Taittiriya Upanishad Lecture 102 Ch3.1-2 on 29 April 2026
Full Transcript (Not Corrected)
Opening Prayer (Śānti Pāṭha)
ॐ जननीम् शरदाम् देविम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुर्म्
पादपद्मे तयोः स्रित्वाः प्रणमामि मुहुरुमु
Oṁ jananīṁ śaraḍhāṁ deveṁ rāmakriṣṇam jagad-gurum
pādapadmetayosritvā pranamāmi-muhurumuhu
ॐ सह नाववतु ।
सह नौ भुनक्तु ।
सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।
तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥ हरि ॐ
OM SAHANAVAVATO SAHANAV BHUNAKTO SAHAVIRYAM KARAVAVAHAI TEJASVINAVADHITAMASTUMA VIDVISHAVAHAI OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTIHI HARIHI OM
OM May Brahman protect us both. May Brahman bestow upon us both the fruit of knowledge.
May we both obtain the energy to acquire knowledge.
May what we both study reveal the truth. May we cherish no ill feeling toward each other.
OM PEACE PEACE PEACE BE UNTO ALL
The Teacher-Student Tradition in India
We are studying the third chapter of the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, called Bhṛgu Vallī, in which practical sādhānā has been taught by the teacher to the disciple.
India had produced many, many teachers as well as students. This Taittirīya Upaniṣad gives us throughout a teacher, students, and the understanding that one has to become fit to receive the instruction. As Svāmī Vivekānanda used to say, when the field is ready, the seed will come. And we can also understand the opposite: if the field is not ready, even if the seed comes, it is of no good. So both ways — the seed also must be ready, the field also must be ready. But what our scripture wants to say, through Svāmī Vivekānanda, is that the seed is always ready; each soul is potentially divine.
Introduction to Bhṛgu Vallī
Coming back to our Bhṛgu Vallī — I have given you a long introduction — and what are the important points we have discussed in this? First of all, there was a great Brahma-jñānī teacher, and his own son in course of time had become an adhikāri-sampanna-puruṣa, a person who is capable of receiving. How do we know? Because this Bhṛgu could have approached the teacher Varuṇa at any time, but he did not. Only at a particular point of time, when he was ready, and the teacher was already ready, did he go and humbly approach.
All these things we have to infer, because the story is extremely brief. Simply, the student approached and said — not "father," but — "Bhagavan, teach me knowledge of Brahman." And without wasting time, the teacher also did three things.
The Preparation of the Adhikārī
Assessing the Equipment of the Student
The first thing he said was: is your equipment ready? Because the first thing is, if you have a purpose — and the purpose is already stated, "I want to realise Brahman" — whenever we say "I want to be a musician," that knowledge indicates it is an intellectual knowledge. Later on, it will ripen into existential knowledge. That is, the person becomes the very nature of music. So also a scientist, so also a cook — any knowledge. So one must be intellectually equipped.
Therefore a wise teacher first tells the student that your pañcakośas — your body — in other words, we have three bodies: the gross body, the subtle body, and the causal body. These three bodies are the means. How they are a means, we are going to discuss very soon.
The Nature of Brahman
What is the goal? I have heard about Brahman. I don't know anything about Brahman. I also heard Brahman cannot be described. Therefore, any description about Brahman will be incomplete. Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa told Vidyāsāgar that nobody was able to express what is Brahman. And the same thing we have to understand here.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa is only repeating what he repeated in the form of Varuṇa to Bhṛgu. Why do I say so? Why do I say Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa had taught? Because remember — brahma veda brahmaiva bhavati — a knower of Brahman becomes Brahman. Here, "knowing" means realising. Realising "I am Brahman." It is not merely a matter of knowing about someone. This is intellectual knowledge. But nobody can tell about Brahman.
So the svarūpa-lakṣaṇa of Brahman has to be only realised. Only after realisation does one come to know: "I am Sat, I am Cit, I am Ānanda" — or, in Taittirīya Upaniṣadic language, "I am Satyam, I am Jñānam, I am Anantam Brahman."
The Taṭastha-Lakṣaṇa: Secondary Description
But the path, in which direction one has to travel, that has to be shown. And that is called the secondary description. So the true nature is described in words, but that is only a verbal description. Really speaking, until we become one with Brahman, these descriptions are useful only, but not absolute description.
Why can Brahman not be described? We discussed it many times. Brahman doesn't fall under the five śabda-pravṛttis — jāti, guṇa, kriyā, aśraya, etc.
So secondary definitions should be given. That is called taṭastha-lakṣaṇa. Taṭastha-lakṣaṇa is that which we all experience. What are we experiencing? I am experiencing my body, my mind. I am experiencing a tree, a mosquito, everything. So everything that we are experiencing has a cause. Everything that we experience is called an effect.
Because there was a time — for example, there is a person who was not there before, say 80 years before. Now he is there, and after some time he will not be there. So where from did he come? And where did he go? And who is sustaining?
So by definition, whatever we are experiencing is called jagat, this world. And the world is nothing but an effect. And every effect must have a cause.
The Ultimate Cause: Paramakāraṇa
So if we go on seeking — not a proximate cause, not an immediate cause, but the ultimate cause — what type of cause? The paramakāraṇa. What is this ultimate cause? That which is the cause of everything, but itself is not caused by anything else. The ultimate cause is that which is the cause of everything but has no cause for itself. That means it is eternal.
When we think about cause and effect, the proximate cause is itself an effect, and then it gives rise to some other thing, which is called its effect. For example, my grandfather is a proximate cause: until he got married, he is so; then, after marriage, he produces children, and those children become effects — son, daughter, etc. And those children grow up, get married, and remain a cause until they also produce their effects, which are called grandchildren.
So when Bhṛgu asked, "Teach me about Brahman," he meant that ultimate cause which is the cause of everything but which doesn't have a cause in itself. "Please teach me a knowledge about Brahman."
Bhṛgu's Readiness and Approach
But "teach me" means what? Remember always, Bhṛgu must have had a general knowledge like us. He must have studied the scriptures. Maybe he even took classes. Because the Upaniṣad doesn't mention at what age Bhṛgu approached — we are making an assumption. He may have been 18 or 19 years old. And he approached his father. Or maybe he had been attending classes intellectually, mastered them, and might even have been employed as a teacher himself. So he had general knowledge of what Brahman is, like all of us have some intellectual knowledge of Brahman.
But a time came when he wanted to realise — the scriptures are always teaching "you are Brahman" — so: "I acquired intellectual knowledge of Brahman, but I don't know what truly this Brahman is. So let me realise. How? Let me have that experience — not knowing Brahman as an object, but knowing Brahman as a subject, as my own self." Then he approached.
This is to indicate that intellectual knowledge might be acquired even without a human teacher, but spiritual knowledge — "I am Brahman, I am God" — cannot be acquired without an experienced teacher. Fortunately, he need not go anywhere else. His own father was a great Brahma-jñānī. And that also tells us that Brahma-jñāna is not the property of a monk or a nun. Anybody can realise Brahman.
That is what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa emphasises again and again. To the questions of devotees — we have seen this in our classes on the Gospel — whenever devotees asked, "Can we realise God?" Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa says, "Everybody, anybody can realise God, provided they acquire certain qualities." Who can weep? Everybody, every worldly person weeps — for the sake of wife, children, money, etc. But who weeps saying, "I want God, without God I cannot live"? That is what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa is indicating. And that is what is called sādhānā-catuṣṭaya-sampanna-adhikārī. And Bhṛgu had become that.
The teacher Varuṇa, realising this, was no longer merely a father — he was now a teacher, not teaching his son, but teaching an adhikāri-sampanna-puruṣa.
The Teaching of Varuṇa
The Equipment: Pañcakośas
What did the teacher tell? He told: you have the equipment. What is the equipment? Your body — or your three bodies — or, simply put, the body-and-mind complex, which is a combination of gross, subtle, and causal bodies. All these three bodies can also be called by another name: pañcakośas. So you have the pañcakośas. So these are indicated as: cakṣu, manas, śrotram, etc.
The Definition Given
Then he gave the definition. What is the definition? "Find out the cause of everything." Varuṇa did not say, "Find out what is your cause." Varuṇa said, "Find out the cause of everything living and non-living — in other words, the entire creation."
We will discuss this briefly when the time comes. I am only reminding you of the essence of what we discussed so far. And so you will have to do manana. Then slowly manana will ripen into nididhyāsana.
The Three Stages: Śravaṇa, Manana, and Nididhyāsana
Manana: Deep Thinking
What is manana? Deep thinking, until I give up what I am not and identify with what I am. This process of giving up identification and, in its turn, identifying with the higher truth — that is the process called spiritual progress.
So what is this process? First of all, one has to look upon one's own individual body — one's own individual personality — as sacred. "This body is a temple. This mind is the sanctum sanctorum. And within that mind there is a dahara-ākāśa. And in that dahara-ākāśa there is that pure consciousness."
One of the ways to understand this is: we are identified with the body. Until we give up our identification with the body and start identifying with the mind, we will not progress in spiritual life. And once we identify with the mind, we will have to identify also with the next thing — that is called the kāraṇa-śarīra, the causal body. And as we are identifying, things are becoming more and more subtle. That is what we need to understand — subtle, more pervasive, higher. That is how we have to understand it, slowly.
The Hint Given to Bhṛgu
So Bhṛgu was given the hint: "Find out the cause of not merely yourself, but everything else — everything in the creation. In other words, the cause of the entire creation, and there is nothing to be excluded." The non-living is not to be excluded, because Brahman manifests as the inorganic before becoming organic.
So that is what he narrated in those sentences: "Find out the ultimate cause — that which is the cause of everything we experience, and which at the same time never has any cause. That means it is one, eternal, secondless."
This was the hint given. Now we will see what Bhṛgu had done.
The First Anuvāka: Entering the Teaching
The Story of Bhṛgu and Varuṇa
Let us start. Let us analyse little by little, which we have already done — just a reminder. There was a great Brahma-jñānī called Varuṇa, and he had a son called Vāruṇi — Varuṇa's son is called Vāruṇi, just as Daśaratha's son is called Dāśarathi, Vasudeva's son is called Vāsudevaḥ. And there was a marvellous person called Bhṛgu, who was a sādhānā-catuṣṭaya-sampanna-adhikārī. So he approached — and who approached? Bhṛgu approached Varuṇa, and what type of Varuṇa? Pitaram — father. Not only can we understand it in the normal sense, but in a spiritual sense also.
A guru is not only a father; he is a mother, he is everything — the greatest friend, the greatest well-wisher, the greatest source of consolation, of love, of knowledge, everything. So, as we already discussed, Bhṛgu was a sādhānā-catuṣṭaya-sampanna — in other words, a PhD-qualified student who was qualified for a PhD course.
What did he say? Upasasāra means "approached." How did he approach? The Upaniṣad doesn't elaborate. We have to understand from other Upaniṣads — like the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad, samit-pāṇiḥ — so that is to say: "I am ready." He approached to indicate his readiness, having some faggots on his head — samit-pāṇiḥ, dry fuel. What does that indicate?
One meaning is that maybe even after realisation, some people continue — like Rāmakṛṣṇa worshipping the Divine Mother — performing yajñas, yāgas, pūjās, as an example for other people. Why was Rāmakṛṣṇa going to the temple and bowing down to the Divine Mother? It is not for his sake. He already obtained what needs to be obtained. Whether he goes to the temple or not is completely immaterial, because he was not seeing the Divine Mother or God only in the temple. Every second, all the time, everywhere, he knew that everything is God — and not only everything is God, "I am also God."
So Varuṇa, by obtaining the knowledge of Brahman, had become that. But here is a student: just as the guru must have gone through the path, the student also has to go. First he has to listen. The teaching that comes from the mouth of a guru is most effective — you can't pick it up from the internet and go on proceeding with it.
What Did Bhṛgu Ask?
So what did he say? We have to imagine the guru must have asked: "What is it you want? Why do you want Brahman? What did you understand by the knowledge of Brahman?" There might have been a talk — or just one glance, like Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa had one glance at Narendranātha and understood everything. "Teach me. I know about Brahman intellectually. Teach me how I can realise Brahman." So that śravaṇa has to come.
And śravaṇa doesn't mean only mahāvākya-śravaṇa. A teacher doesn't simply say one sentence and stop. What did Totāpurī Mahārāj do with Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa? First he initiated him into the mahāvākya — ahaṃ brahmāsmi — that is our Rāmakṛṣṇa Order's mahāvākya, from the Śukla Yajurveda, Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, Śṛṅgerī Maṭha. But Totāpurī did not stop there. He went on explaining: "What do I mean by ahaṃ brahmāsmi?"
Similar thing must have happened here also. And then, listening to all these things, the teacher told him: "What is the process of sādhānā? How to proceed in the sādhānā? How does one know that one is really progressing from where one is to the very next step?" There must be some indication of the progress. All these things are implied in the word śravaṇa.
The Process of Identifying with the Pañcakośas
And then manana indicates that the person was deeply thinking — and his understanding was not merely intellectual cogitation, thinking deeply (though that is of course the first step), but identifying: "So far, so long, I have been identifying myself with the body. First with the possessions, then with the body, then with the mind, then with the causal body. So I am now identified with what? With my body." Of course the mind is there, but mostly with the body. "So I have to give up this identity with the body. Find out the cause of the body and give up the identity with the body. And identify myself with the cause of the body."
Thus all these identifications go through the process of five times giving up all attachments and five times identifying with the inner, subtler, higher reality — called the pañcakośas. That is what is going to be indicated.
What the Teacher Said
So thus far, having been approached like this, the teacher of Brahma-vidyā started — etat prāvāca — he gave the following teaching. What did he say? First he is telling: Anna, Prāṇa, Cakṣu, Śrotra, Manas. Six indications, indicating three kośas. But we have to understand the other kośas also.
The Five Kośas
For example, Annam — that is the Annamaya-kośa. Prāṇa — the Prāṇamaya-kośa. Manas — the Manomaya-kośa. Cakṣu and Śrotra — some people interpret as the Vijñānamaya-kośa. Why do they say so? Because cakṣu means eyes, śrotra means ears. What do the eyes and ears do? They give us knowledge. And this is the knowledge as the raw material with which the Vijñānamaya-kośa decides. What is the Vijñānamaya-kośa? Buddhi. What is the nature of Buddhi? Niścaya-buddhi — that which eliminates all possible doubts and comes to one definitive conclusion, sthira-buddhi: "This is what I need to do."
So our knowledge, for the purpose of decision, is totally dependent upon our five sense organs. But here two sense organs are most important: first, the ability to see directly — that is why dṛṣṭi: "I had the vision of God," dṛṣṭi; or "I heard these divine words." So hearing and seeing are the most important of all the sense organs. 99% of our knowledge comes only through these five sense organs, especially through the eyes and the ears.
So through these five — through the instruments of the Annamaya-kośa, Prāṇamaya-kośa, Manomaya-kośa, and Vijñānamaya-kośa, which indicates also of course the Ānandamaya-kośa — through these, first you identify yourself. You are already identified with the Annamaya-kośa, but you will have to identify — as I said — as a thinking subject, a deep thinker: "Not only I, but everything in this world has a body. And the root cause of every body, everything that we experience physically through the body, must have a cause."
Prithvī Devatā: The First Step
We already discussed this. It is called Pṛthvī-Devatā. It is called Annam. Because Pṛthvī — the fifth, grossest manifestation of Brahman in the order of space, air, fire, water, and earth — earth means food. Everything that we see, both living and non-living, is the outcome. So everything comes out of earth. Everything is sustained by the earth. And everything goes back to earth only.
Even when a person dies — many people bury him, and we don't know how the tradition comes — but many Hindus burn the body. Whatever the process, it is sending back this gross to its cause, the effect back into its cause. So if I bury my father, my grandfather, great-grandfather, they become one with Pṛthvī in the form of fertiliser. This fertiliser is directly eaten or transforms itself into food for the plants. A plant is nothing but all the fertiliser. And therefore when I eat those plants, I might have eaten your grandfather, my grandfather, everybody's grandfather — including both living and non-living matter.
So it is a continuous recycling process. Everything is recycled. Nothing goes to waste.
The Five-Storey Building: Ascending the Kośas
Therefore the pañcakośas are the only steps. And you have to go beyond all five floors of this building. The pañcakośas are comparable to five storeys, and one has to gradually progress to the next storey — second storey, then third, then fourth, then fifth — and then go to the roof, which is Parabrahman. This is the process.
And that is what the teacher is telling. So the teacher of Brahma-vidyā had taught: "Start with the pañcakośas. Now, where are you? Naturally, I am in the Annamaya-kośa — that means I think I am Annamaya, I am the body."
So that from which everything has come out, that because of which everything is being sustained, and unto which the effect returns — find out that cause. Tad brahma — that is Brahman. Tad vijijñāsasva — find out that Brahman. Understanding means: realise this. Realisation means: at every stage, you have to go on identifying yourself with it.
The Process of Spiritual Progress Summarised
So, the essence of the first anuvāka — and the same thing continues in the next anuvāka. As I said, once we understand these hints, we understand that we are progressing: giving up identity with which we are identified at this moment, and finding out that which is subtler. The cause is always subtler than the effect. It is more pervasive than the effect, and it is the cause of all the grossest things.
That is how you give up the lower step and put your feet on the higher step. And when we are climbing a staircase, we say, "I am now on the third step." I don't say I am on the second or first step. And when I reach the first floor, I say, "I am on the first floor," because automatically the realisation comes that the first floor alone is real — all the steps leading there are not real.
First Anuvāka: Varuṇa's Teaching to Bhṛgu
The Tatastha-Lakṣaṇa Restated
This much the father — or the teacher, Varuṇa — told. So we have to understand through this that the moment Bhṛgu starts seeking, he won't immediately reach the ultimate Brahman but only a proximate one. First Pṛthvī, then from Pṛthvī to Āp (waters), from waters to fire, from fire to air, from air to space, from space to Ātmā — and that is the highest. That is what had happened. Then only will he understand the real nature of Brahman, which in human words is said to be either Sat-Cit-Ānanda or, according to this Taittirīya Upaniṣad, Satyaṃ Jñānam Anantaṃ Brahma. And it is this that Vyāsadeva has taken up in the Brahma-Sūtra.
Summary of Key Points
So what is the essence? If we understand these few points, it becomes easier to proceed to the next anuvākas also. The first point: the Upaniṣad describes Brahman as the cause of the entire world — and this is called the taṭastha-lakṣaṇa. Whatever we are seeing is the characteristic, because in this world we see: "Here is a tree — where from has it come? From a seed. Where from the seed? From another tree." So everything has a proximate cause. Here is a baby — a baby is born of parents — but the parents are not the ultimate cause; they are also an effect. But if we go on, the entire universe is coming from something much subtler than merely gross bodies.
So that is how one has to progress: giving up that with which we are identified right now, and slowly identifying with its cause. So it goes like this — give up the Annamaya-kośa, identify with the Prāṇamaya; give up the Prāṇamaya, identify with the Manomaya; give up the Manomaya, identify with the Vijñānamaya; give up the Vijñānamaya, identify with the Ānandamaya-kośa — and then go beyond. Because that too is only a kośa.
Nimitta and Upādāna Kāraṇa
So within this characteristic mark there are the efficient cause and the material cause. Every effect is the outcome of two causes, according to Vedānta. One is called the intelligent or efficient cause; another is the material cause. For example, a pot is the outcome of its material cause, which is clay, and it is the effect of the efficient or intelligent cause, called the potter. The potter plus the clay — both are there.
So at every step we have to understand: the Prāṇamaya-kośa is, as a cause of its effect the Annamaya-kośa, both the efficient and the material cause — it is the combination of what is called abhinna-nimitta-upādāna-kāraṇa, where both causes are present. Brahman is both the material and the efficient cause of everything in this universe. This is the process.
Bhṛgu's Tapasyā Begins
Here we have to note that Varuṇa did not tell Bhṛgu that he would have to do tapasyā. He simply said, "Find it out." Then Bhṛgu did not ask, "How do I find out?" He knew already. So he went and did tapasyā.
What is tapasyā? Deep thinking. And you notice: when we think deeply about something, what happens? In course of time, we become one with it. When you go on thinking about an object, a desire comes for it — that is what Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says in the second chapter: whatever you think of again and again, saṅga — attachment — comes; from attachment comes desire; if the desire is not fulfilled, anger; if the anger cannot be expressed, it becomes greed. So each leads to the other.
So tapasyā means austerity — and austerity means not merely giving up certain comforts voluntarily. Simple food, or sometimes fasting, etc., and then only it is possible. Slowly we progress in life. But the main thing is: concentration with complete faith, and concentration must convert itself into transformation. A concentration which does not transform itself into transformation is no good. That is called upāsanā.
Here, Bhṛgu started thinking in this way — that is the process of manana. So what did he do? He did intense tapasyā and then obtained something. What that something is, is being said in the second anuvāka.
Second Anuvāka: Bhṛgu's First Realisation — Annam as Brahman
So the first part of this mantra is something we will analyse shortly, but the second part continues until the person comes back to the father. What did Bhṛgu do? He did tapasyā — intense thinking: finding out, trying to find out what is the cause of everything that we see in this gross external world. Then he understood: that is Annam. Everything has come from Anna. Anna means here the Bhu-loka, the Pṛthvī-Devatā.
We have to understand this as the last and fifth grossest of the pañca-bhūtas, because everything — the mountains, the rivers, the sun, the moon, the billions and billions of galaxies — everything has come from this Annam, from what is called Pṛthvī-Devatā. Whatever we are experiencing, even if we don't experience it now — other people may be experiencing it — and that which was experienced, is being experienced, and is going to be experienced, by me or anybody else: all of that is coming from Annam.
A simple explanation: let me take my own example. Where does my body come from? Here we are talking not about Prāṇa or Manas or Vijñāna, but merely about my physical body. Where has it come from? From my father and mother. And how did it come from them? It is not coming directly from the bodies of father and mother — both of them were eating food, Annam, and what the father eats becomes what is called the male seed, what the mother eats becomes the female seed; and by their union, the male and female seeds get mixed up, and that is how life starts. So everything in this world — whether living or non-living — comes only as a result of such a mixing up. So the entire continents have been produced like that.
So Pṛthvī-Devatā is now the Brahman — because it is the cause of everything that we call this physical universe. Yajñāt. And then Bhṛgu applied the test. Am I correct to call this Brahman? Yes. How did he do that? He said: "My father, my teacher, has already given me the hints — yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante: everything has come out from the earth. Annaddheva khalvimāni bhūtāni jāyante — everything has come out from Pṛthvī-Devatā. Annena jātāni jīvanti — they are supported, they are sustained only by this Pṛthvī-Devatā. Annaṃ prayanti — everything goes back."
That is what the Christian funeral rite expresses as "dust unto dust" — everything is dust, meaning earth. Earth means: whatever we experience physically, as physical bodies, living or non-living, is all coming from and returning to Pṛthvī-Devatā.
And then he understood — not intellectually; he became identified with the Pṛthvī-Devatā.
Bhṛgu Returns to Varuṇa: The First Doubt
Then what happened? A doubt arose. The Upaniṣad doesn't say so directly, but it is expressed through punar āyo varuṇaṃ pitram upasasāra — so he approached his father once more. What was the doubt? "I thought Pṛthvī is the ultimate cause. But when I identified myself with it, I find that there is some other cause. I clearly perceive that Pṛthvī itself is an effect — it is not the ultimate cause of everything."
So he came to clear his doubt. Am I right or wrong in this conclusion — that Pṛthvī-Devatā is not the ultimate cause? So punar āyo varuṇaṃ pitram upasasāra — he approached the teacher once more — and again said, adhi bhagavo brahma iti: "Teach me Brahman, because I think I have not really realised the true Brahman. I only realised annaṃ brahmeti vijānīyāt. But I see a defect there."
Like Indra saw the defect in Vairāja's teaching — "How can what we see in the external world as a reflection, how can it be Ātman? So everything that I have seen has got a beginning, it is changing, and it has an end. There is birth, there is growth, there is death — and Ātman is not something which is subject to birth and death." So Bhṛgu also approached.
But already the father must have approved: "Yes, your doubt is right. But the path you have taken up is absolutely right. Proceed." Tapasā — this time the teacher said, tapasā brahma vijijñāsasva: "So you go and find out. You are in the right direction." That much he approved. "But you have to go a long way forward."
Tapo brahmeti — that deep thinking which makes you identify with what you discover as the cause, that is called Brahman. And sa tapo tapyata — Bhṛgu again performed a second tapasyā. And then he realised something.
Bhṛgu's Second Realisation — Prāṇa as Brahman
Sa tapas tattvā — and then again doubt had come. At first he thought: so Prāṇa-Brahman must be the ultimate cause. The same process had proceeded. Now the Prāṇamaya-kośa is also an effect. It is not the ultimate cause. So we will stop here.
Closing Prayer
ॐ जननीम् शरदाम् देविम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुर्म्
पादपद्मे तयोः स्रित्वाः प्रणमामि मुहुरुमु
Oṁ jananīṁ śaraḍhāṁ deviṁ rāmakriṣṇam jagad-gurum
pādapadmetayosritvā pranamāmi-muhurumuhu
May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna!