 Namaste, welcome to the 14th session of this course, Yoga and Positive Psychology for Managing Career and Life. Today, we are going to look at very important aspect of the intervention that is food. If you recall, in the last session, we discussed about three pillars of good health. Those are nutrition that is ahar, sleep or swapno, brahmacharya or self-control. We also discussed eight limbs of yoga, yam-niyam, asan-pranayam, pratyahar, dharana, dhyan, samadhi. If you look at these eight limbs, yam-niyam are psychosocial interventions, asan and pranayam are psychophysical interventions, pratyahar is also mostly a psychological intervention which has some remnants at the physical level, dharana, dhyan, samadhi are predominantly psychological and spiritual interventions. So based on these ahinsides of ayurveda and notion of self and eight limbs of yoga, so we have identified a set of interventions which we are going to look at in this course. So on the Annamayakosh, we are going to look at ahar and asanas as predominant interventions. On the Pranamayakosh, we will discuss pranayam. For Manamayakosh based intervention, we will look at yam-niyam, chitta prasad, managing negative emotions, how to use the positive psychology and yoga for managing negative emotions. We will also look at pratyahar, pratyahar that is ah enjoying within, going within for the true enjoyment. At Vijnanamayakosh, the interventions we are going to discuss are meaning and purpose in life, practice of karma yoga, dharana and dhyan and anandamayakosh has the interventions like dhyan and samadhi. We are not going to discuss samadhi in this course but we are going to have discussion up to the level of dhyan. Different quadrants of good life are summarized in these four aspects ahar, vihar, achar, vichar. These are the two sets of the life experiences or life activity are also used as the reflection of the basic quadrants of good life or healthy life that naturally has implication on success in the career. If I have healthy body and mind, naturally I will be able to perform best in my career. So, the four quadrants of managing self and career can also be summarized in the form of ahar, vihar, achar and vichar. Ahar is food, vihar is dwelling with whom we hang out, where we go, what kind of enjoyment we pursue, what are the things which we enjoy. These are the different aspects of vihar, achar is behavior, what should be our behavior? Our behavior also determines quality of our life and foundation of all this is vichar thoughts. So, other than the three pillars which we discussed in the previous session that is nidra, brahmacharya and ahar, these four quadrant can also referred as a quick heuristic to look at whether I am leading my life towards the ne shreyas, towards the prayers or towards the shreyas. You might recall, shreyas is that path which is wholesome, which is good in the long run and prayers is that path which looks very exciting, alluring or sometime tempting in the beginning, but long term result of that path is not wholesome, not joyful for us and for the people around us. So, these, this heuristic can also give us inside whether am I pursuing the path of shreyas or path of prayers. Today's session is primarily about food, food in the yogic tradition and ayurvedic tradition is not only source of energy, it is not only a means to nurture our physical body, food in our tradition has a emotional, spiritual and social significance as well. That is why in our tradition we human beings are not supposed to indulge into bhaktshana, not just mere act of eating, prasad is the ultimate form of food, prasad is that which is prepared with the reverence, that which is taken after sharing with others and that which is first offered to the universal being and from there we take our share that is prasad. So, the ideal of the food in this tradition is not bhaktshana, but taking prasadam. The spiritual significance of food is very beautifully reflected in the bhrugavilli in the Tathri Upanishad. The story in the Tathri Upanishad goes that there is a very bright disciple bhrugu and his father is Varun. Bhrugu apparently completed his education, came back home and Varun the father asked him how was it and Bhrugu said that was wonderful, I have learned lot of things and then Varun asked have you learned something after knowing which nothing is left to be known. That made Bhragu Redil put up because he said that this kind of topic did not occur after knowing which nothing is left to be known and then the Varun explains that in our tradition, in our family people are called Brahman, the people who understand, who have experienced the Brahman, the ultimate reality and also you also must know that then only you will be the worthy of progeny of the ancestor who were Brahmajani in our family. So, Bhragu became a disciple to his own father, asked him to direct him on the path of self-realization of Brahmajana and father said to him that go and follow yamas and yamas, do tapas and with the tapas you will get insight. So, the first insight Bhrugu got after the tapas, after the rigorous life and rigorous thinking that is reflected in this mantra which says that annam brahm heti vyajanath anna dhaved khalvimani bhutani jayante annen jatani jeevanti jeevanti so annam annam brahm heti vyajanath I know anna as Brahma, anna dhaved khalvidani bhutani because through the anna only all bhutas all organisms originate, annen jatani jeevanti and they are able to sustain their life only with the anna. So, that was his first insight. So, this is also a sutra where the notion of panchakosha is established. Human self is nothing but the encased aspect of Brahman and that encased is of anna, of man, of vyajan, of pran. So, we discussed about the panchakosha model of self earlier. This is the sutra from there the origin of panchakosha model happens and anna is identified as the first layer of self. Physical body we all know is made up of anna. So, naturally that is accepted as the first layer of self. Bhrigu actually went on doing tapas and keep on coming with the new anew insight and that is how the other layers of the self are identified in this Upanishad. We are going to talk about those other insights in the later sessions. Coming back to our discussion with the food, there is a clear understanding and appreciation in the Vedic literature that anna what we are eating is result of the whole cosmic system operating in certain way. So, the food on my plate is not only my earning or my catch. Food in my plate is given by the universal order. It is universal order through which food is made available to me and that is beautifully captured in the bhogen mantra. I learned this bhogen mantra in my school in Saraswati Shri Shumanthir and this bhogen mantra goes like Om Yantunadhyo Varshantuparjanya Subhidpala Oshadhyo Bhavanthu Annavatam Odanvatam Mamikchavatam Esham Raja Bhuyasana Odanmudbhavati Parmeshthiva Esha Yadodana Parmawe Mainam Shriyanga Mayati May the rivers flow and clouds give rain. That is the first source of anna. May the plants yield good harvest. Then the plant, it is only through the rivers and through the clouds plants get nourishment and they give good harvest. So, may I become the king of all those having plenty of food, boiled rice, curd and milk. Food is praise worthy. Odanmudbhavati, this food is verily Brahman, the creator. This will lead to greatest prosperity in the form of health and wealth. So, before taking food, we invoke gratitude to the whole universe because it is because of the river, clouds, rains, plants and people working to harvest all that. We have got food in our plate. Spiritual aspect of food is also reflected in Bhavad Gita where Shri Krishna explained that Brahma Harbhanam Brahmavi Brahmaagnau Brahmana Hutam Brahmaiva Tenangantavyam Brahma Karma Samadhinam. This ladley used for offering ghee in the Yajna is Brahma. Offering is Brahma. It is being offered by Brahma in the fire of Brahma. The destination to be attained through this Brahma Karma Samadhi is also Brahma. Aham Vaishva Narobhutva Praninam Deham Ashrita Pranapan Samayukta Pacham Yanyam Chaturvidham. That is the next verse in the Bhojanamandra which says that it is I who take form of fire of digestion in the stomach of all living beings and combine with the incoming and outgoing breath to digest and assimilate the four kinds of food. And after that in the Bhojanamandra it is said Om Pranayaswaha Om Apanayaswaha Om Vyanayaswaha Om Udhanayaswaha Om Samanayaswaha Pran Apan Vyan Udhan Saman. These are the five dimensions of Prana. We are going to talk about Pranamayakush. We have already had some discussion about the Pranamayakush. We can have some interventions at Pranamayakush and there again we are going to talk about these five types of pranas. What this Shloka suggest? It is the universal power which is behind the power of digestion of food. That is Vaishva Narobhutva Pranamayaswaha Agni. So, this is the reflection of notion of food in yogic tradition and in the Indian tradition.