Pranam
A wonderful thinking since the 1970s in media I am seeing passed on into
FB, WA especially from North India. However a n anmeekavadhi asking few
questions may be around 80-90s I do not remember the personalities seen in
the media bit recollect the contents as:
Food; what is food?; eatable?; sevikku unavu ilada pozhdu ....
Tiruvalluvar marks as Food the knowledge we hear; so food for thought is
also branded as one such; and SIVANANDA HAD WRITTEN A TREATISE AS UNDER FOR
THE INTERESTED TO GO THROUGH TO dhi=UNDERSTAND:
"*Food As Matter: Its Philosophy*
The Upanishads mean by 'food' that which is experienced by consciousness,
either directly by itself or indirectly through certain organs. An object
that is presented to a conscious subject is the food of that conscious
subject. That which supports or maintains, or preserves a thing is the food
of that thing. In short, food is that which feeds and sustains
individuality. Hence, in the Upanishads, food is identified with matter.
The Maitrayani Upanishad says:
The conscious person exists in the midst of matter. He is the enjoyer
because he enjoys the food of matter (Prakriti). Even this individual soul
is food for him; its producer is matter. Hence, what is to be enjoyed has
three attributes (Gunas). The enjoyer is the person who exists in the midst
of matter. Matter is that which is to be enjoyed. Pleasure, pain, delusion,
everything is food. There is no knowledge of the essence (i.e., quality) of
the source (matter), when it is not manifest. The manifest is food, and the
unmanifest also is food (VI. 10).
It is also further said that the intellect and the other organs are
manifested only to enable the consious subject to experience food or
matter. Food is experienced as an object when it is manifest and as
ignorance when it is unmanifest. Food has qualities, but the enjoyer of the
food has no qualities. The fact that he is able to enjoy shows that he is
consciousness in nature (VI. 10). The eater of the food is consciousness;
the eaten is the matter which is the substance of all kinds of food or
objects of experience.
The fact that food is any extraneous experience is brought out by the same
Upanishad: Verily, all beings fly forward day by day with a desire to
obtain food. The sun takes food for himself through his rays. Fire blazes
up with food. This world was created by Brahma with a desire for food (VI.
12).
But it should not be thought that food is something quite different from
the experiencer, or that matter is absolutely foreign to Spirit. Food is
identical with the experiencer. Matter is only a phase of the Spirit. Food
is only a manifestation of the Atman. One should adore food as the Atman
(Maitra. Up. VI. 12). It is eaten and it eats all things (Taitt. Up. II.
2). I am food; I am the eater of food; I, who am food eat the eater of food
(Taitt Up. III. 10).
But, the form of food is not the same as the Atman, though its essence is
identical with the Atman. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says, Some say that
food is Brahman. This is not correct. For, food rots without life (within)
(V. 12). Hence, food which is eaten is not, literally, Brahman. Only the
ultimate essence of food is Brahman.
The Prasna Upanishad describes the creation of Food and Life (Rayi and
Prana) as two aspects of the One Creator Prajapati. The whole Universe is
the effect of the interaction of food and life, or matter and energy, which
are respectively food and the eater of food. Life or Prana is the same as
energy. Food is converted into energy, and hence, energy eats food. Prana
is the eater of food.
Sun is energy and Moon is matter or food. All this is merely food, whatever
seen or not seen, (Prasna. Up. 1. 5). Here the sun is compared to the eater
of food which is moon. Moon is controlled and enlivened by the light and
energy of the sun. Hence sun is the eater of the moon in the form of food.
The whole universe is only a manifestation of matter or food in the form of
its eater which is energy. Matter and energy are different only
figuratively, in their forms and their functions. The truth is that they
are the gross and the subtle aspects of Prajapati. Wherever is energy,
there is matter, and vice versa. Matter or food has form and energy or the
eater of food has no form. Accordingly, Time, as controlled by the sun and
as manifest in the forms of Uttarayana and Dakshinayana, Sukla-Paksha and
Krishna-Paksha, day and night, is described as constituting food and the
eater of food respectively, the bright half being the effect of sun's light
and the dark half the effect of moon or matter or food.
Further, the Prasna Upanishad says that the sun as the centre of life and
energy, i.e., as the eater of food, energises the whole world whenever he
pervades it with his rays. The importance of sun's light and heat lies in
that these are the life-givers or the feeders of all beings who are
confined in matter or food. Food will not grow and beings cannot live
without their father who is the life-giving sun. In this Upanishad it is
shown that there is no such thing as birth and death except only a
formation or a manifestation of the universal food and the universal eater
of food, which, too, are not actually two, but simply appearance of the One
Creator.
*Food and Drink: Their Assimilation and Function*
The Chhandogya Upanishad describes the process of the assimilation of food
and drink.
Food which is eaten, gets divided into three parts. That which is its
coarsest part becomes faeces. That which is medium, the flesh; that which
is finest the mind.
Water, which is drunk, gets divided into three parts. That which is its
coarsest part becomes urine; that which is medium, the blood; that which is
finest, the breath.
Fire which is eaten, gets divided into three parts. That which is its
coarsest part becomes bone; that which is medium the marrow; that which is
finest, the voice.
The mind consists of food; the breath consists of water, the voice consists
of heat.
It is also said that hunger is absorption of food that is eaten by water;
thirst is drying up of water that is drunk through heat; death is the
extinction of the heat within in the Highest Divinity. Food is like fuel to
the fire or heat in the body. When food is not eaten, the mind loses its
strength and the fire in the body is extinguished. When water is not drunk,
Prana which is the essence of water passes out of the body.
That the mind is influenced by the food that is eaten is mentioned in
another place in the Chhandogya Upanishad: In purity of food there is
purity of mind; in purity of mind there is established memory; in
established memory there results the release from all the knots of the
heart, (VII. 26). After a fast for fifteen days, Svetaketu lost his memory
and could not recite the Vedas. But, when, afterwards, he ate food, he
regained his memory and recited the Vedas. If one does not eat for ten
days, even though he might live, he becomes a non-seer, a non-hearer, a
non-thinker, a non-doer, a non-understander. But on eating food, he becomes
a seer, a hearer, a thinker, a doer, an understander. Adore food! (Chh. Up.
VII. 9). This shows to what extent the mind is influenced by the food which
is eaten. A person thinks through the mental nature which he consists of,
and this nature is fed by food. Hence, the food that is eaten should always
be Sattvic, for, Verily, this person consists of the essence of food
(Taitt. Up. II. 1).
*Eating is a Sacrifice*
Food should not be eaten with passion or avidity. Food is called a medicine
for life, a remedy for the pains of physical life. It is the Conscious
Divine Being within, the real eater of food, that is offered the oblation
of food. It is the Agnihotra sacrifice offered to the Atman in the Prana,
in the form of Rayi or food. The Maitrayani Upanishad says that both the
mind and the food to be eaten should be purified before eating food. The
eater of the food should be conscious that the Universal Atman is the real
eater of food and, therefore, the food should be offered to this Atman with
certain Mantras which are meant to convey the meaning of this sacrifice or
internal Dravya-Yajna. The Vaisvanara or Virat is the real giver of life to
all and He is the real eater of all foods. This Vaisvanara Agni is the Fire
that digests food. This fire which is within and which digests the food
that is eaten is Vaisvanara (the universal living fire) (Brih. Up. V. 9).
It is not the inert element fire but the divine power of Virat in the form
of universal living fire that digests food. This fire is called Vaisvanara.
Ultimately it is the Atman that is responsible for eating food as well as
digesting and assimilating food. Hence, before eating, the Pranas, the mind
and the Atman are worshipped and offered the food which is consecrated. The
Maitrayani Upanishad says that one should meditate on the Atman before and
after eating food. the meaning is that one should not eat food at the cost
of the Atman, i.e., one should not forget the Atman in the process of
eating. He who eats with these rules does not again take birth in the
material body, (Maitra. Up. VI. 9).
Food is the form of the all-sustaining Vishnu. Energy is the essence of
food. Mind is the essence of energy. Knowledge is the essence of mind.
Bliss is the essence of Knowledge, (Maitra. Up. VI. 13). The Upanishads
exalt the process of eating food to divine worship, because the food and
the eater of food are forms of Divinity. There it is said, One should not
insult food. That is the rule. One should not despise food. That is the
rule (Taitt. Up. III. 7. 8).
Even external sacrifice in which food is offered as an oblation becomes the
source of the life of all beings. The offering properly given in sacrifice,
rises up to the sun. Through the sun rain is produced. From rain food is
caused. by food, all creatures live (Maitra. Up. VI. 37).
The Arunika Upanishad says that food should be eaten as a medicine. From
food, verily, all creatures are produced. by food, in fact, they live. Into
it also they finally enter. Therefore, it (food) is called a medicine
(Taitt. Up. II. 2).
Food is eaten only to maintain life and not for the sake of enjoyment.
Hence one should eat only the minimum quantity of food as a medicine for
life and not to satisfy the passion. Food is called 'Anna' because it is
eaten (Adyate) by all beings and it eats (Atti) all things in the form of
Prana the eater of food (Taitt. Up. III. 7).
*Charity of Food*
A giver of food prospers. Food should be offered even to uninvited guests
with devotion. One should not refuse anyone (food) in one's house. That is
the rule (Taitt. Up. III. 10). This is the principle of Atithi-Yajna.
*Brahman as Food*
The highest form of obtaining food is meditation on and realisation of
Brahman. They obtain all food who worship Brahman as food (Taitt. Up. II.
2). He who worships food as Brahman attains regions of food and drink (Chh.
Up. VII. 9). Hunger is permanently appeased and thirst is quenched for
ever, when Brahman, the Goal of all desires and aspirations, the real Food
for spiritual hunger, is realised. The realised sage exclaims, I am the
food! I am the food! I am the food! I am the eater of food! I am the eater
of food! I am the eater of food! I, who am food, eat the eater of food! I
am the whole universe! (Taitt. Up. III. 10)."
HENCE food eats the food and so prasadams are eaten by maha
prasadam. Thus Bhakthi of the Bhakthi yoga preached in BG like alone turns
a prasadam or else it is sold as a commercial article under that name.
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Again Vedas are clear in that fasting is controlling the desire to eat by
mind action and hence one who is starving is not a bhakthiman and it is
said that no pujas need be conducted straining the body including hunger.
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Bhakthi is NA MAMA ; NISHKAMYA; Kamya bhakthi conducted by so many is A
KIND OF DEVOTION not centering on the deity. At first the devotee starts as
‘I am the servant.’ The next stage of devotion is when he says and feels
‘He is mine.’ Lastly comes the stage, ‘I am He, Thou art myself,’ when the
devotee is in a state of perfect union and oneness with the Beloved. In
that state of devotion, the devotee, on account of oneness, feels that what
he sees, hears, etc, is Vasudeva.
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With Bhakti Yoga, the path of devotion … we find that no attempt is made to
rid ourself of the ego at the very beginning. There are two egos, which Sri
Ramakrishna called the unripe ego and the ripe ego. The unripe ego is that
which denotes selfishness — that sense of ‘me and mine’, and of this ego we
must rid ourselves; the ripe ego is that which unites itself with God; ‘I
am a child of God, I belong to God’, and so forth. This ripe ego ultimately
leads to egolessness. The word bhakti is derived from the verbal root bhaj,
which means ‘to serve’. But this signification does not amply reflect the
connotative depth of the term. In its profoundest sense, bhaj means to
immerse oneself in the reflection of the Ultimate. Thus its source may be
traced back to the Upanishads. Among things conducive to liberation,
devotion alone holds the supreme place; (and) the search for one’s real
nature is designated as devotion. *(Vivekachudamani, 31). Hence that kind
of bhakthi changes the objects as quoted above or else it is believed to be
so. KR IRS 6722*
On Wed, 6 Jul 2022 at 09:31, 'N Sekar' via iyer123 <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Very beautiful msg
>
> 1. When BHAKTI enters FOOD,
> FOOD becomes PRASAD,
>
> 2. When BHAKTI enters HUNGER,
> HUNGER becomes a FAST,
>
> 3. When BHAKTI enters WATER,
> WATER becomes THEERTHAM
>
> 4. When BHAKTI enters TRAVEL,
> TRAVEL becomes a PILGRIMAGE,
>
> 5. When BHAKTI enters MUSIC,
> MUSIC becomes KIRTAN,
>
> 6. When BHAKTI enters a HOUSE,
> HOUSE becomes a TEMPLE,
>
> 7 When BHAKTI enters ACTIONS,
> ACTIONS become SERVICES,
>
> 8 . When BHAKTI enters in WORK,
> WORK becomes KARMA,
>
> AND
>
> 9 When BHAKTI enters a MAN,
> MAN becomes HUMAN..
>
> 🙏💐
>
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>
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