I came across these difficult passages from the Vedas📖. The following are the mantras: I shall now disclose that the father produced seven kinds of food through meditation and rites. One is common to all eaters. Two he assigned to the gods. Three he designed for himself. And one he gave to the animals. On it (food) rests everything-whatsoever breathes and whatsoever breathes not. Why are not these foods exhausted although they are always being eaten? He who knows the cause of this inexhaustibility of the food eats food with pre-eminence (pratika). He obtains identity with the gods and lives on nectar. [Yajur Veda, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad I, V-Manifestations of Prajapati, 1] What are the 7 kinds of food,what is meant by 2 he assigned to the gods?

Food involves all that we take in, consume. Prana or life energy is common to all. Material food is given to animals and all that is based on a physical body. The two meant for the gods is the mental and the supramental light. The three he assigned to himself are existence, consciousness and bliss.

If anything ails him during that second period, he should recite the following mantra: O ye pranas, ye Rudras, unite this midday libation with the third libation. May I, who am a sacrifice, not disappear in the midst of the pranas, who are the Rudras. Thus he rises from his illness and becomes free of it. [Sama Veda, Chandogya Upanishad III, XVI – Man as a Sacrifice (I), 4] What is meant by the second period,why are the pranas referred to as Rudras.

The movement of prana is threefold, two lower, two higher and one middle. Prana is Force, Energy and hence is in everything. Rudra are the violent destructive energies that become active when the movement of prana is downwards. When it is lifted up towards higher things (middle to above) then the Rudra forces calm down and one is relieved of the forces of disintegration or illness.

What is meaning of may I not disappear in the midst of the pranas?

Dissolving in the midst of the pranas is being qualified as the Rudras, that is to say, be completely disintegrated and disappear by the action of the Rudra forces. Through the sacrifice of the lower to the higher, the seer ensures health and well-being for higher pursuits.

The powerful seven-reined bull who freed the seven torrents to flow abundantly, the God whose thunderbolt caused Rauhina to totter as he scaled the heavens: he, Men, is the Lord! [Rig Veda II, 12, 12] Who is the 7 reined bull.What are the 7 reins and torrents?

The seven reined Bull is the Indra, who in the Vedas is the Divine Mind. He releases the seven-fold thought, the seven-fold life, the idea-forces operating at each plane to build the worlds.

The power that limits each of these planes and each creature in its proper frame are the reins. 

What is meant by the thunderbolt that caused Rauhina to totter.Who is Rauhina?

Thunderbolt is the lightnings of the Intuitive Mind. That is how we see a secret intuition working everywhere, even in Matter. Rauhina is the force that is helping the ascension. Indra sees whether man is ready for it or not.

Affectionately,

Alok Da