अशनापिपासे मे सोम्य विजानीहि इति यत्र एतत् पुरुषः अशिशिषति नाम आपः एव तत् अशितम् नयन्ते तत् यथा गोनायः अश्वनायः पुरुषनायः इति एवम् तत् आपः आचक्षते अशनाया इति तत्र एतत् शुङ्गम् उत्पतितम् सोम्य विजानीहि न इदम् अमूलम् भविष्यति इति
aśanāpipāse me somya vijānīhi iti yatra etat puruṣaḥ aśiśiṣati nāma āpaḥ eva tat aśitam nayante tat yathā gonāyaḥ aśvanāyaḥ puruṣanāyaḥ iti evam tat āpaḥ ācakṣate aśanāyā iti tatra etat śuṅgam utpatitam somya vijānīhi na idam amūlam bhaviṣyati iti
"Learn from me, my dear, what hunger and thirst are. When a man, as they say, is hungry, it is the waters that lead away what has been eaten; and as one says 'a leader of cows, a leader of horses, a leader of men', so the waters are called 'the leader of food' (aśanāyā). Learn then, my dear: the body is a shoot grown from this; it cannot be without a root.
af926a89f5d8 · publicado 26 jul 2026, 23:39:08 UTC
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From sleep to hunger: the father takes the lowest, least disputable states of a man and in each lays bare a metaphysics. Hunger (aśanāyā) is read through language: aśana-nāyāḥ, "the waters that lead away what is eaten": food is dissolved and led off by the waters — hence the request for more. As a "leader of horses" leads horses, so the waters are the leader of food; in the very rumbling of a hungry stomach the working of the cosmic threads is audible.
And at once the khaṇḍa's great turn: "the body is a shoot (śuṅga) grown from this; it cannot be without a root" (nedam amūlaṁ bhaviṣyati). Everything visible is a shoot; there is no shoot without a root; therefore there is a root. So begins the famous "search for the root", which through food, waters and heat will dig down to Being itself — a method by which every thing in the world is read as an arrow pointing inward.