Chandogya Upanishad Lecture 34 on 15 September 2024

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

We have been studying the Chandogya Upanishad of Sama Veda and this entire sixth chapter is called SADVITYA. This sixth chapter has 16 Khandas or sections and there are seven mantras all together in this particular section of the fourth section. That is what we have completed and we are about to take up the fifth section. What did we study so far? Now we have to recollect. Shankaracharya, when he was asked, what do you want to convey? What is the essence of all the scriptures? And he conveyed in one sentence, Brahma Satyam Jaganmithya Jeevo Brahmaiva Naaparaha. Brahman alone is the reality. Everything else is just an appearance and you, the Jeeva, is none other than Brahman. This is the essence of the entire Vedanta. Whichever Upanishad we may be studying, this is the essence we will have to understand. Now in the last chapter, in order to convey it, the process of creation has been described. Not that the creation is real. Not that the description of creation is important. We are already in the realm of the creation. We are the created beings but we do not know who we are. We think we are different from each other. So an elaborate description is given in the Taittiriya and in this Chandogya, the sixth chapter, only three elements are given and how do we know or how do we trace everything to those three elements? So the Rishi Uddalaka has taken certain examples. Four examples are taken up by Rishi, the teacher. What are they? Agni, Aditya, Chandramasa and Vidyut. That is the fire, the sun, the moon and the lightning. And what purpose? All these three, all these four examples and that means we have to add etc. etc. That means everything else. Whatever we experience, whichever object we experience must contain these three colors. Three colors indicative of three subtle elements. And as a sample so that we can understand what he wants to convey, four examples have been taken and in each one of them we can perceive three colors. What are the colors? Red color, white color and black color. And whenever we look for example at the sun, the red color that we see points out a subtle element called fire or Tejas or Agni. And whenever we see the white, it points out to the subtle, Sokshma, Bhoota, Tanmatra called Apaha, water, Jala. And whenever we see any black color and the sun is only representative example, then we have to remind we are seeing the earth or Annam. So every object is a product of these three elements combined together in a gross form which is called Trikrut, Trivrut. So this is how the Rishi wants to convey that we cannot find out the subtle elements. We only see the effects, not the cause. And there can be no effect without a cause. So by seeing, perceiving carefully any effect, we can trace its cause. For example, if you are eating what is called curds, yogurt they call it, then yogurt is the product of milk. And whatever materials the milk is made of, that is the proteins, the carbohydrates, the minerals and the vitamins, etc., they only we experience, but in the form of the curds. We are not seeing the milk, but we are seeing the curds. But we know that it is only a transformation of name and form of milk. So the sun is an effect, the moon is an effect, the fire is an effect, the lightning is an effect, and these are all what we call Adhishtatru Devatas. So then how do we know they are consisting of three elements, subtle elements because of the three colors? And whatever has been produced, whatever is being produced, whatever is going to be produced, everything that is going to be created must be made up of these three elements only. So what is the essence? By inferring, and in this case through the color coding, through the colors, then we can slowly go back to the cause, which are the three elements, and when we reach to that state, then the elements, three elements themselves become the effects, and every effect must have a cause, so then we can trace them because there is consciousness. So we are not talking about what western scientists talk, a fire, a lifeless, consciousnessless fire. Similarly, the waters, similar, that is why we are polluting everything in this world, not to speak of the earth, we are destroying ourselves. So we are not only destroying each other, we are destroying our climate, our atmosphere, our earth by filling it with dirty things and with indestructible things like plastic, polluting them. Naturally, the effect will come in the form of what they call a global warming up, they call it, and it has unimaginable consequences. But the point here is, everything is made up of these three elements, and they are not, this is the point, they are not lifeless beings, but they are called they are the Brahman's manifestations with full consciousness. That means, when you look at the sun, at the fire, it is not fire, it is Brahman in the form of the fire. When we look at the sun, it is Brahman in the form of the sun. Brahman means consciousness. When we look at the moon, it is also a manifestation of Brahman. When we look at the lightning, that is also a manifestation of Brahman. This is how we have to infer and slowly go even beyond them and then find out Brahman alone is the cause. And this process is called finding out Appavada. What is Adhyaropa? The process of creation is called Adhyaropa. That is superimposing, forgetting the cause and thinking the effects are real. That is called Adhyaropa. So the scripture conquers with us and then says, yes, yes, what you are seeing is nothing but real. What is the purpose? Purpose is, but I will tell you, go to the cause. Once we reach the cause, like you see the ornament, so the ornament is not real. What is an ornament? Nothing but name, form and utility. That is not real. What is the definition of reality? That which remains changeless is reality. That which changes is called Mithya or unreality. So in this example of ornaments, gold alone is Satyam or Brahma and the ornaments are this world, that is Mithya. Mithya means they do not exist. Whatever depends upon something for their existence is called Mithya. Whatever changes as the outcome of the changeless or appears the changeless as changeful, that is called Mithya. That which without the original substance cannot be, cannot exist, that is called Mithya. So effect is Mithya, changefulness is Mithya, dependence is Mithya and the one who cognizes this independence, this changelessness, that is called the reality. Brahman alone, your consciousness alone is the reality. That is the purpose. So if I am made up of three elements, my true nature is three elements. But if they are made up of Brahman, then I am also by proxy. If A is B and B is C, C must be A. This is the logic and this reverse processing is called Apavada, removing the temporary knowledge, leading us to permanent, unchanging, eternal reality. So this is the process Adhyarupa. First you accept these as real, then by slowly leading the aspirant to their causes. Cause alone is real and the effect is unreal and then leading to the final cause, that is called Apavada. And this idea has been beautifully brought out in the Aparoksha Anubhuti by Shankaracharya. But we will come to that a little bit later on. So the fourth chapter concludes that whether I have seen something, I do not know about many things in the past. I know a few things only in this present time, in my lifetime. There may be countless billions and billions of galaxies. As the scientists say that every minute a star is being extinguished and a new star or stars or galaxies are being reborn because the material is there. The same thing. Like you know, somebody had given a bit funny example. A newcomer, he wants to make chapati spread. So he takes the dough and he tries to fashion it into chapati. So it becomes triangular or multi-angular. Then what does he do? He takes the whole thing, makes it into a lump and again tries. And after some time he succeeds in making acceptable form, then better and then best. Same process, the same material is being created and then it is changed and it goes back and again recreated. This process is going on from timeless time, Anadi Kaala, countless times. So this Appavada is merging the effect into the cause and then saying first the effect is real, cause is unreal. Second, cause is real, effect is unreal. Now where does this logically lead us to? Now we know cause is also real, effect is also real. And if the effect is unreal, you cannot call there is a real cause for an unreal effect. Like saying, a foolish person saying that a real rope is the cause of the unreal snake. It is illogical. So as soon as we get rid of the idea of the effect and cling on to the cause, then the effect becomes mithya, that is non-existent and the cause alone becomes real. So it seems. But with the disappearance of the effect, the cause also disappears. This is how one transcends the concept of both the effect and cause. Karya, Karana, Relationship and finally what remains is there is something is neither a cause nor an effect. Ekam, Eva, Advaitiyam. That is the purpose of this description of the process of creation. So whoever is a realiser, whoever knows that Brahman is neither the cause nor the effect because cause is different, falls under duality, effect is real, that also falls under reality. But when duality, both of them are negated, what remains alone is the reality. And once a person reaches that, he doesn't even have a mind. It is only the mind which has the concept of cause and effect. Even we, when we are in deep sleep, there is no world, therefore we never think about whether it is a cause or it is an effect or it is both or it is none. So permanent deep sleep with full awareness is called Samadhi or Realisation. So that is how the Rishi wants to lead us like a small child in what is called some actual objects like apple etc. And then he becomes a little more intelligent. Then you don't need to show concrete objects made of plastic and then by just reading and afterwards he can read sentences. After that he reads chapters. After that he reads books. So he is progressing slowly, becoming higher and higher, subtler and subtler. That is how our minds also develop. That is called growth. So then the Shankaracharya is expressing this one. All these Adhyarupa accepting superimposition and then later on negating it called Apavada. This like a climbing to the roof through the help of the ladder or staircase. This is what he says in the Aparokshaan Bhooti. Kariyehi Karanam Pashyet, Pashyat Kariyam Visarjayet, Karanatvam Swadhar Nashet, Avasishtam Bhaven Munih. Beautiful verse. Kariyehi Karanam Pashyet. First of all you see an effect and slowly you start thinking about it. Then you see a pot for example and then what is the cause of the pot? Clay. So now you start seeing in every ornament gold, in every pot clay, in every furniture wood. Now you are seeing both. Earlier you were seeing only Karya, effect, not the Karana. And once you reach that state of the mind then there is no Karya. It is only Karana. And Karanam without Karya cannot exist. Cause without effect, effect without cause cannot exist. So once a person reaches a stage of perceiving the cause, Pashyat Kariyam Visarjayet, this effect is Mithya. The cause alone is real. And then what happens? Should you say Brahman for example is the final cause of everything in this world. Then what should you do? You cannot do. You don't need to do. Then what happens? Karanatvam Swadhar Nashet. The moment you reach that state, the moment effects are denied, the cause also disappears. Either both are there or both disappear. Swadhar Nashet. And that is called realization. And then what should a Muni, a spiritual seeker, what should he do? Avasishtam Bhaven Munihi. Whatever remains after denying the effects as well as the cause, he realizes I am. He doesn't even say Aham Brahmasmi. I told you many times this Brahma Jnani doesn't say I am a Brahma Jnani. Ramakrishna used to make fun. A gentleman doesn't say I am a gentleman. If anybody says I am a gentleman, you can be sure that he is not a gentleman. We have to infer he is a gentleman. So when a person realizes God, he doesn't say I am a God realized soul. He need not say it. And even if he says, nobody will understand. And if a person understands, then he will not say, he need not say. So that is how we climb the staircase and reach the roof and realize the whole house is made up of nothing but the same material as the roof is made. Now that is the essence of the fourth section of the sixth chapter. Now we are starting into the fifth section and there is a speciality in this fifth section. What is it? See, we are all living creatures and every living creature, he has to depend upon these three elements. In what form? In the form of object, in the form of what is called enjoying or experiencing. We have to eat food, we have to drink water and we also have to keep what is called homeostasis, sufficient amount of heat in the body. So earlier, the first, the subtle elements, then the creation of those subtle elements, then the mixture of those three subtle elements in a peculiar methodology called Panchakaranam etc. And here, what is called Trivrata Karanam because of three elements and then the manifestation of these three mixed elements in the form of the whole what we call physical world, experienceable world, objective world, external world. So the whole external world is nothing but the outcome, the effect of these three elements until the fourth chapter. But now, so individual living beings, all of us, we have to eat, we have to drink and then we have to keep our body at a particular temperature, then only the prana, a life vital force remains. That is being described here beautifully in this fifth chapter and this fifth chapter has got four mantras and then what does it say? The first mantra talks about what is called a food. Food is food. Food means that which keeps our body and mind. Food means not only physical body but even the mind. That's why gross body, subtle body, causal body. So they are classified intellectually but we cannot separate them with a knife. Okay, let me separate the physical body, let me separate the mind, then nothing remains. But they are all the outcome of food. We are born of food, we live by food and we also merge back into food. That is the special subject matter of the third chapter of the Taittiriya Upanishad called Rig Valli. So when food is eaten, the first mantra explains, when food is eaten it becomes divided into three parts, gross, subtle and subtler. What does the gross part of the food become? Purusha means that which is indigestible and thrown out after eating, remember. And the middle part of the food, subtler food that goes to make up our physical body and the subtlest part of the food that goes to make up our mind. And then what are we talking about? Every object in this world is made up of three gunas, the satva guna, prajna guna and tamo guna. That also is indicated in this first mantra. So we will talk about it. I will first read the first mantra in the fifth section. In brackets, when we eat food, that means when any jiva eats food, it divides the food, divides itself into three parts. The grossest part of it becomes excreta, purusham. That which is less gross becomes our, what we call our body, physical body, flesh. And the finest portion of the food goes to make up our mind. So the teacher, that is here Uddalakaruni, is going to take each gross element. What are the gross elements? Agni, apaha and annam or prithvi. Here the first one is prithvi. Annam means what? Prithvi tattva. And that is manifested in the form of what we eat. And then slowly apaha, about waters, etc. And then agni tattva. That is the process. So Uddalakaruni wants to guide Shweta Ketu. If you think the whole universe, yes it is made up of three elements. But what about me? Because you are also part of the universe, part of the creation. Therefore you are also made up of the same three elements. And what do you mean by I? I means the body and mind. Actually we have to presume a sthula sharira, sokshma sharira, karana sharira. So all the three are sustained by food. And that is beautifully put here. Asitam, annam. Whatever food we consume, asitam means to eat, consume. Tredha, it can be divided into three parts. Tredha means three parts. And it divides itself into three parts. And then tasya sthavishtaha, that divided food. Sthavishtaha means that which is grossest. Dhatu means the third grossest part. What does it become? Purusham bhavati. So it becomes that which needs to be taken out of the body because it is dangerous. So even they say, it is very interesting also, purusham also can be what we call the gross part of the body. For example, they say every food that we consume must have a lot of this. They make breakfast, etc. so that it helps the food to go down for digestion. Having discharged its part, it moves out. So that grossest part, it must have plenty of sponge-like material which will help the food to go down, helps the intestines to digest it and then helps it itself. Having helped the process of taking it inside the stomach and then helping the process of digestion, its part is over and then it is discharged. That is called purusham. But when food is digested, the digested food, that is called the middle part, what does it become? It goes to become the flesh of the body because the flesh is the one which houses everything else. That is, the middle part goes to become the physical part of the body. And what is the finest? Anishtaha means very subtle, subtlest. What does it go? It goes to become the mind. That's why the importance of food is in the Bhagavad Gita. I think yesterday it was mentioned. What is called sattvika food makes a person sattvik. Rajasika food makes a person very active and goes on increasing lust, anger etc. and the body itself appropriately becomes very restless because of the mind. So the mind becomes both the physical body as well as the subtle body and makes it Rajasika body. But if somebody consumes sattvika food, easy of digestion, very beautiful taste and even the smell, freshness and the nutrients will be there, easily digestible. At which prolongs the longevity, gives spiritual thoughts in the body, roses. Bala gives strength to both body and mind. What is the strength of the mind? Willpower, increases willpower. Arogya, both physical and mental health, such foods are called sattvika foods and inevitably they lead one to God. So he is analyzing that every food that we consume. And here also, this is the reason why in this very Chandogya Upanishad, in the next chapter, 7th chapter, 26th section, second mantra, that beautiful mantra is there that when the food is sattvika food, pure food, sattvika food is called pure food. I will read it a little later. So this is what Uddalaka wants to convey. Be careful about the food and what is our judgment of food. We want it to be tasty. It may be Tamasik food or it may be even Rajasik food. So Rajasik food makes a person Rajasik and then Kattu, Amla, Lavana, Athi, Ushna, Theksha, Roksha and then they go on burning the tongue, the body and the bottom, everything from top to bottom goes on burning and that is Rajasika food and they bring plenty of diseases directly as well as indirectly. So through this process what does the teacher want to convey to us that all the three parts of the food is nothing but food but this food is again indicating the grossest food indicates the earth. The subtler part indicates the water or not water, water element that is the Sokshma Bhutas, first the gross Bhutas then the Sokshma Bhutas. What is the purpose? The process of climbing the staircase so that we trace ultimately everything to God or the Brahma. That is why in the Vishnu Sahasranama what do we get? The very first word is Vishwam. So this Vishwam is consisting of these things. So what is the use of this discussion? That we get the knowledge that the body of every living creature, every Jeeva is born out of the gross elements and these gross elements are the outcome of the subtle elements and the subtle elements are outcome of the Brahman. So Brahman alone is the reality, Satyam. Everything else is not Satyam that means Mithya and so food is divided into three types gross, subtle and subtler. Gross portion is called Stavishtaha, subtle portion is called Mathyasthaha, subtler portion is called Anishtaha. So what happens now? Just now we discussed. Processed part helps the process of taking the food down and then it helps the digestion also and then in the end having helped it itself that is not digestible it goes out. What is the second part does? It goes to make up the flesh and the last subtlest part of the food, any food it goes to make up the mind. Now what type of foods we eat? As just now we discussed. So three types of foods. Tamasika food. I cannot translate these words Gunas, Tamas, Rajas and Sattva. We can only say that which makes very unspiritual and worldly demons that is called Tamasika food. That which makes us human beings little better and slowly but surely takes us towards the higher states of consciousness that is called Rajasika food and then that which is called Sattvika food is take a food that provokes spiritual thoughts, makes us obtain Shraddha and helps us to move forward towards God. This is how you have to understand. Earlier I said in the 7th chapter, 26th and 2nd mantra. This is the mantra. Beautiful mantra. What it says is Sanat Kumara, a great realized soul in the 7th chapter. That is the story Narada. Now there are several Naradas. Bhagavata, the Narada of the Bhagavata Purana, Narada of the other Puranas was different. He was a Bhakta and if you remember he is called Kalaha Bhojana. His very food consists of creating quarrels but what type of, between whom does he create quarrels? Every Tom, Dick and Harry is not his victim. He only creates trouble between two highly developed devotees or between devotees and God. What is the purpose? The only purpose is when two devotees quarrel with each other, they learn the lesson of getting rid of attenuating their egotism and both of them come out like burnished gold. Like both the impurities covering, coverings on the gold will be removed by this fight, Yudha. That is why Bhagavad Gita starts in the field of Yudha. Yudha means what? Life is a continuous warfare. Warfare between one part of the mind pulling us towards God, another part of the mind trying to pull it down. So until we realize God, this fight has to go on. No way you can go out of the battlefield. So this world is the battlefield and it is a Dharmakshetra. Each one of us are fighting the lower creatures. They are evolving through fighting and the physicists or the biologists say very peculiar thing. How did a small animal develop to become the giraffe? And then they give the explanation. It was like a smallest goat or sheep and then it was living on leaves and then there will be time when the leaves means food becomes scarce. Then whatever is available within its reach of the height, it consumes. Every creature of that species consumes. Soon there is a fight. There is food but a little higher. So what does it do? It goes on stretching its neck, standing on its hind legs but the mind is furiously working. I wish I was a little taller because among those species whichever was taller, it survives because it can grab whatever food is available in comparison to not that tall animals. So this wish, it dies and the next birth, I wish to have a longer height and then it is born with a maybe one inch longer and next birth only one inch longer. Ultimately it becomes what we call giraffe. So it is only to describe the process of evolution. So right from amoeba, we are also growing. I wish I could have better knowledge. I could survive better way. I could become better person. I could get more happiness that desires. I don't want to die. I don't want to be foolish. I don't want to suffer. These are the three continuous prayers called Abhyaroha Mantras in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and that is how evolution takes place. So there is an evolution in the gunas also from tamas to rajas to sattva guna and how does it happen? Because of suffering. A tamasic person, his happiness is the least because the happiness of tamo guna is very lowest type of happiness but everybody has got that potential divinity. He wants the highest type of happiness, unbroken happiness. Then a time will come, this tamo guni also wants to desire. Slowly he enters into raja guna, develops more and more raja guna, enjoys it but then that teleological urge pulls him forward and he enters into the sattva state. The ultimate sattvic state is called realization and this is how evolution takes place. Each soul is potentially divine means each soul is destined to know ultimately I am brahman. For that creation is the only means of progressing gradually, slowly but gradually but surely and realize that's all. But here because of the spiritual aspiration of Shweta Ketu and by proxy all of us we have to adopt what is called Ahara Shuddhi and in this next chapter Ahara Shuddha when food is pure, sattva shuddhi, sattva guna grows and how do we know that food is pure food? Whatever food I am eating, is it pure food? How do we know? Because sattva shuddha, if the sattva starts increasing, the memory becomes more and more stable, long lasting and at last permanent. What does it mean? Smriti means memory. Memory of what? Memory that last time I experienced happiness that is because I experienced an object which is made up of sattva guna. So the way forward I want to be happy and if I want to be happy I must consume only sattvika food. Ramanujacharya interprets this word sattvika food only with regard to the food that goes within our mouth whereas Shankaracharya and that is where Swami Vivekananda in his talks on Bhakti Yoga, he says the word used by Shankaracharya for this discrimination in food is called Viveka. Shankaracharya uses that word Viveka, not only the food that goes through our mouth inside our body to build up our body but every sense organ is an organ gathering food. The food of the eye is form, food of the ears is sound, the food of the nose is smell, the food of the tongue is the food like rice, millet, bread, cake etc., sweets etc. and the food for the touch that is the temperature is very good and I am able to forget my body. If it is cold I remember my body, if it is hot also I remember my body. So I am not remembering my body that means that is perfect temperature and because of that perfect temperature and that is called sattvika food. So we must discriminate what promotes not only physical health, not only mental health but even spiritual health. This is called sattvika food. How do we know? Because the more we consume sattvika food, the more we become sattvikas, the more we become sattvikas, the quicker we are able to distinguish what is sattvika food, what is not sattvika food by effect. Even ordinary day-to-day life also this kind of food doesn't agree with me, it makes me ill, sick, diseased but this kind of food I enjoy it, it is desirable, it promotes my both physical and mental health and I am living a happy life through experience. We all know it even though sometimes we fall victim to our what is called taste organ. So therefore how do we know that we are becoming smriti, what is called sattvika people? Smriti means what? Remembering God, remembering spiritual life, remembering what we should do, what we should not do and putting them into practice. Whenever we go wrong because we forget, whenever we eat something wrong because we forget, last time it caused terrible suffering, when after eating we start suffering, oh I should have remembered last time also same thing happened but in this case sattvika smriti is that which brings only the remembrance of God. What type of remembrance that is being described here? Smriti lambe, having obtained this kind of memory as a result of the sattvika food through all the five sense organs, sarva grandhi naam vipra moksha, we become liberated, we become freed from every type of bondage. Vipra moksha means complete freedom we get, that is in other words a person knows I am Brahman, I am not anybody else. So this is the knowledge which Sanat Kumara is teaching to Narada. So tasmai naradaya and what type of Narada? Mridita kashayaya, from whom all the impurities have been completely washed off and as a result tamasaha param, so he has gone beyond tamas, he has gone beyond rajas and he has even gone beyond sattva. So tamasaha param, that is beyond all the three gunas, Sanat Bhagwan, Sanat Kumaraha darshayate, shows the way how to go first from a lower guna to a higher guna, later freedom from even those gunas. How do we know? Remember Sri Ramakrishna's story of the robbers, even sattva guna is also a robber only. Why robber? Because sattvam sukhe sanjayati, sattvam jnanena badhnati, sattva guna produces happiness and when we are happy we don't want to move out of that state and sattvam produces jnanam, knowledge and through that jnanam we don't want to move beyond that jnanam. What jnanam? It is laukika jnanam, not spiritual knowledge, otherwise it will take us to liberation. So sattva guna is also a robber. These are the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna in simple language of these Upanishadic truths. So Sanat Kumara, who is Bhagawan, God Himself, so Narada also became realized soul, that is how we have to remember. So what is the essence of the first mantra? Food divides itself into three. First part goes to help us to take food in and then helps us digest it and its purpose is done and then it is not needed any longer and then it goes out, easily it goes out by itself without causing any problem. That is the part of the grossest part of the food and the middle part, subtler part, not middle but subtler, higher, then it goes to make this body also a good body, strong, healthy, muscles of iron, nerves of steel and then the third part of it, subtlest part of it, gigantic wills. As Swamiji says, we want muscles of iron, nerves of steel, gigantic wills and that is once we develop that willpower through sattvika food, sattva guna means gigantic will, that means what it understands to be right, it cannot be deviated by any other force because it is strong enough to overcome any objection, to disregard any temptation and to move forward with complete self-reliance, that is called sattvika food and the same process is continued in the second mantra where this time the second element, middle element, watery element is taken for sreshana, for analysis. It goes like this, aapah pithah tridhah vidhiyante tasanyastha vishtho dhatuh tat mutram bhavati yo madhyamaha tat lohitam bhavati yo anishtah sa pranah bhavati. When we drink water, water becomes divided into three parts, the grossest part of the, remember water means not what we are drinking, water means the element, this external water is only a grossest manifestation of that element devata called water and even the water we drink is only devata because what is devata? God, what is God? That which makes us alive and gives knowledge and gives us happiness and takes us out of samsara, everything, our body, our environment, our body, our mind and our understanding, everything. So by food, by drink also we have to apply the same logic. So the grossest part of the what is called jaladevata becomes urine and that which is less gross becomes blood and the finest part becomes prana, the vital force. Let us apply the same logic we have discussed about the first word annam. So the grossest part that is called sthavishtaha of the waters, jaladevata, remember not water but divinity in the water. What does it become? Mutram bhavati, what is called urine and how can urine become the devata? Because when we drink plenty of water, what does the water do? It takes the food that we eat, first of all it makes it very soft, then it takes us to the right place easily without any effort. Try to take something very dry, your whole throat becomes constricted, that should not happen. So that water helps us, carries us, water helps us to digest producing hydrochloric acid or digestive juice or what we call vaishvanaragni and then having performed its job, then because it is devata, it goes out. Now my child, I have helped you in carrying the food, digesting the food, not only digesting but in distributing the food by one part of the prana to other things. That is what is called first part of the food, that is grossest part. What about the second one? Madhyamaha lohitam bhavati, it becomes bones and or what is called the blood. So that which is less gross or the subtle part becomes blood, lohitam or rohitam, pralaya or avedaha. And whatever is the subtlest part, that goes to become the prana. Because of prana, we are called pranis or the living beings. These beautiful ideas we will talk about in our next class. What we need to remember is we are born out of Brahman through the manifestation of the subtle bhutas and then through the gross bhutas and there is a purpose behind it as it were Brahman wants to realize himself, plays all these parts and how he is playing beautifully described here. We will talk the details in our next class. May Ramakrishna holy mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with bhakti.