Chandogya Upaishad : Chapter-2, Section-7-1. Swami Krishnananda

 

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Friday, February 12, 2021. 11:45. AM.
Chandogya Upaishad
Chapter Two : Uddalaka's Teaching Concerning the Oneness of the Self - 5.
SECTION 7: IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL NEEDS-1.

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Shodasa-kalah saumya purusah pancadaoahani ma-sih kamam apah piba, apomayah prano na pibato vicchetsyata iti.

"There are sixteen digits of the mind, of our whole personality. Our being is sixteenfold. I shall perform an experiment with you to prove how the mind cannot exist without food. Do not eat for fifteen days. Do not take any solid diet during these days. You may drink water, however. Why? Because, of the fact that the pranas are constituted of water. Thus, if you drink water, the pranas will not be cut off from the body. If you do not drink even water, you will not be there to undergo the experiment; the pranas would leave the body. So I tell you, drink water as much as you want, but do not eat food for fifteen days. You know very well, I told you just now, that the prana is formed of the water element. Hence, a person who drinks water cannot die so easily."

Sa ha pancadacahani na'sa atha hainam upasasada, kim bravimi bho iti, roah, saumya yajumsi samaniti; sa hovaca, na vai ma pratibhanti bho iti.

The boy did not eat for fifteen days, as advised. He fasted completely, but drank water to his heart's content. Then he came to the father, after having fasted for fifteen days. "Now what shall I tell you, father? I have come to you after fifteen days of fasting. I have not eaten anything." "Oh! Chant the Veda," the father said. "Chant the Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samavada." "I cannot remember anything," said the boy. "I cannot remember even one verse of the Rigveda, or the Yajurveda, or the Samaveda. Memory has gone. The mind is not functioning."

Tam hovaca, yatha saumya mahato'bhyahitasyaiko' ngarah khadyota-mantrah parisishtah syat, tena tato' pi na bahu dahet, evam saumya, te sodasanam kalanam eka kala'tisista syat tayaitarhi vedan nahubhavasi, asana atha me vijnasyasiti.

"Now, do you know what has happened to you, my dear boy? Do you know why you cannot remember the Vedas, though you are a learned person? You are a master of the Vedas, and you say you cannot remember one verse. What has happened to you? You have not eaten food. That is all. This is the simple reason. How is it that your memory has gone merely because you have not eaten? Take the example of fire. Suppose there is a huge conflagration of fire which is burning strongly and it has now subsided and you have removed all the firewood, or the faggots. The fuel has been withdrawn and the fire is subsiding gradually. There is only one small spark left. What can that spark do? It cannot burn things. The conflagration can burn anything which is thrown into it, but the spark cannot so burn. Now, the fire is there, but it is so little quantitatively and so feeble in its action that it cannot do the work of fire though it is qualitatively fire alone. This is what happened to you. Fifteen parts of your mind have been withdrawn. You are sixteenfold, as I told you. For fifteen days you have not eaten. So, only one part of your mind is now active. Of the sixteen parts, one part is there. Perhaps if you had not eaten for sixteen days, something worse would have happened. For fifteen days you have not eaten, and so fifteen parts of the mind have been withdrawn, even as fuel is withdrawn from a fire. The mind is there only in name. You are able to think, but not effectively, and not to any purpose, just as the fire is there as a spark but it cannot do the work of fire. This is what happened to you by not eating food. Therefore, you cannot chant the Veda. The mind is not working; how can you remember anything? The Vedas have gone from your mind. Now, my dear boy, go and eat. Then you will understand something more about this secret." The boy then went and had a meal. He ate well, indeed, because he had not eaten for fifteen days. After eating a square meal, and having rested, he comes back to the father. The boy is happy.

To be continued ...

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