Taittiriya Upanishad Lecture 105 Ch3.7 on 20 May 2026

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

Opening Prayer (Śānti Pāṭha)

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

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

Recap of the Previous Class

In our last class, we have completed up to the sixth section of the third chapter of the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, wherein Bhṛgu, taking the direction shown by his teacher Varuṇa, had realised “I am Ātman. I am of the nature of Sat-Chit-Ānanda.”

Sat-Chit-Ānanda. I am Brahman. And with that, the Upaniṣad, the main Upaniṣad, is over.

How to Progress in Spiritual Life

Anybody who follows the same instructions of Varuṇa, like Bhṛgu did, will also get the same results. So, how to progress in spiritual life? Through these hints, we come to know, actually it is an indirect suggestion, that Bhṛgu had performed austerity. What type of austerity did he perform? So, we can understand this through the following vows, vratas, contemplations, and upāsanas.

He must have done this because the very first step he had taken is and realised “Annam brahmeti vyajānāt.” He realised Annam is Brahman. What is Annam? The literal meaning of the word Annam is food.

But it means a body. Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa uses the same word. The entire soul of all of us is totally identified, fixed in the body.

Annam means body. But through what we discussed before, we have to understand. The whole universe is nothing but Annam.

And the meaning of that word Annam is going to be expanded here so beautifully. Annam means what? Whatever is experienced, that is Annam. And then whatever is, whoever is the experiencer, he is the subject.

So the whole universe, and that is what is called duality. Duality means division: the subject and the object, the experiencer and the experienced, the eater and the eaten, the enjoyer and the enjoyed.

The Upaniṣadic Vision of Unity

So what is the point here? The point is that one person is not an enjoyer and something else is being enjoyed.

If we look at it broadly from the angle of the Upaniṣadic vision, we understand everybody is an enjoyer. Everything is enjoyed. Everybody is a supporter. Everything is a supporter.

So enjoyer, enjoyed. Similarly, supporter, supported.

Everything ultimately is nothing but Virāṭ or the universal. And that is how the Upaniṣad wants to look upon everything as God, as Svāmī Vivekānanda seeing everything as God. Because everything is God only.

That which comes from God cannot be anything other than God. So Bhagavān had become both the enjoyer and the enjoyed, the supporter and the supported. We will come to that.

But in my last class, I said the best example to understand this is a dream example.

The Dream Example

Now, what is this dream example we are talking about? As we know, all of us, every living creature, goes through three different states of experience. Here we are taking only the first two: the waking and the dream.

So when we compare, and almost all of us, whether we remember it or not, will be having dreams in a particular state. In fact, we should not understand by the word “dream,” but we understand that you are imagining certain things and they appear in a very concrete form, and that is called a dream. Especially when our body is relaxed and when we forget the waking state and we are not in deep sleep, that in-between state between the dreamless or deep sleep and waking state is called the dream state.

Now, even when we are awake also, we are using the mind, and whatever we experience, we think through the mind, is also a dream state only. So I will explain to you very briefly because you must be familiar with these ideas by this time. Since so many years, I have been trying to express those same ideas.

So suppose you go to that state, you lie down and you want to take rest. Before you fall into deep sleep, you have a state where you have certain dreams. That is, certain of your imaginations take concrete form.

You may be somewhere and you may be meeting some people, seeing some objects, etc. How did this dream come about? Do you think it is something not related to the waking state? So the waking state, whatever we had experienced before, and those impressions in the form of memory remain, and those impressions come in the form of the dream world. So there, the waking state is the supporter and the dream state is the supported.

But how do we experience the waking state? Do you think we just look at whatever object is there in front of us in the waking state and understand that object? Not at all. We have so many preconceived ideas, and whenever we look at any object, we see the qualities, and the qualities are those things which produce certain impressions in our minds. Same qualities might produce opposite reactions within our minds.

For example, suppose somebody had eaten a mango and thoroughly enjoyed it—the texture, the sweetness, the flavour, the juice—and when such a person looks at a mango tree and beautiful ripe mangoes hanging, he will undergo a particular emotional state. But supposing there is a person who has eaten, maybe when he is chewing, a worm which was already inside the mango was also being chewed by him, which created a terrible bad odour, bad taste, etc. So such a person’s impression about the mango will be totally different.

And once a person has this experience, it is likely that he will view every mango through that particular light based upon his experience. This is how even when we look at strangers, we already form an impression before we even experience their qualities in the form of words, thoughts, etc. “This person looks very nice. This person looks very roguish.” We have already prejudged based upon our past experiences.

So what I am trying to tell you is that our thoughts are the supporter, and how we enjoy the world through the five sense organs—that is the supporter. Our mind becomes the enjoyer. A better word would be experiencer.

How we experience with pleasure or pain, etc.—that is what we need to understand. This is for the illustration.

Supporter and Supported

So the waking state, whatever we experience, we store in the form of memories, and that comes out in the form of dream. So enemies will be enemies. Friends will be friends.

What I mean is, we think some people are our friends. Maybe they are plotting against us; we don’t know. Some people are our enemies. Maybe they are not really bothered about us. But what we decide, come to a conclusion, we form an opinion about them. That becomes the pratiṣṭhā, the support.

So the dream is the supported, and the waking state is the supporter. Similarly, the dream state means thinking about things. It tremendously influences our waking state. That is why some young people may say “dream girl.” Whether it is a dream girl or waking state girl comes later on. But what I mean is that certain opinions we form, certain thoughts we develop, they become the basis of our actions and our reactions.

So the mind becomes both the supporter as well as supported. And the waking state becomes both the supporter as well as the supported. The enjoyer as well as the enjoyed.

Two Relationships

So these are the two relationships. Experiencer and experienced. Enjoyer and enjoyed is one relationship. Supporter and supported is another relationship.

And when we analyse the whole world, and we are part of the world, and yet we divide ourselves—“I am this particular individual, and I am the bhoktā, enjoyer. Experiencer,” as I said, is the better word. “And the whole universe, twenty-four hours a day, from birth to death, is the experienced, enjoyed.” Similarly, everything in this world, including the trees and the birds and the worms and the bacteria, not to speak of human beings.

So there is no such division. I am a separate enjoyer, subject, and everything else is an object. Subject becomes subject. Object becomes an object. Subject becomes the object. Object becomes the subject.

And in the end, everything must be converted, must be looked upon as the body of the Virāṭ. That is called “Everything is annam.” If I am eating food, I am the eater. Food is the eaten. But when, as I illustrated, a mosquito bites me, an ant can also bite me, especially red ants. So bacteria are there within us. So it becomes a bhoktā, enjoyer. But it also helps us indirectly.

The Interrelationship is Divine

So this is a great truth. We become both the experiencers and the supporters. And in our turn, we also become the experienced and supported. And this interrelationship is divine.

And the whole body is there. Just one small illustration: our hands are different. Our legs are different. Eyes are different. Every part of the body, consisting of ten sense organs—five of knowledge, or what I call inputs, five of outputs, called the organs of action—they are all separate from each other. But they are all supporter and supported. And we look upon them as one single whole body. And that is what makes us “I.”

So if we can look upon the entire creation as “I,” without any distinction, that is called seeing God in everything. That is the upāsanā—from this seventh anuvāka onwards, until the tenth anuvāka, we are going to see.

Consciousness and Instruments

So this example of dream and waking, and even in the dream state and waking state, both the consciousness becomes the supporter. Without consciousness, we cannot function. And the consciousness cannot manifest without these instruments of the body, as well as the mind. So without consciousness, we cannot experience anything.

So consciousness becomes the supporter, enjoyer, and the body-mind instruments become the supported. But if the body-mind does not exist, then the consciousness cannot manifest. And therefore, the body-mind becomes the supporter and the enjoyer, actually.

So this is the relationship.

The Four Upāsanas

So we will go through these upāsanas. There are particularly four upāsanas. We will go through them one by one.

What is the essence of what we discussed? That the whole universe is nothing but the experiencer and the experienced. Both are the manifestation of Īśvara or Virāṭ.

So the Upaniṣad takes certain pairs and tries to illustrate how both become experiencer, experienced, enjoyer, and enjoyed, completely dependent upon each other.

So with this background, let us discuss these points. So two points we have to keep in mind. One is enjoyer or experiencer, experienced. Second is supporter, supported. This is what it wants to tell us.

The Seventh Anuvāka: Never Criticise Food

So the seventh anuvāka starts here. So let him, a seeker of Brahma, never condemn food. That is the vow.

The prāṇa is verily food. The body is the eater of the food. The body rests on the prāṇa. The prāṇa rests on the body. Thus food rests on food.

He who knows this resting of food on food is established in the realisation of “I am Brahma.” He becomes a possessor of—such a person becomes a possessor of food and an enjoyer of food. He becomes great in offspring and cattle and in spiritual radiance, and he also acquires tremendous fame.

This is Karma Yoga

Now, before we go into the details, what I wanted to illustrate is that this is called Karma Yoga.

What is Karma Yoga? Performing our duties in accordance with our stage in life as well as to the type of personality we have. But discharging our duties with the proper attitude as a worship of God is called Dharma. That is called Karma Yoga.

So if a person performs Karma Yoga, and we have to remember what we are talking here. Swāmi Vivekānanda’s beautiful book on Karma Yoga illustrates certain important factors. So in the very beginning chapters itself, let us recall two beautiful stories.

The Story of the Ascetic and the Householder

One is an ascetic neglecting his duties. That means he is doing what he is not supposed to do and not doing what he is supposed to do. So he goes for begging, and then there was a house lady whose only Karma Yoga is to love her husband and look upon him as her God and serve him. And she had become very highly spiritually progressed. Beautiful illustration.

So when this Brahmin ascetic stands, then she says, “My child” (even though he may be more aged, we don’t know), “my son, everybody, every male is a son, every female is a daughter. Please wait a little. I am serving my husband. I will come.”

And then we know the story how she came to know his entire mental condition just through the practice of that Karma Yoga called looking upon her husband as God. And then the next stage, she advises him to go to another village and meet another person who happened to be belonging to the lowest caste, who was a hunter.

And as soon as this ascetic reluctantly went there, thinking, “What can a low caste person teach me?” (even Śaṅkarācārya had to learn that lesson), immediately that person recognised him. That means he understood—that means he had knowledge of what this person was. And then, “Please wait, sir, let me finish my duties.” And took this Brahmin ascetic home, made him sit and wait until he served his aged parents, and when they were comfortably laid to rest, then only he came back. And there is a beautiful discussion.

Karma Yoga for All

What is the point I am trying to tell you? Karma Yoga is not meant only for spiritual aspirants. It doesn’t mean that only for svāmīs, sannyāsīs, sannyāsinīs can live. Anybody who wants to progress in spiritual life in any stage of life—they may be students, they may be married people, whatever be the caste—“Svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya siddhiṃ vindati mānavaḥ.” Marvelous idea. That is what is being said here with day-to-day examples in this Bhṛguvalī.

So there are examples of so many devotees who have no formal education, but out of the Karma Yoga they had purified their mind, and they had tremendous grace of God. That is what is most important for us to understand.

So all these vratas belong to Karma Yoga, and to explain this, the Upaniṣad here takes food as an example, and as I mentioned, food means experience. We have to understand this.

Everything Can Be Enjoyer and Enjoyed

I am looking at something, but the most important thing is that what I am looking at is also a manifestation of Brahman, and that object I am looking at also, in its turn, can also become the enjoyer and enjoyed. Every living creature can become supporter and supported.

Especially we have to note one particular point: when we are talking about enjoyer and enjoyed, experiencer and experienced, we have to understand it as a living creature, and that living creature need not be human being. When a mosquito, for example, is trying to make us food, it is the enjoyer, and our body is the enjoyed. When we are eating something or drinking something, then we are the enjoyers, experiencers, and what we are drinking or eating becomes the enjoyed.

But the second type of relationship, supporter and supported, includes the non-living also. So, for example, many scientists consider the earth as non-living, and the river non-living, etc. Metals, stones, non-living, etc. Can we live without mountains? In fact, the Arctic areas—how much influence they have in bringing about proper seasons—only scientists have understood it. As I mentioned, it is called holistic attitude. Everything is also called the butterfly effect. Everything is dependent upon everything else.

The Madhu Kāṇḍa Concept

That is why the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad’s very first chapter is called Madhu Kāṇḍa or Upadeśa Kāṇḍa. Madhu means interdependence. Everything is dependent. Parents are dependent upon their children. How are they dependent? When a householder after marriage begets a child, how much joy both the parents get! Their whole lives are centred around that child. So the child not only enjoys the affection, the love, the support, the food supplied by the parents, but the parents also enjoy tremendously the child’s smile. When the child smiles, how much joy they get!

So, can we live without minerals? What is a mineral? Non-living. Can we live without stones? In fact, if we don’t have stones or wood, our sophisticated houses, etc., will not be there. Many things that we prepare out of stones, out of wood, out of other ornaments, out of gold—everything is supporter-supported relationship.

The Holistic Attitude

The whole creation in this sense of supporter and supported is a marvelous concept. If we can really understand, whatever supports us, that is God. Whatever is supported becomes a supporter. Whatever is supported becomes a supporter. Whatever supports also becomes supported.

So everything—whatever is supporting us—is a manifestation of God. Therefore, everything is a manifestation of God. That holistic attitude is what this Upaniṣad, especially this Bhṛguvalī, wants to tell us.

So what did Bhṛgu do? He went and first his father told him: from where has the whole creation come out, especially the living creatures? So find out from where did you come? From your parents. From where have your parents come? And then there will come a point when there would be one ultimate cause, and every other cause becomes a secondary cause. The primary cause, which does not have another cause, and which is eternal, unchanging, one without a second—it must take us to that. But logic will not help; thinking will not help. Only contemplation with the grace of God can help us.

Karma Yoga as Seeing God in Everything

So Karma Yoga means starting and looking upon everything as God. That is what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa said: “Śiva jñāne jīva sevā.” So jīva sevā does not stop at serving only the living beings, but the whole environment—not harming even a single plant, a single anything, living or non-living—just accepting whatever is necessary for survival, because we cannot survive without taking the life out of something. So if we can do that, then we can progress in spiritual life. That is the essence of what we are going to think now.

The First Vrata: Never Criticise Food

So what is this vratam? The first one is “Annam na nindhyāt.” Never criticise food. Not criticising food means simply “I sit and eat”? No. Look upon it: “Īśvaraḥ sarvabhūtānām.” Can I survive without anna? Impossible. So that which makes me alive, that is God. Many times I have also explained: without which we cannot survive, that is called God. So can we live without food? Not at all. Can we live without water? No. Can we live without warmth? No. Can we live without oxygen or air? No. Can we live without space? No. Therefore, all these are nothing but emanations, manifestations, or direct manifestations of Brahman only. But we have to start where we are standing. That is why he says: “Annam na nindhyāt.” Never ever criticise food.

What is “Brahmārpaṇam”? Trying to eat food as manifestation of Brahman. “Brahmārpaṇaṁ Brahma haviḥ Brahmāgnau.” Who is eating? Brahman. What is he eating? Brahman. And who is digesting it? Brahman. Who is converting the food into energy? Brahman. And what is the purpose? Brahman to enjoy Himself. “Tad vratam.” This is a great vow.

The Meaning of Vrata

Vrata means—you know, Hindus have got lots of vratas. Every other religion also has got vratas. Muslims, for example, when Ramaḍān comes, they take a vow: we will not eat from sunrise to sunset. So those who do sincerely, they definitely get the result. Christians take a vow: we go on a pilgrimage, and we want to go and touch the very embodiment of Saint Peter or other saints, etc. So these are all promises to God that “I want to complete this action.” That is vrata. It is always like Satyanārāyaṇa Vrata: “I will not stop doing this action until I complete it. I promise it to you.”

So every spiritual aspirant must look upon annam—let us take here as physical food—none in the earth? Why? “Prāṇava annam.” Because what does food do? When we eat food, what is food actually? Food is nothing but energy. This food is nothing but conversion of the sun’s energy into eatable format. Plants have the ability to convert this sunlight into energy directly. But the same thing we have to do indirectly by eating the plants, by eating the plant-eaters. That is our food, whether it is rice or meat, etc. So what does it become? Prāṇa, energy. That energy anna, because “Prāṇava annam.” Annam is nothing but prāṇa. Prāṇa is nothing but annam.

The Body and Prāṇa

So “Śarīram annādam.” This body becomes eater of food. Prāṇa becomes the eaten. “Prāṇe śarīraṃ pratiṣṭhitam. Śarīre prāṇaḥ pratiṣṭhitaḥ.” Let us take these two; very simple to understand.

Never criticise food because food is nothing but an indirect format of prāṇa. So “Prāṇava annam.” So prāṇa, when we digest food, what does it become? Prāṇa. What is prāṇa? Vital force, energy. And then “Śarīram annādam.” Annādam means eater; annam means eaten, experienced. So this body cannot sustain without energy, which is called prāṇa.

So what do we do? We eat the food. What happens? That is digested, and what is digestion? Converting food into prāṇa. And because of prāṇa, and remember, the whole body consisting of five sense organs of knowledge and sense organs of action—they are our whole life. So this energy brings the body alive, makes every sense organ active. We can see, we can hear, etc., and we can walk, we can grasp, etc. So energy is needed.

Inseparable Relationship

Now, what is the relationship? So prāṇa only—a prāṇī, a person, a creature alive—that can eat annam. So prāṇa becomes annam. Śarīram becomes annādam, the eater, the enjoyer. Because who eats? It is the body that eats, and then it converts it into prāṇa, and that prāṇa is necessary to keep this body alive.

So “Prāṇe śarīraṃ pratiṣṭhitam.” So śarīram, this body, pratiṣṭhitam—that is the supporter. Because the body eats the food, so it converts the food into prāṇa. Therefore, the prāṇa, as it were, is supported inside the body. Because of this act of eating, the body becomes the eater.

“Śarīre prāṇaḥ pratiṣṭhitaḥ.” So the prāṇa becomes supported within this body. But at the same time, how are we able to gather food? Because of prāṇa, and prāṇa helps us by energising. I can walk, I can cultivate, and without energy I cannot do anything. Even breathing is necessary to digest the food. So prāṇa helps the body, and the body helps the prāṇa. They have an inseparable relationship.

So one is the enjoyer, another is the enjoyed. And in its turn, in this case the body is the enjoyer, prāṇa is the enjoyed. From another angle, prāṇa is the enjoyer, this body is the enjoyed. They cannot be separated.

The Upaniṣad’s Teaching

So what does the Upaniṣad want to tell? That whenever you look at any food—a gross example: rice, chapati, bread, vegetables, or non-vegetarian food, whatever it is—don’t think “I am the only exclusive enjoyer and this is all the enjoyed.” No. Everything becomes enjoyer and enjoyed. Everything becomes the supporter and the supported.

“Śarīre prāṇa pratiṣṭhitā. Tat etat annam anne pratiṣṭhitam.” Both are inseparably supporter and supported. They remain there. And one who understands, not separating the enjoyer from the enjoyed, always looking upon both the enjoyer and the enjoyed, the supporter and the supported, as one and the same Brahman which is playing both roles of the enjoyer and the enjoyed, experiencer and the experienced, supporter and the supported—that person understands.

When this vision becomes holistic, then he becomes a holy man. Holistic attitude is the main characteristic of a holy person. He looks upon everything as what? You can call it as Brahman, as God, as holy. Everything living, non-living—there is no difference at all.

Science Supports This View

This concept, by the way, David Attenborough was famous for his “The New Earth” etc. films which the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has so beautifully brought out. He said everything has this relationship of supporter and supported. Nothing is wasted. And he showed it so clearly how even the leaves that fall in the inter-season from the tree become the very fertiliser, and when they get rotten, they breed lots of things, and they in turn support the plants. Everything is supporter, everything is supported. Even a little bit of understanding science can prove it definitely.

The Result of This Vision

So what happens if anybody sees this inseparable relationship between the eater and the eaten, or experiencer and the experienced, the supporter and the supported? Everything is the supporter, everything is the supported, everything is the enjoyer, everything is the enjoyed. He becomes firmly established in God, and then he is endowed with plenty of food, and he also becomes an enjoyer of food.

So the commentators, especially Śaṅkarācārya, tell that such a person becomes not only a possessor of food or enjoyable things, but also possesses the ability to enjoy to the last degree. That means such a person hundred percent becomes so hungry. Only who can enjoy food? Only a person who is very hungry. Of course, in a general way we can extend this meaning to everything that is enjoyed, whether it is a house, dress, a car, an aeroplane, or a drama, or a piece of music. Everybody, everything is mutually related. That is called Madhu, the sweetest relationship: Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, Lakṣmī Nārāyaṇa, Rāma Sītā.

“Annavān annādaḥ.” Annavān means possessing in plenty—whatever is necessary is provided by this very attitude. Who supports this? Only God can give that. And not only that, he becomes the enjoyer. Everything becomes a venue of tremendous joy for the person who develops this holistic attitude, holy attitude, that everything is God.

For Devotees and Householders

We are devotees; we are supposed to do this. Whenever we offer something to God, that is what we are supposed to do. This is prasāda.

Such a person, if he is a householder, will be endowed with great children or grand disciples—very capable, intelligent, receptive disciples. And then whatever is necessary in those days—the wealth is cattle, etc.—he will be getting plenty of cattle. Not only that, “Brahmavarcasa śrīvarcasa.” There will be tremendous light. This person will be endowed with light. That is why whenever we see pictures or these things, there will be a light halo painted at the background to show that one who can get this brahmavarcas—light of Brahma—only those who have got the knowledge of Brahma. And such a person will be known as a great person, not of course by everybody, but most people will know about it.

So if you read some of the Sufi masters, then you can see how much they have been tortured, killed, burnt, beaten. Even Lord Jesus Christ, how much he had to go through this crucifixion—what a pain! But some people may think that these are undesirable people, but in course of time their name and fame goes on increasing.

Conclusion: Start with Food

So let us start our spiritual life with sacralising, sanctifying, looking upon everything, especially starting with food. That’s why Brahma Arpana we do before taking food. But it should not stop with looking only upon food. Everything that way: this body is also food, our possessions are also food, our very life is food. This world is nothing but manifestation of Brahman. Everything that we experience is food. Every food is nothing but manifestation of Brahman. And this is the relationship between us and the whole world.

This is called Virāṭ Upāsanā. One who succeeds in it—and Bhṛgu succeeded in it—then he came and then he reported “Annam brahmeti vyajānāt.” But he did not stop there. So then prāṇa is also Brahman, prāṇa Brahman. Then mind also is Brahman, mano Brahman. Intelligence or consciousness or egotism is also Brahman.

The Mistake of Egotism

We mistakenly think our egotism is my own personality, but no. It is nothing but Brahman. God implanted that idea “I.” We have seen that in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka. That’s why the first thing is “Aham.” So he understood “I,” and thereafter only everything is added: “I am so and so,” etc.

So such a person will be endowed with knowledge of Brahman and mahān kīrtiḥ—great people. As I was mentioning the Sufi saints, that means now his own relatives, his own people thought he was the greatest enemy. And not only enemy, but some of them even thought he was genuinely mistaken about true religion, Judaism. So “We should not keep a person who misunderstands our religion and preaches that religion actively to other people. It is a danger.”

Misunderstanding of Saints

It would be a mistake to consider that the people who were the very cause of Jesus’ crucifixion were all selfish people. They are selfish people, but some of them genuinely, genuinely believed that he was the greatest mistaken person and that whatever he teaches is inimical to what God wants us to understand and practise.

So that is how saints are misunderstood. Saints are killed. Of course, sometimes because these saints come as obstructors to our own glory, etc., they also openly, fearlessly criticise our faults, our misunderstandings, which in our blindness we cannot tolerate.

Summary of the Seventh Anuvāka

Anyway, the essence of this seventh anuvāka is: first, whatever you see, it is nothing but manifestation of God and manifestation of Brahman. And this manifestation of Brahman comes in two forms—both are one and the same. One is the enjoyer–enjoyed; another is the supporter–supported. If we understand this one, then there are some more examples that are going to be followed, and there we can extend the same idea to those things also.

Closing Prayer

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

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!