Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch.1.5 Lecture 35 on 23 May 2026

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

Opening Invocation

ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात् पूर्णमुदच्यते

पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः

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

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

OM Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all.

Introduction

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

The Householder and the Pañca Mahā Yajñas

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

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

Everything is dependent upon everything. We have seen, if you recollect in our Wednesday class on the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, that in this world everything can be divided into two: the supporter and the supported, the experiencer and the experienced. So there is nobody exclusively an experiencer or a supporter, and exclusively a supported or the experienced.

The whole universe is a beautiful drama, a cinema. So every aspirant – here "householder" means a sādhaka aspiring to conquer death, ignorance and suffering – that is what is the essence of spiritual life. He must perform and get rid of the debts he owes to these five factors, beautifully called pañca mahā yajñas. Therefore the proper discharge of this is called karma yoga. As Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa categorically states in the Bhagavad Gītā, without discharging one's duties in the form of worshipping God – that is called karma yoga – one cannot progress not only in spiritual life but even in secular life. So to perform that is the duty of every aspiring sādhaka.

Everything in this world is divided into five categories. Hence the sacrifice is fivefold; fivefold is the animal; fivefold is the person; and fivefold is all this whatever exists – and he who knows it. One who really understands and realises, then he is the greatest performer of pañca. "Pañca" is, in other words, "I am my neighbour, I am my God, I am the whole creation, I am everything – nothing is excluded." That is the essence of the fourth section of the first chapter of this Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad.

The Fifth Brāhmaṇa (First Chapter, Fifth Section)

Now comes the fifth brāhmaṇa, equally important, and it presents very beautiful yet essential points. This fifth section in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad is called a brāhmaṇam. If you remember, there are six chapters; every chapter is called a kāṇḍa, and every section within every kāṇḍa is called a brāhmaṇam. This is the first chapter (prathama kāṇḍa), the fifth brāhmaṇam, and it has twenty-three mantras.

A beautiful idea is presented here. We saw not only in Bṛhadāraṇyaka but even more explicitly in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad how Bhagavān – I am using the word deliberately; the Upaniṣads do not use the word Bhagavān; either they say Brahman or, to be more precise, saguna Brahma, i.e. Īśvara, but it doesn't matter – we saw God created this universe, or even to be more precise, God Himself is manifesting in the form of these five great elements, the subtle as well as the gross. So He became the creation; He became the gods, humans, non‑humans. This is called beautifully in Sanskrit language ādi daivika, ādi bhautika, adhyātmika. The whole creation is nothing but interdependence of these three:

• Adhyātmika means "I" – each individual, I, you, everyone of us.
• Adhibhautika means this world which we are experiencing and which, of course, is also experiencing all of us.
• Adhidaivika means every creation, every organisation, every social institution requires a plan. Certain rules and regulations must be enforced for the well‑being of that organisation. That is called adhidaivika. Some rules are there – do this, do not do this; they are also called vidhi and niṣedha.

So God has become this creation; God has become each individual soul, jīva, which is called adhyātmika. He became the creation, which is called adhibhautika. And the one who connects and enables the individual to interact with this creation external to each one of us is called adhidaivika. Like a triangle: a triangle cannot be called a triangle even if one angle is missing. So the entire creation, according to the Vedantic perspective, is for ease of understanding divided into this triangle: the creation, the experiencer of the creation, and He who regulates.

Involution and Evolution

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

The Need for Food: Saptānna Brāhmaṇam

Somebody has to maintain this and enforce that the organisation called creation runs properly. So He had created certain enforcers; they are called presiding deities. But if we have to survive, we require food. That is what is going to be beautifully, symbolically, spiritually explained in this fifth section (fifth brāhmaṇa). This brāhmaṇa has twenty‑three mantras. We saw how God created this universe by manifesting Himself in the form of the pañca bhūtas. He became the gods, humans, non‑humans, living, non‑living. But He must create food for the creation to continue. That is the theme of this fifth section. Hence this fifth section of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad is popularly known as the Saptānna Brāhmaṇam:

• Sapta = seven.
• Anna = food.
• Brāhmaṇam = section.

This is the section where Bhagavān Himself became the saptānna.

The Purpose of Evolution

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

We discussed how we evolved, first in the form of four castes – that is to say:

• The first stage: tamo guṇa is dominant.
• The second stage: rajo guṇa is dominant.
• The third stage: sattva guṇa is dominant.

All three guṇas are involved in every caste, but which guṇa is prominent, bosses over, dominates, and which guṇas are assistants (subsidiary) makes the varṇas. Then from varṇa we come to the āśrama. Āśrama means our different stages of progress in life.

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

1. What is life?
2. What is the goal of life?

That is what Swami Vivekananda said: "Each soul is potentially divine." Who are you? Who am I? I am divine, but I am not aware of it. Now I am learning for the first time from the mouth of the teacher, who is nothing but a mouth of the scriptures. Then what is life meant for? Why am I given this body, this mind, and this food? That is what is called body + mind + food – that is called living.

The Deeper Meaning of "Annam" (Food)

Here I have to clear a point. "Food" in Sanskrit is called annam. But food does not mean only what we eat physically to keep the physical body alive. Food means whatever is experienced is food. The whole life is nothing but billions and billions of experiences. Every experience is a teacher, but all experiences are to help us to evolve, to aid our progress towards God – or even better, towards knowing and knowing only who we really are. Like the prince who was lost in babyhood and later found: "You are not a beggar; you are a real prince, the would‑be king of this very kingdom."

Life is meant as an opportunity, a destination, a travel towards unfolding our own true nature. That is the purpose of life. How to progress in life? Through karma – more precisely karma yoga. Whether it is the path of devotion, the path of yoga, or the path of knowledge, everything involves only karma. Everything is karma yoga only:*Bhakti yoga is nothing but karma yoga in the form of devotion to God.

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

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

The Three Answers

So these are the three important answers:

1. Who am I? I am divine. But at this moment I am only called potentially divine, or a would‑be realiser of God or Brahman – a would‑be brahma jñānī.
2. The goal of life: whatever I do – whether I eat, whether I breathe – has only one purpose: how to slowly progress.
3. The whole universe is nothing but annam.

How do we understand it? Suppose I eat food. What for? I get strength. What then? I have to use this strength and energy to express myself. Every expression of myself falls into three categories: I do not want to be unhealthy or subject to death – at least prolong life as long as possible. Gradually I must expand my knowledge, and that knowledge is not knowledge of many but knowledge of my own self. Every experience, if you analyse, makes me a better person if I am intelligent. Then I want to be happy. Every creature wants to live. Every creature wants to know. Why does the creature want to know and want to live? No creature wants to live or (much less) know that "I am subject to suffering". This was the teaching we have been studying in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad.

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

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

The Seven Types of Food (Saptānna)

Now, to continue in life we require food. As mentioned, the normal meaning of the word "food" is that which sustains our body, but the deeper meaning of the word annam is whatever helps us to evolve towards our true nature – that is called annam. So now this whole universe can be divided into gods, human beings and non‑human beings. For these three types of jīvas (living creatures), three types of food are necessary. That is being said. The ultimate mystical, esoteric meaning of these saptānnas (seven types of food) is how we can progress through our experiences. Every experience is an annam. Just as annam gives us strength and then understanding – without strength the body will not be healthy, without strength the mind will not be healthy.

By the way, if somebody is arrogant, egotistic and proud, that person is actually to be more pitied, because he is more in the downward spiral rather than progressing towards God. The more one identifies – the stronger the identification with the body and mind – the worse the bondage, the stronger the bondage. Therefore the struggle is also hard. But an ordinary person who is not that egotistic has less struggle. That is how we have to understand.

Symbolical Meaning of the Seven Foods

The Upaniṣad now cleverly gives a symbolical meaning of the seven types of food. Briefly, which is the essence of this fifth section of the first chapter of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka, we will understand it; otherwise it can create a lot of confusion: "What is this 'foods' talking about?" I am eating food, and that is good for the body – that is what we call proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, etc. But when I am looking through my eyes, that is called form, and that form is the food for the eye. And that knowledge is the food for the mind. A thought is generated there: "I see this is a friend. I see this is a tiger, a dangerous animal. I see that this is my pet, my beloved child." This knowledge comes through our five sense organs.

God has given us ten sense organs: five of input, five of output. A combination of these is what we call pañcakośas, and that is the body plus mind. Five of action, five of knowledge, plus mind – this is the personality of each one of us. So we require food. Anything that is seen, heard, smelt, tasted, touched – that is all nothing but food. To aid this knowledge, our legs have to take us, our hands to grasp, etc. So the whole body is designed exclusively to experience this annam or what we call experience. Through this experience, we have to analyse what these experiences really are, then exercise discrimination, then discard what is not useful and strengthen what is useful. That is how progress is maintained, life after life, until we expand, identifying ourselves with everything in this universe.

One day will come when I do not see anything other than myself. That is the acme, the highest ascent of the soul into its own nature. That is called brahma jñānam – call it nirvikalpa samādhi. Thereafter, if still the body‑mind functions, then that person says nothing but Brahman everywhere.

Two Categories of Anna: Sādhya and Sādhana

For the convenience of spiritual practice and progress, the Upaniṣad now divides this entire creation (the bhogyā universe) into seven distinct categories of objects of experience. As I said, annam means food, but here food means whatever is experienced: anubhūyate iti annam. So the pitā (creator of the universe) generates these seven foods through meditation (upāsanā) and action (karma).

We have seen earlier, especially in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, that Brahman created this universe through tapasyā. He thought deeply, and through tapasyā – awakening the intelligence, honing it to the finest point and using it – "How best can I make creation?" This is what we also do in our dreams. A beautiful example: we have to understand the phenomenon of dream much more than we understand our waking state. In fact, our whole waking state – and I dare say even the deep sleep state – is dependent upon our mind.

A simple example to illustrate what I just stated: Suppose my mind is full of agitating, worrying, fearful thoughts. Then my dreams will be disturbed dreams, and my understanding of the physical universe will be like a person who fears snakes and sees snakes everywhere – even a rope appears to be a snake because of fear. Suppose there is a person who is terribly frightened of snakes. Anything resembling a snake – whether a garland lying down in semi‑darkness, a streak of water, or a piece of rope coiled up – instantaneously he remembers "a snake is like that" and then he gets scared and suffers from fear. But reverse the example: suppose a snake catcher whose living is totally dependent upon snakes beholds it, and his heart swells in joy – "I can add one more to my collection of snakes." So it depends upon what prior experience we had. Everything depends upon our mind. What is our mind? Nothing but a conglomeration of thoughts. This is what is called vṛtti prapañca. Everything is a vṛtti. What is God? That is also a vṛtti.

How many rivers of blood have flowed because good people understood or misunderstood about God, about religion, about dogmas? If you study the fight between Catholics and Protestants, how many people have been tortured so inhumanly – perhaps even nāgas did not do it. But we are such so‑called innocent people; we do not even open our eyes not only to what happened but even to what is happening today. So what are we talking about? That our world is nothing but a world of thoughts.

If a dung beetle is living, he is living in the world of dung beetle. If an ordinary worldly person, he is living in the world of worldliness. Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, Swami Vivekananda, myriads of saints and sages, men and women – they were all living in the world of saintliness, in the world of God, in the world of angels. Same creation, but looked at through the stained windows of the prison of time, space and causation. That makes our world.

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

Summary of the 23 Mantras (Fifth Section)

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

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

All these seven types of foods or experiences must be divided into two categories:

1. **Sādhya anna** – the goal: what I want to attain (this state of consciousness). 2. **Sādhana anna** – what I should do in order to obtain what I decided to obtain; how to fulfil my desire.

Example of sādhya anna (our goals): Our goal is to manifest or to know progressively, to approach nearer and nearer to self‑knowledge, to know who I am. For that purpose, first of all we have to understand. Why should I attempt? Because if I do not know what I want, I will not even attempt to obtain it. At first, a human being thinks that he can get five objects which can satisfy him through the five sense organs (tasting, smelling, looking, hearing, touching). But then he understands these are only symbols. These symbols must have a meaning. What is that? I am looking for myself in the mirrors of these objects. Every object is a food. So am I looking? I am looking. Do I reflect well? No. So discard it and try to find out something.

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

What is the sādhanā? I must first cultivate slowly. The scripture is telling that even at the lowest level, even for a child – a child entering elementary school or nursery school – the teaching starts: "Do this, don't do that; you must do this, you must never do that." So the training starts from there. In high school, for example, we are taught history. What is the point of teaching history? It is not to know certain facts – "such and such people were living at such and such place; certain events like war have taken place; how some persons tried to destroy other persons causing terrible pain and suffering" – like it happened in the 1940s in Germany by Hitler and his party. No, that is not the point. What can we learn from history? How to avoid such mistakes? The whole of life is nothing but to look at the history of our own selves and find out where we have gone wrong. Let me take care not to repeat the same thing. Where have I done right? Because by the results I will know where I have done wrong and where I have not done wrong. That is the process of discrimination – that is called learning the lessons. That is the purpose of learning history. History includes everything; nothing else is left out.

For example, science. Nobody would think science is history. No. Study the history of science: what people have learned, how they learned (printing press, how to make gunpowder, then guns, then destructive weapons). Now they are using AI to inflict punishment. Nobody is thinking, "How can we help our own people?" Billions of people in the most powerful countries are suffering untold difficulties, and there is something we can do about it. But these rulers are not thinking about anybody else except themselves. We are repeating the same story within our lives. Do not think the prime minister or president of some country is an evil person. We are all mini‑vice‑presidents, mini‑presidents, mini‑prime‑ministers. In our own lives we are doing it. This is called learning history. If we do it intelligently and discriminatively, there is a good chance that we progress in life quickly. This is called sādhya annāni – those experiences I have to deliberately try for through the foods provided by the creator.

For that purpose, sādhana annāni: For example, if I eat healthy food, my body becomes healthy. If I eat healthy mental food (i.e., healthy books, listen to healthy things), may I worship the gods who are providing for me; may I listen to what is conducive to my own development; may I see everything and derive the lesson, and see that I do not repeat mistakes. By seeing what we are doing and by seeing what others are doing, we can learn great lessons. These are called sādhana annāni. God has provided sādhana anna and sādhya anna. This is the purpose of these seven kinds of food.

The Seven Foods in Brief

1. • • First annam (common physical food):** Regular common food consisting of proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, etc., for all living beings including humans. Any jīva who is selfish and wants to enjoy this kind of physical food only for oneself and does not want to share it with anyone is called a selfish person. In the Gītā he is called a sthena (a thief). Because God is giving this food, and without showing our gratitude to God (in the form of the gods, like the seasons, etc.), we become sinners. The result of sin is suffering. One should never eat alone without sharing with others. This is what we have also seen in the Taittirīya: annam na kancana vasatau pratyācakṣīta – if someone comes, one should never reject that person without sharing one's own food. Annam na nindiyāt, annam bahu kurvīta, annam na paricakṣīta – food should not be criticised, food should not be wasted, food is a vow to God; food must be multiplied as much as possible with the sole idea of sharing it with someone else. If somebody approaches, we will have to share that food. Never reject that person. This idea is beautifully brought out in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad in the form of three boons granted to Naciketā by Yamadharma Rāja himself.
     • Two types of food for the gods:** They are called hutam and prahutam. Hutam means that which is offered (if you have seen homas, etc., you take a bilva leaf, dip it in clarified butter and put it – that is hutam). Prahutam is the same type of ritual but with devotion: "O Indra, O Varuṇa, O Śiva, O Viṣṇu, you are my protector, you are my provider" – this is like saying grace in Christian rituals (sacraments). These two types, hutam and prahutam, are the two types of food offered to the gods.
     • Fourth annam (pāśu anna – animal food):** That is milk. Every living creature requires milk, practically in one shape or another – not only human beings but non‑human beings as well. Whatever is necessary for the baby to live and grow satisfactorily is the fourth annam – the external annam. Therefore the gods should be pleased because they are the providers, and it should be shared; nobody should be deprived of food. There is a curious custom: when an orthodox brāhmaṇa sits to eat food, he takes small parts of it and then says tarpayāmi ("I offer this") to the five beings (fishes, pitṛs, etc.), indirectly mentioning the living and non‑living, everything. It is a symbolic offering, but it should be put into practice actually whenever we can and whenever the occasion comes for us to practise it.
     • One common food for sustenance:** Milk (for both sustenance, etc.).
     • Three types of mental food:** These are what is called the mind, speech and prāṇa. The external food is meant to strengthen our mind, our speech and our prāṇa (action) – thoughts, speech and action.

These beautiful ideas we will further explore in our next class.

Closing Prayer

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

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

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

Jai Rāmakṛṣṇa!