Spiritual instructions (Taittiriya Upanisad 3.7)
Food is the energy of the Lord, and through food the Lord maintains everyone. Food should be offered to the Lord and then accepted and distributed as prasadam.
Section 7: Spiritual instructions
Food is the energy of the Lord, and through food the Lord maintains everyone. Food should be offered to the Lord and then accepted and distributed as prasadam. This prasadam should be understood as the mercy of the Lord and the divine manifestation of the Lord. One who understands that is not only maintained by the Lord with all necessary opulences but also advances in spiritual realization.
Text 3.7.1
annam na nindyāt, tad vratam
prāṇo vā annam, śarīram annādam
prāṇe śarīram pratiṣṭhitam, śarīre prāṇaḥ pratiṣṭhitaḥ
tad etad annam anne pratiṣṭhitam
sa ya etad annam anne pratiṣṭhitam veda pratitiṣṭhati
annavān annādo bhavati
mahān bhavati prajayā paśubhirbrahmavarcasena
mahān kīrtyā
One should value food and not disrespect it. This is the vow. Food is the energy that maintains life, the body subsists on food. Prāṇa is also food because it maintains the body. The body is established in prāṇa, and prāṇa is established in the body. All types of food are the energy of the Lord and one who understands this becomes well established. He is maintained by the Lord with sufficient food, good progeny, cows and other animals, and spiritual understanding.
Commentary: After describing the spiritual realization of Bhṛgu, the book is closed with instructions that help us to attain the same goal.
The perfection of the stage of anna-maya is to see the Lord in the food, and thus connect our act of eating with the Lord. We practice this process of seeing the Lord in the food by honoring prasadam.
The complexity of the analogies described in this verse is quite difficult to express. Life is maintained by food, and food is the energy of the Lord. Similarly, the body depends on prāṇa, the vital air, and prāṇa is also the energy of the Lord. Prāṇa, on the other hand, is established in the body and has thus no meaning without the existence of the body. The two are thus interdependent. Just like prāṇa maintains the body, prāṇa has no meaning without the body, therefore, in a sense, one is food for the other, since one maintains the other. The Lord however is the maintainer of both, and all types of food are the energy of the Lord. The Lord is thus the ultimate maintainer.
Since everything is the energy of the Lord, and maintained by the Lord, everything should be seen in connection with the Lord and used in the service of the Lord.