The Chhandogya Upanishad - CH-2, SEC-8, POST-3. Swami Krishnananda.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, March 22, 2021. 11:29. AM.
Chapter Two: Uddalaka's Teaching Concerning the Oneness of the Self
SECTION 8: CONCERNING SLEEP, HUNGER, THIRST AND DYING
POST-3.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Tasya kva mulam syad anyatrannat, evam evakhalu saumya annena sungenapo mulam anviccha adbhih saumya sungena tejo mulam anvichha, tejasa saumya sungena san mulam anvichha, san mulah saumya imah sarvah prajah sad-ayatanah, satpratisthah.".

"Atha yatraitat purushah pipasati nama teja eva tat pitam nayate, tad-yatha gonayo-asvanayah purushanaya ityevam tat-teja achashta udanyeti tatraitad-eva sungam utpatitam saumya vijanihi nedam amulam bhavishyati iti."

"This absorption of the food into the water element inside your body is an indication that some subtle force is working in you, other than the mere working of the alimentary canal in your physical body. There are subtler forces. So from the effect you go to the cause," says the teacher. "If the food is dissolved by water and drawn further inward by the action of water and due to it you feel hungry, even so you feel thirsty for another reason. The water is absorbed or dried up by the fire principle in your system. The fire draws into itself the water principle and then you begin to feel thirsty. The water principle goes into the fire principle. So, finally what remains is a heat in the system and energy that is generated on account of the food that you eat. So what is the heat? It is the heat of fire—in other words, the energy that you acquire due to the consumption of food. When food is dissolved by water, and water is absorbed by fire, it is converted into energy in the system. That is why you feel strong when you take food, and that is also the reason why you feel hungry and thirsty later on."

By way of the analysis of the constituents of the individual, it has thus been pointed out by Uddalaka, the sage, that everything in this personality is made up of the essence of the three elements—fire, water and earth. And what we call hunger is nothing but the dissolution of the physical food by the element of water and the absorption of it into the system. What you call thirst is similarly the absorption of the water element in the system by the fire principle within us. The effect is consumed by the cause and is absorbed into its own self. This process continues until all effects are absorbed into the final cause of all things, where they abide absolutely and completely.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Tasya kva mulam syad anyatra adbhyah, adbhih, saumya, sungena tejo mulam anviccha, tejasa, saumya sungena sanmulam anviccha san mulah saumya imah sarvah prajah sadayatanah, satpratishtha yatha nu khalu, saumya imas-tisro devatah purusam prapya trivrt-trivrdekaika bhavati, tad-uktam purastad-eva bhavati, asya saumya purusasya prayato vang manasi sampadyate, manah prane pranas-tejasi, tejah parasyam devatayam."

What is the ultimate cause? The cause ultimate can only be that which is not absorbed into a higher cause. The absorption process ceases when the ultimate cause is reached. The grosser forms get absorbed into the subtler ones, and the subtler ones reach the causal state, the so-called ultimate cause from the empirical point of view. This ultimate cause dissolves in the Absolute. There, everything comes to a cessation. The individuality gets dissolved, as it were. It gets tuned up to the ultimate Reality. So, there is an absorption of the grosser element of the earth into the water element, the water element into the fire element and the fire element into the ultimate Reality which is called Sat, pure Being. It is the origin of all things from which the multiplicity appears to proceed through the instrumentality of this triplicated structure of the universe, the constituents of which are fire, water and earth. Everything, ultimately, is rooted in Being. This is what Uddalaka makes out.

To be continued ....

=========================================================================