अन्नं वाव बलात् भूयः तस्मात् यदि अपि दश रात्रीः नाश्नीयात् यदि उ ह जीवेत् अथ अवाद्रष्टा अश्रोता अमन्ता अबोद्धा अकर्ता अविज्ञाता भवति अथ अन्नस्य आये द्रष्टा भवति श्रोता भवति मन्ता भवति बोद्धा भवति कर्ता भवति विज्ञाता भवति अन्नम् उपास्स्व इति
annaṃ vāva balāt bhūyaḥ tasmāt yadi api daśa rātrīḥ nāśnīyāt yadi u ha jīvet atha avādraṣṭā aśrotā amantā aboddhā akartā avijñātā bhavati atha annasya āye draṣṭā bhavati śrotā bhavati mantā bhavati boddhā bhavati kartā bhavati vijñātā bhavati annam upāssva iti
"Food is greater than strength. Therefore, if a man does not eat for ten days and nights, even if he survives he becomes one who does not see, hear, think, understand, act or comprehend. But when food comes, he sees, hears, thinks, understands, acts, comprehends. Venerate food."
6e0ead585928 · publicado 26 jul 2026, 23:45:28 UTC
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The ninth rung: anna, food. The argument is Śvetaketu's experiment already familiar to us (6.7), compressed into a formula: ten days of hunger and all six of a man's dignities (to see, hear, think, understand, act, comprehend) go out one after another; with "the coming of food" they return. Strength feeds on bread as comprehension feeds on strength.
The ladder has deliberately passed from the subtlest (name, thought) to the daily (bread): the Upaniṣad refuses to be ashamed of the spirit's dependence on food — it hallows it. For one who has recognised in food a rung of Brahman, a meal is worship (as we saw in the prāṇa-agnihotra, 5.19–24), and care for the hungry is service to the very ladder by which every soul ascends.