In the Veda scripture of the Chandogy Upanishads, the sage Narada, asks Sanatkumara: “How do I Begin my Search?” Then asks: Sir, Sanatkumara show me.
The Great Sanatkumara has crossed over the ocean of sorrow and jumped into the Absolute across the study of consciousness. He takes us to the Absolute and teaches us the great mystery of the Supreme Being.
When your food is pure, your being becomes pure,
and your memory becomes strong,
and when you acquire memory,
all the knots (fears, beliefs) are cut away.
To such a person who wipes away all stains, Lord Sanatkumara points the way to cross beyond the darkness.
–Chandogy Upanishads
Nourish Your Body and Mind
You begin with food. Through eating pure food, you purify your body. Just as your gross body needs solid food to maintain its existence, your pranic body needs the energy to sustain itself. Senses, mind, ego, and intellect all require their own kind of food.
Sattvic food is fresh, light, seasonal and nutritious, taken in the appropriate quantities, at the right time, and with the right attitude of mind, provides a pure diet. Similarly, breathing clean air, with a regulated dominance of right and left nostrils, nourishes the pranic body.
Maintaining positive thoughts in a cheerful mind provides nutritious food to the mental body. Constant awareness of the fact that anything indicated by the words ‘my’ and ‘mine’ belongs to “Prakriti.” Whereas the truth indicated by ‘I’ is pure consciousness and supplies nutritious food to the ego. Purify yourself by maintaining the constant awareness that all objects belong to nature. Similarly, remaining aware of your pure existence, consciousness, and bliss is the way to supply food to the “anandamaya kosha,” the body made of bliss.
By creating a bridge between different aspects of your being and strengthening rather than weakening each of these aspects, you attain perfect realization of Self. Know yourself at every level and find yourself perfect in every respect is the only way to attain true happiness.
You purify your external and internal life by purifying the food you provide to every level of your being. As a result, your memory becomes sharp and stable; then, you begin to glimpse your inner Self and eventually come to know it well.
As these glimpses of your inner Self become brighter and steadier, your attachment to worldly objects and desires for pleasure becomes thinner and weaker. The weaker your desires and attachments, the fewer obstructions they create to the illumination of your inner Self. The fewer obstructions in the light that radiates from within, the brighter you will see yourself both within and without.
