अथ यत्र एतत् पुरुषः पिपासति नाम तेजः एव तत् पीतम् नयते तत् यथा गोनायः अश्वनायः पुरुषनायः इति एवम् तत् तेजः आचष्टे उदन्या इति तत्र एतत् एव शुङ्गम् उत्पतितम् सोम्य विजानीहि न इदम् अमूलम् भविष्यति इति
atha yatra etat puruṣaḥ pipāsati nāma tejaḥ eva tat pītam nayate tat yathā gonāyaḥ aśvanāyaḥ puruṣanāyaḥ iti evam tat tejaḥ ācaṣṭe udanyā iti tatra etat eva śuṅgam utpatitam somya vijānīhi na idam amūlam bhaviṣyati iti
And when a man, as they say, is thirsty, it is heat that leads away what has been drunk; and as one says 'a leader of cows, a leader of horses, a leader of men', so heat is called 'the leader of water' — thirst. Learn then, my dear: the body is a shoot grown from this; it cannot be without a root.
8bc2372b62ad · published Jul 26, 2026, 11:39:08 PM UTC
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The same analysis for thirst: udanyā, "thirst", is read as uda-nyā, "the heat that leads away water": the inner fire evaporates what has been drunk, and the throat asks. The symmetry of hunger and thirst is kept to the word: the same triad of leaders, the same shoot, the same refusal to believe in the rootless.
It is worth hearing what the father is doing: the most humiliating states of a creature — hunger, thirst — he turns into theological lessons. A man wants a drink, and the Upaniṣad says: it is the heat in you doing its work in a chain that runs up into Being. There is no bodily need that is not a distant chiming of the Source; to hear in the body's thirst a thirst for the Root is already prayer.