Dr KK Aggarwal
As per Chandogya
Upanishad, liquid in the food makes urine, blood and Prana; solid food makes
stool, muscles and manas; fatty foods make bone, bone marrow and karmendriyas
(elimination, procreation, movement, grasping and speech).
Manas in Upanishad
means Jnanindriyas (smell, taste, seeing, touch and hearing) along with mind,
intellect, ego and chitta or pure intelligence (Fourfold mind or antahkarana
chatushtaya).
Ahamkara is derived
from the earth tanmatras; Chitta consciousness from jala tanmatra; buddhi
discriminative mind from agni tanmatra; manas finite mind from
vayu tanmatras and heart from akasha tanmatra.
The Upanishad says
that a person can stay without solid food only for 16 days on liquids.
There is a saying in
modern medicine that a person can stay without air for 3 minutes, without water
for 3 days and without food for 3 weeks.
The symptoms of
hypoglycemia will start once the food is not taken. The symptoms are mainly in
the mental functions and sensory organs.
Once a person is in
food starvation, even a small amount of food will take care of the mental
symptoms.
Let us read the
dialogue between Svetaketu with his father Udlaka in Chandogya Upanishad.
Chapter 6.7
6.7.1: षोडशकलः सोम्य पुरुषः पञ्चदशाहानि माशीः काममपः पिबापोमयः प्राणो नपिबतो विच्छेत्स्यत इति:
ṣoḍaśakalaḥ somya puruṣaḥ pañcadaśāhāni māśīḥ kāmamapaḥ pibāpomayaḥ
prāṇo napibato vicchetsyata iti||
O Somya, a person has
sixteen parts, [and all your sixteen parts are intact]. Do not eat anything for
fifteen days, but drink as much water as you like. Life is dependent on water.
If you do not drink water, you will lose your life.
The mind consists of
food, the prana consists of water and speech consists of fire.
6.7.2: स ह पञ्चदशाहानि नशाथ हैनमुपससाद किं ब्रवीमि भो इत्यृचः सोम्य यजूंषि सामानीति स होवाच न वै मा प्रतिभान्ति भो इति:
sa ha pañcadaśāhāni
naśātha hainamupasasāda kiṃ bravīmi bho ityṛcaḥ somya yajūṃṣi sāmānīti sa
hovāca na vai mā pratibhānti bho iti||
Śvetaketu did not
eat anything for 15 days. After that he came to his father and said, ‘O Father,
what shall I recite?’ His father said, ‘Recite the Ṛk, Yajuḥ,
and Sāma mantras.’ Śvetaketu replied, ‘I can’t recall any of them,
sir’.
6.7.3: तं होवाच यथा सोम्य महतोऽभ्या हितस्यैकोऽङ्गारः खद्योतमात्रः परिशिष्टः स्यात्तेन ततोऽपि न बहु दहेदेवंसोम्य ते षोडशानां कलानामेका कलातिशिष्टा स्यात्तयैतर्हिवेदान्नानुभवस्यशानाथ मे विज्ञास्यसीति:
taṃ hovāca yathā somya
mahato'bhyā hitasyaiko'ṅgāraḥ khadyotamātraḥ pariśiṣṭaḥ syāttena tato'pi na
bahu dahedevaṃsomya te ṣoḍaśānāṃ kalānāmekā kalātiśiṣṭā syāttayaitarhi
vedānnānubhavasyaśānātha me vijñāsyasīti ||
The father said
to Śvetaketu: ‘O Somya, from a blazing fire, if there is but a small piece
of ember left, the size of a firefly, it cannot bum anything bigger than that.
Similarly, O Somya, because only one small part of your 16 parts remains, you
cannot remember the Vedas. Eat something and then you will understand what
I am saying’.
6.7.4: स हशाथ हैनमुपससाद तं ह यत्किंच पप्रच्छ सर्वंह प्रतिपेदे ॥
sa haśātha
hainamupasasāda taṃ ha yatkiṃca papraccha sarvaṃha pratipede ||
Śvetaketu ate
something and then went to his father. Whatever his father asked him, he was
able to follow.
6.7.5: तं होवाच यथा सोम्य महतोऽभ्याहितस्यैकमङ्गारं खद्योतमात्रं परिशिष्टं तं तृणैरुपसमाधाय प्राज्वलयेत्तेन ततोऽपि बहु दहेत् ॥
taṃ hovāca yathā somya
mahato'bhyāhitasyaikamaṅgāraṃ khadyotamātraṃ pariśiṣṭaṃ taṃ tṛṇairupasamādhāya
prājvalayettena tato'pi bahu dahet ||
The father said to
him: ‘O Somya, from a blazing fire, if there is but a small piece of ember
left, the size of a firefly, the fire can again blaze up when you add some
grass. The fire, in fact, can then blaze up even more than it did before’.
6.7.6: एवं सोम्य ते षोडशानां कलानामेका कलातिशिष्टाभूत्सान्नेनोपसमाहिता प्राज्वाली तयैतर्हि वेदाननुभवस्यन्नमयंहि सोम्य मन आपोमयः प्राणस्तेजोमयी वागिति तद्धास्य विजज्ञाविति विजज्ञाविति ॥
evaṃ somya te
ṣoḍaśānāṃ kalānāmekā kalātiśiṣṭābhūtsānnenopasamāhitā prājvālī tayaitarhi
vedānanubhavasyannamayaṃhi somya mana āpomayaḥ prāṇastejomayī vāgiti taddhāsya
vijajñāviti vijajñāviti ||
‘In the same way, O
Somya, of your sixteen parts, only one remained. But that, when nourished by
food, has revived, and by that you are now able to follow the Vedas. O
Somya, this is why I said that the mind was nourished by
food, prāṇa was nourished by water, and speech was nourished by
fire.’ Śvetaketu now understood what his father was saying.
The 16
kalas are mentioned in the Prashna Upanishad 6.4.
स प्राणमसृजत प्राणाच्छ्रद्धां खं वायुर्ज्योतिरापः पृथिवीन्द्रियं मनः अन्नमन्नाद्वीर्यं तपो मन्त्राः कर्मलोका लोकेषु च नाम च ॥ ४ ॥
sa
prāṇamasṛjata prāṇācchraddhāṃ khaṃ vāyurjyotirāpaḥ pṛthivīndriyaṃ manaḥ
annamannādvīryaṃ tapo mantrāḥ karmalokā lokeṣu ca nāma ca ||
He
created Prâna; from Prâna faith, âkâsa,
air, fire, water, earth, senses, mind and food; and from food,
strength, contemplation, mantrâs, karma and worlds; and in
worlds name also.
1. Prana or the life force
2. Faith or Shraddha
3- 7. The
Five Elements: Space, Air, Fire, Water and Earth.
8. The Senses: The organs of knowledge and the organs of
action.
9. Mind, the Antahkarana or thought process
10. Food –
that which sustains the gross body or the “Food-sheath”.
11.
Veerya, or strength, mental and physical
12. Tapas
or austerity
13. Mantra
14. Karma,
the performance of actions
15. The
World, the manifested world provides the field and the means to fulfill the
actions undertaken.
16. The
Naming of all the different items in creation.
See related link
Mera Bharat Mahan 1:
May you live for 100 years...
Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
President Elect Confederation of
Medical Associations in Asia and Oceania (CMAAO)
Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications
President Heart Care Foundation of
India
Past National President
IMA
