming back, O Gautama, the gods now target, lit up. So pṛthivī is the fire. And then saṃvatsara eva samit—but once you light up the fire, it has to be kept going until the ritual is finished. So what is it? Saṃvatsara—year. Year means time.

Why? You see that we have divided the whole year into several parts. Hindus divide it into six parts. Every two months is a part. So śarat-kāla, and now śīta-kāla has come (cold season), then follows two months, then follows spring, then follows summer season, then follows rainy season, then follows autumn season. So like that, every two months practically—some places according to geological pattern may be four months, and in some places it may be only two seasons when the sun doesn't rise or the sun rises very feebly and continues even almost 24 hours at some of the time.

The point is: for a Hindu, in the eyes of the Hindu, these are all not nature—they are all gods. Why do we call them God? Let us keep in mind my definition of God: without whom we cannot survive. Let alone do anything. We cannot even survive. And therefore, that grace which sustains us, keeps us alive life after life, that is called God.

The Concept of Ṛta (Rhythm)

So, with that idea, then we hear: because you can't go on cultivating. And even scientists have recognized, you have to keep the field not only fallow, sometimes years together, one should not cultivate. And then also, there is a rotation of crops, because the earth gives all its nutrition to us. It becomes deprived. Then we have to feed our mother earth.

How do we do that? Some leguminous crops we have to plant, whereby nitrogen is fixed, nutrition is returned. So this is a marvelous concept called ṛta. The word ṛta has been transformed into the English word "rhythm." What is rhythm? It continues, repeating again and again and again. It continues on and on.

So you cultivate in this instance, then you let the earth rest for some time, then it recoups and then again you cultivate. Look at our own life. Whole day practically, a person works very hard, especially in the olden days when agriculture was the main activity. Then whole day back-breaking work because there were no machines. Then the person comes home and then he eats wholeheartedly. Probably he will smoke a little to enjoy, and then he goes to bed and he doesn't know what is called bad dream. Sound sleep, what we call. And again he goes, and many of the people, they led a very pure spiritual life.

Are we able to sleep like that? Because simple food, sufficient rest. So they also get sufficient rest off season when there is no rain, because they were totally dependent upon the rain. So that is why whole year—cultivate for a few months, maybe five, six, seven months—and then give rest, the mother earth recovers. That is why what is the fuel for producing, for making this fire? It means the earth should become fruitful, supplying us food materials. And the whole year is necessary for our mother to work hard and at the same time must recover rest. That is why saṃvatsara.

Night and Directions

Then ākāśa dhūmaḥ—dhūma means smoke. Ākāśa means space, so sky. Why is it called dhūma? So when do the rains come down? And how do we know the rains are coming down? Because we will see that there are lightnings, thunders, thundering, rumblings. And then we know at the particular season there will be some black clouds, water-filled clouds. That looks like smoke. So this is called ākāśa is dhūma, provided this fire is lit very well.

Then rātri arciḥ—so night becomes flame. What happens? Just imagine for a second that there is no night. Twenty-four hours there is bright, hot sunlight. Do you think the earth will be like this? So day is very important. Night also is much more important. And it is said at night when the moon rises (because the moon is not mentioned here, elsewhere it is mentioned)—so the same sun now is manifesting in the form of the moon. So when the moon comes, it nourishes all the medicinal properties of the plants, and even rice is a medicinal property because it quenches the fire called hunger. That is why it is called oṣadhi.

So that which is counterpart to this burning sensation. When we are thirsty, we are burning. And when do we become thirsty? Only when we are burning, when we are hot. That is also part of life. So that is why night is as important. Not only is it important—if it is whole day, do you think we are going to get some rest? It definitely affects us very much.

So that is one. Too much of night also affects us. That's why in the northern regions, Arctic regions, and some of the countries that are near there, people suffer from a peculiar disease called SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), because they lack the sunlight. So too much of anything is bad. Everything should be in balance. Too high blood pressure, too low blood pressure, too much of sugar, less of sugar—everything. There must be a golden middle path.

So night is very, very important for taking rest so that we can recoup. So that is called the flame. The flame will be there.

Diśaḥ aṅgārāḥ—so diśa means directions: east, west, south, north. According to Hindu calendar, there are eight directions actually. So in between the east and the south, the south and the west, west and the north, north and the east. So for easiness of memory, they call it āgneya, vāyavya, nairṛti, īśāna. And every direction has its own presiding deity.

So, rātriḥ arciḥ—like a flame, it keeps up life. Otherwise, the fire will go out. The sacrifice will come to an end. No, day is necessary, night is necessary, seasons are necessary, one whole year is necessary.

So here, directions are aṅgāra (embers), and avāntara-diśaḥ viṣpuliṅgāḥ—and the sparks that come out. That is to say, the area where, the geographical area we are staying, we require, we feel, we are covered by the space. And that is the beautiful imagination of this third fire called pṛthivī.

The Oblation of Rain

So, in the pṛthivī, what do they pour? So, the year, then what happens? It needs plenty of food as soon as rains fall, and that rain really is the offering like clarified ghee. And the time is necessary for the flames to produce what we call apūrva, and plenty of food will come.

But we have to remember: God will be pleased only when we live a grateful, righteous life. But when people become ungrateful, think that we can take advantage, we can dig everything—this is what we call nowadays environmental pollution. And Mother Earth cannot bear it, and gods become angry. And even if you think about wars, there also the displeasure. Displeasure means what? That you are leading an unrighteous life. You don't have any right to take part in the prasādam that gods are providing for us, and therefore they have to be eliminated. And it comes in the form of mafia, gangsters, untimely seasons, and lack of rain, plenty of rain, etc., etc. So, this is the natural order we have to think.

So, let us meditate upon this. That is why we see so many—even Pope, when he goes to another country, he just kneels down on the earth and kisses the earth. Why? Because God has provided for our continuation. This marvelous imaginary contemplation is very, very useful for all of us. So, this is how the third agni is there. That's what we have to understand.

Second Part of the Sixth Section

So, in the second part of this sixth section: Tasmin etasmin agnau devāḥ varṣaṃ juhvati. Tasyā āhuteḥ annaṃ sambhavati.

Into this fire called the earth, the deities offer the oblation of rain. That means they provide rain. And that rain falls on the earth. And then the sun god—we can see clearly—distills the water from the oceans, infinite amount of water, and it will never become exhausted. Nobody had seen an ocean getting dried up. A river may be, a lake may be, a tank may be, a pond may be, but never the ocean.

So, why? Continuously it is giving. Why doesn't it become exhausted? Because it is willingly sacrificing itself. "O Lord, you take me. I am offering myself to you." And the Lord in the form of the sun god, Sūrya Devatā, lifts up. And ocean water is full of salt, and we cannot live with that salt. And therefore, the Lord lifts this pure, distilled water and makes it into vapor. And that vapor consolidates itself into what are called rain-bearing clouds.

And the Vāyu Devatā gently pushes this one—such a marvelous mechanism—to the top of the mountains, hills, at a higher level. And naturally, by the force of gravitation, the water comes down and it nourishes. We can drink, animals can drink, every creature can drink, trees also drink, and then cultivation is possible. Anything—whether fruits or vegetables or leaves, like lettuce, etc.—everything requires water.

What is that water? It is nothing but fire. What is that fire? Nothing but air. What is the air? Nothing but ākāśa. And what is that space? Nothing but Ātman. Such a beautiful circle.

Rivers as Goddesses

Then what happens? When the gods, what do they do? Offering means not physically. So there is some water and they take it and then put, but in the Varuṇa Devatā, in the form of water, he comes down and then he takes various forms. We call rivers. That is why for Hindus, every river is a goddess, excepting one they say—Brahmaputra is a male. Every other river: Gaṅgā, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, Kāverī, Godāvarī, all these infinite number of rivers, whether it is in USA, UK or any part of the world.

Just imagine: if a particular country doesn't have the water, they will have to pay through their life. That is why future wars will be where water is available, where land is available. Because where there is water, water cannot do anything, not much. There must be land so that the water can be used. And the land is becoming scarce and scarce here. So the future wars will be with regard to land, then with regard to pure water. We are polluting everything that we touch, such sinners that we are.

The Cycle of Dharma

But the gods—they will be pleased if we live a good life. So you can also think another way. As this fourth stage of history has come called Kali-yuga, people become adharmic, and their population is too much, and they are always fighting and killing each other. And then one day, what is described practically in every scripture, in every country, there would be flood all over the world. And then only few species will be there. And again, people will become very dharmic. They understand intuitively and they are grateful. They go on doing yajñas—that is, worshipping the gods and goddesses.

Worship is nothing but "I am because of you." That is the knowledge which makes us grateful. Without you, I cannot be. That is called worship.

So, the gods also, out of infinite compassion, they supply us and we have to worship them. This is the mutual relationship that we have to do.

Summary of the Third Fire

So, the gods, they bring at the right time, in the right quantities, lot of rains. This is what is said here in the second mantra of the sixth section. So, tasmin etasmin agnau—into this specific fire. And what is this agni, this agni here? Pṛthivī. So, this devāḥ—the ruling gods, god doing various functions is called gods. Varṣaṃ juhvati—so, what is it that he offers? Varṣam (rain).

And what happens? Tasyāḥ āhuteḥ annaṃ sambhavati—and just because the gods were pleased to offer this rain, and due to that oblation called rains, annaṃ sambhavati—sufficient amount of not only food for survival, tasty food.

Just imagine how many sweet rivers are there, how many sweet fruits are there, how many sweet herbs are there, how many sweet natural materials are there, and human beings do not appreciate. We have to be extraordinarily grateful. Every religion recognizes it. That is why, if you call a Muslim, he says this is to be offered to Allah in the form of a prayer. Otherwise, don't eat, don't touch that food. The Christians, they have to say the prayer. Hindus, they have to say the prayer that it is God who has provided. Therefore, my respectful salutations to gods. Every religion acknowledges: first, we are because of gods. So we have to be grateful to those gods.

With this, with the third fire and rain comes, out of rain, food comes—with that, the third yajña, what is called this pañcāgni, third fire, description is over.

The Fourth Fire: Puruṣa (Man)

Introduction to the Fourth Fire

Now we will enter into the fourth fire. Saptama khaṇḍaḥ (seventh section): Puruṣa vāva Gautama agniḥ, tasya vāg eva samit, prāṇaḥ dhūmaḥ, jihvā arciḥ, cakṣuḥ aṅgārāḥ, śrotraṃ viṣpuliṅgāḥ.

Man indeed is the fire, O Gautama. Of that fire called man, speech is the fuel, prāṇa is the smoke, the tongue is the flame, the eye is the embers, and the ear is the sparks.

Let us not forget: this fire has six parts. Fire is one, and the fuel is second, and when the fire is lit, four other things are there, and they are all very meaningful actually, if we meditate upon them.

The Process Continues

So, what happens? Earth becomes very fruitful. Even if we do not cultivate, there are so many natural fruits. There are a few monks who live exclusively on uncultivated food, not cooked food—fruits or roots or leaves, etc. Many people I have seen even eat raw carrot and raw many of these things like pumpkin, etc. So people survive on that. And there are so many people in the western countries especially who set a beautiful example for us.

So we see they are eating salads, so many fruits, and they believe in it. And that's why they are so strong, so healthy also. And many of them are vegans, pure vegetarians, and yet they are very strong.

Man as the Fourth Fire

So in this, now the fourth sacrifice or fire is there. So here, puruṣa—earlier I told you, please keep in mind: so we lit up the fire and whatever is poured into the fire, that oblation becomes one with fire. If you put fuel, faggots, dry wood into the fire, the fire will burn. That means what? Fire now has taken the form of the faggots, fuel, kerosene, petrol, etc.

So now fourth sacrifice or contemplation will be the man. That is male—human or male, anything, living creature: male mosquito, male ant, male bee, etc. Without the male, it was not possible earlier. But even today they say it is possible. So that is how they multiply plants, etc. But even there, this male element must be present.

So, puruṣa vāva Gautama—O Gautama, fourth sacrifice, how the soul from the highest world, which is the result of his rightful living, dharmic living, has now come down to the fourth state, about to enter into the fourth state.

Speech as Fuel

What does this man do? So, he eats the food. That is the fuel actually. Without food, we cannot survive. How apt it is. Then what happens? Not only he survives, but his life is meant for doing lot of things. And then he can function only because of this food. That is being described here.

Vāg eva samit—vāk means speech. Speech is the fuel. What is the fuel? What is speech? Speech is the expression of thoughts. Thoughts are expressions of knowledge. And knowledge comes because this person learns from the parents and from the guru and later on from other people. So, whole life we are learning lessons and that becomes knowledge in the form of thoughts. And that is why it is said: when the thoughts, knowledge is there, those knowledge assumes the form of thoughts for conveying. And that conveying is done through the tongue. That is why vāk means speech.

So, how many of us can learn? You say, "I read books." Even reading books is nothing but hearing what other people are saying. So, if a learned person has not written a book, what is he doing? He is writing down his thoughts. He is presenting to us his knowledge, whether it is cookery knowledge or airplane knowledge or atom bomb knowledge, whatever knowledge it is—the person is conveying it and this writing is a medium and we know how to read. And then we convert, like a telephone machine, we convert other person's speech into understandable language. And then we also acquire that knowledge.

So, that knowledge comes out through the speech means: an interview. "What can you do?" "Oh, I have this knowledge. I can repair motor cars. I can help you bring about artificial intelligence." Whatever it is, the greater the knowledge, the more specialized the knowledge, the more will be the knowledgeable person, honor, salary, etc. Everywhere it applies.

So, that is what he said. This person has to communicate and then that communication produces for him more food in the form of better job, more salary, and then he will have time to cultivate more knowledge. That's why vāk is said to be the fuel, firewood.

Prāṇa, Tongue, Eyes, and Ears

And then, what does this firewood do? It will make the person obtain food, eat food, digest food, and that food becomes prāṇa. That is energy. Food is nothing but energy. Sun is nothing but energy. That sunlight is nothing but energy. That energy of the sunlight, then it comes down. The plants have the capacity to transform that into direct energy, which is called photosynthesis, which we cannot. And therefore, we have some power. It is not that we don't have power. If you stand in the sunlight at a particular time, then vitamins A and D and some other things, tremendous changes take place in the body just by standing in the sunlight—but not direct food, but some food materials are there. But main food materials we have to get from the plants or plant-eating animals, etc.

So, prāṇaḥ dhūmaḥ, then jihvā arciḥ—so, again Islam, jihvā means what? The tongue. It is a flame because the prāṇa works out, then it produces hunger, and then the organ of tongue, etc., become very activated and it starts producing digestive acid, hydrochloric acid, etc. Acid is called the flame.

Cakṣuḥ aṅgārāḥ—cakṣus means eyes. What do the eyes do? The eyes, they will have to discriminate. So, elephants may eat a particular type of banana—āna, they are called elephant bananas in Kerala. But human beings cannot digest them. Only elephants can digest. And we can digest. And gods provide us with what we can easily digest.

That is why, for the survival of the baby, that natural means of converting that energy into the most easily digestible form called milk. That is why a baby's best food is mother's milk or next cow's milk. We have to understand that. So, the eyes means perceptive capacity: which food is purely good for us. And that knowledge works as aṅgāra (embers). That means what? It is a help for us to convert what a man eats, male eats.

So, he has to get the food. Then he has to convert even the digestive fire. That is why it is called digestive fire. Aham vaiśvānaro bhūtvā prāṇināṃ deham āśritaḥ, prāṇāpāna-samāyuktaḥ pacāmy annaṃ catur-vidham—in the Bhagavad Gītā.

But in the Durgā Saptaśatī: Yā devī sarva-bhūteṣu kṣudhā-rūpeṇa saṃsthitā—the Divine Mother, who is present in every living being, in the form of hunger. But how does hunger arise? Unless we digest food, hunger cannot arise. The precondition is it should be digested. So the Divine Mother digests in the form of the hydrochloric acid that is called digestive fire. And then it produces: "Now I have exhausted all my energy. I am hungry," means "I don't have energy. I must have energy."

So, cakṣuḥ aṅgārāḥ, śrotraṃ viṣpuliṅgāḥ—śrotram means then you belch, then you hear, "Oh, I am so satisfied," you belch. And it is said: an Arab invites a guest, and if he doesn't belch, they feel very displeased. That means the lady of the house has not been able to attract what is called this person to eat more. And Chinese also, I heard, do that one. And it is absolutely true, whether we say it or not: when children are eating and demanding, "Mā, give me more of this food," the mother's heart swells in joy. They are appreciating my food. That appreciation comes in the form of belching. Or if you are feeding somebody, they say, "Oh, it is so tasty. Thank you very much. We would like to visit you more often than we come."

So this is how one has to imagine. So man, male, whatever be the species, he becomes what we call the fire.

The Oblation of Food

But then a second section also we have to complete. Tasmin etasmin agnau devāḥ annaṃ juhvati—so having made this person hungry because he had already exhausted his existing energy. Now he needs to produce more energy. For that he has to eat food.

But here eating food has a very specialized function. That is what we have to specially take care. And then the devas, gods, in the form of the rain, in the form of the food, blessing people—then what do they do? They become pleased. They come in the form of the food and they are available for us human beings, especially males, to eat the food.

The Formation of Seed

And then we have to add also, though it is not written: it is not only for the male, for the female also. There is in both of us, both male and female, when the food is consumed—in the man it becomes 50%, in the woman it becomes the other 50%. It has a special name. In the man it is called śukram. And in the female it is called śoṇitam.

Because at the end of the month, the woman will be having what is called periods when blood goes out. What is that blood? Nothing but if the egg is not fertilized, it is of no use then and it has to go out. But the egg—that is also the result of eating food only. We have to understand it in that way.

So what happens when Devas supply food, the human beings eat that food and some specialized parts of the food. And it is said in another Upaniṣad that this retas, the male seed—it takes from the eyes, from the ears, from the nostrils, from the tongue, from every part of the body, from the sense organs, essence of them, combines them. That is how the babies are born, exactly like the parents. So a dog is not born to a human being, neither a human being born to a dog, etc.

So, this food is put into the human being. He consumes it, he digests it, and it goes to form various parts of the body. And there is a normal function of the food; there is a special function of the food, where from every aṅga (part of the body), some specialized part, some special juice, it goes to become what we call the śukla or the retas or the semen in the male human beings.

But as I said, even a woman is not there only to receive. Many, many people are under the impression woman only receives, doesn't give. And that is the most ignorant statement anybody can make. As well, in the woman also, the food becomes part of the egg from the best essential parts of the whole body. And it becomes the śoṇitam or the egg.

The Union and Propagation

And only the egg is 50%, and the semen is 50%. When both these combine together, as I said yesterday—if you open a peanut, then you will see two parts are combined. Like that, they have to be combined. So when they are combined, the baby is going to be born.

So this is the fourth fire—that is puruṣa. Puruṣa produces retas, and retas helps make the generation. Propagation is coming.

The Divine Purpose

Last point we have to understand. The gods deliberately are doing all these things and we have nothing to do with that. Their purpose is propagation, sṛṣṭi. A man says, "I am marrying so that I want children." You are helpless. You are made to produce. You are absolutely helpless, weak slave. The gods are making a sacrifice of you and they are bringing two seeds together and you are just an instrument.

If you understand you are an instrument, then you become a devotee. Then finally you surrender, you become free. If you don't understand, until you understand, this propagation has to go on. One has to be reborn again and again and again. Marvelous ideas.

We will talk about them further in our next class.

Closing Prayer

ॐ जननीं सारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगदगुरुम पादपद्मे तयो: श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहु :

Om Jananim Saradam devim Ramakrishnam jagadgurum Padapadme tayoh shritva pranamami muhurmuhuh.

May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna!