"A Discussion between Father and Son"-19.

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1. Why are you hungry, and why are you thirsty?


2. This, again, is the action of the three elements in your body. We said there are three primordial features of reality manifest as fire, water and earth. They are functioning in the body in some way. Because of the action of these three elements in the body, you are hungry and thirsty. What is this hunger, and what is this thirst?

 

3. “Now, my dear boy, listen to me again. I shall explain what is hunger and what is thirst.” You go on pouring food, gross items, articles of diet into your stomach, but, even then, you are hungry after some time. Why?

 

4. The water element liquefies the physical food, draws the essence of it inward, and exhausts the contents of the food that you have taken. So you feel hungry again, in spite of your having eaten food. The water principle draws the gross food into itself. Food dissolves in the water principle and, then, naturally, the food is exhausted and so you feel the need for it again.

 

5. This is how there is hunger. In Sanskrit, asanaya is 'hunger'. Why do you call hunger as asanaya? Because, water carries (naya) food (asa) and causes hunger (asanaya). A person who leads cows is called gonaya, one who drives horses is called asvanaya, he who is a leader of men is called purusanaya.


6.  Like that, water is called asanaya, because it leads food to its proper place. From the body which is the effect, try to know its source, which is water. There is no effect without a cause.

 

 

Chandogya Upanishad: Chapter-2, Section-8, Mantram-3.


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