EXTRACTS FROM THE TEACHINGS

VISHNU PURANA

CHAPTER 12

Dhruva Praising the Lord 1

Instantaneously the boy became tranquil and began to praise the Lord who is the refuge of all beings, saying:

"Earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, will, the base background of creation and the base of the basic nature, are all your manifestations. I bow to your light. The pure, the subtle and the all-pervading One, who is beyond the primordial background of creation, is all your manifestation. I bow to you, the person in all personalities and the person of all existences. In you the qualities stand manifest and you eat away all qualities into your presence. You are beyond the manifestation of the five states of matter, the five qualities, the creative will, the personality and the basic nature of all. You are the I AM of all. I pray to Thee as the ever-expanding principle unto eternity. O Lord of all Lords, king of everything that exists, I pray to Thee. I take refuge in your form which is beyond every form. By your expanse, magnificence and effulgence you are praised as Brahma by the learned. You can be felt only through yogic perception and stand unchanged as the infilling one of all that changes.

I see you as the One Lord with thousands of heads, eyes, feet and hands, since you pervade all those. As you touch the ground you stand by ten digits. Past and future find their present in you. From you comes the Creator, the self-born and the omni-born. Hence you are the Lord of all Lords. You have surpassed all dimensions, since you manifest as the above, the below, the horizontal and the vertical. From you comes this creation with its past and future. In you the creatures take shape and they are but your shapes. This whole creation is a sacrifice of yours by yourself. Ghee as your essence is sprinkled as your presence in the universal holocaust. You are the being who is sacrificed as the beast in the sacrifice. You sacrifice yourself as the individuals as you sacrifice them into you. From you emanate the sounds and from you the cosmic breath is breathed out. All measures are measured out from you in terms of time and space. From you our works emanate and to you we offer them. From you the horses emerge and from you the one-tusked and the two-tusked beings emerge. From you the cattle and from you the kine. From you all the beasts emanate. The Brahmins emerge from your face, the rulers emerge from your arms, the traders come from your thighs and the workers emerge from your feet. From your eyes the suns and from your breaths the winds emerge. The moon is born from your mind and fire comes from your mouth.

The Science of Man

Dr K. Parvathi Kumar

First Young Group Life Teaching, Part 13

August 2001, Visakhapatnam/ India

Question: In the book “Mithila”, you are speaking about the importance of taking milk and milk products. But you also say that it is not good to eat products made of milk or to drink so much milk. What is the right behaviour we should have?

Answer: This is mostly true with the conditions in Germany. When I speak of milk, I generally mean the fresh milk which is no more available in industrial countries which are excessively advanced. For instance, in Germany, there are many allergies that people are developing when they take milk. If you take fresh milk, it cleanses the body very well. If milk is manipulated, then it doesn’t have the natural properties. But still, there are quite many areas where milk is available afresh. Milk as such is a very wholesome food, but it depends if we are taking the right kind of milk. In developing countries, still milk is not so much affected.

As far as possible, you may reduce animal food. Of course, normally in our groups, there is no eating of animal food and those who still have the habit of eating animal food, they should thing of gradually reducing it. The human body, as it was in the19th century, is different from the body of the 20th century and 21st century. We are tending to be more and more subtle in our body. When we are gaining subtle bodies, heavy food works in the contrary. In the future, human beings may not even be able to eat potatoes. We are tending more and more towards light food. Hence, taking animal food can give rise to diseases because it is no more suitable to human bodies. It is also scientifically known now that the human intestines are not fit to receive the animal food and digest it. We should tend to lighter and nourishing food.

Another important aspect is to have rhythm about food. You also need to purify, through thought, the food you buy and eat, Food is a divine aspect of life and it should be taken to nourish the intelligences of the body. It is a thought process through which you can purify the given food. That is the reason why a prayer before food was there in every ancient tradition. The food is offered as fuel to the body; it is another form of fire ritual.

You have all witnessed the fire ritual. Fire is the medium through which food is transmitted to varieties of intelligences that function in the body. The fire in you shall have to burn up the food that you offer to those intelligences. The various parts of the body are functioning due to the presence of intelligences. There are so many intelligences that are functioning in our body even without our knowledge. The entire digestive system is already there, the blood circulation is already there, and then there is the sensorium relating to the five senses which is already there. From head to foot, there are so many intelligences working. We are not remunerating them for the work they are doing for us.

We use the eye. What are we doing for the eye? We use the ear, the sense of hearing. What are we doing for it? One of the qualities that any refined human being would have is to be grateful for what is given, to be grateful for what is received. There are people without eyes. We have eyes. There is a difference. There are people without hearing ability. We are able to hear due to the presence of the intelligences of listening existing in us. Likewise taste, speech, many people don’t have speech. We don’t recognize them because they are there even without our asking. There are people born with deformed legs. We don’t see the importance of the fingers, the hands, the legs. There are people born with mental imbalance. What would you do if you are born with not adequate brains?  What would you do if you have congenital heart problems? Should we not be thankful that we don’t have such problems? The Indian seers have made a count of intelligences that are functioning in the human being. Broadly, they are 32.

So, your eating food is not for yourself. We should never eat with that attitude. There is a statement in the Scriptures that the one who eats for himself is a pilferer. It is not that you are eating for yourself. Eating is an offering, an offering to the intelligences of the body. And then, with great veneration when you offer food to the intelligences of the body, they will respond to you much better.

That is what is called ‘food as offering’. When you offer food, there has to be the fire to burn it and transmit it into all limbs of the body. That’s why fire is also thanked. You have to be grateful to the fire in you. You can make a request to the fire to digest the food that is being offered to various intelligences of the body, and to transmit it to all intelligences of the body so that the body is well nourished. The person in whom the fire is not working well, the food is not well digested. Fire transforms the food into energy.

This is the subtle understanding relating to the eating of food. A short prayer relating to food, which exists since ancient most times, reminds us that we are not eating for ourselves, and that we are taking it as an offering to the intelligences in us. This reorientation changes the very act into an act of sacrifice.

“May the Devas be pleased of this food that I offer to them. I also offer food to the fire, so that fire is pleased and transmits the energy of the food to all Devas.”

That is the substance of the prayer. If you see the fire ritual we do, it is an external act, where varieties of material, with varieties of energy are offered into fire and directed to the related Devas. This is because fire is the alchemist in creation. Fire brings out the creation and fire again absorbs the creation. It is the one that creates all the seven planes, and then it absorbs all the creation into itself. That’s why he is said to be the foremost intelligence in creation. In many traditions, the Lord is related to Fire. In the “Old Testament”, you find the statement: “Our God is an all consuming fire.” He exists in all the seven plans. That’s how he supplies the nourishment to all the seven planes.

So, the finer understanding in nature is that you offer to others, and in turn the others offer to you. You are oriented to offer to the Devas, in turn, the Devas offer back to you the energies. You offer grass to the cow, and the cow, in turn, offers milk to you. You cannot eat grass by yourself. Isn’t it?

As you learn offering, you become fit to receive. This is the chief key note of living in harmony. You keep helping. You receive help. Whatever you throw into the system, it comes back to you. It has a boomerang effect. You do acts of service, it comes back to you. If you serve, you are served. If you help, you are helped. If you give, you are given. If you receive directly, there are people who take away from you.

The fear of survival is more with those who believe in self-sustenance. Animals don’t have that fear, they get their food. The birds get their food. Even the trees in forests get their water. But animals and trees, they are all doing something for others. The fitness of our survival depends upon how much we are useful to the surrounding life. This attitude can also extend to food by saying: “This food is for the Devas who are working in me day and night and who in turn are helping me. May they be pleased by this act of mine.”

This text is not proofread by the author and might have some mistakes.

"SEVEN TIMES SEVEN THE WHEEL ROTATES"