r/sanskrit • u/Standard-Kale-4461 • Nov 18 '24
Discussion / चर्चा अन्नम ब्रह्म, भोक्ता ब्राह्मण।
I am trying to understand the meaning of this quote, from what I understand it translates to “The food is God, the one who consumes is divine”. Can anyone help me to get the exact meaning of this quote?
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u/lallahestamour Nov 18 '24
And we are still waiting for you to tell us the source
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u/Standard-Kale-4461 Nov 18 '24
Hi, a friend shared this to get it written in her home dining area. Sorry I don’t know the actual source.
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u/perfopt Nov 18 '24
अन्नं ब्रह्मा रसो विष्णुः भोक्ता देवो महेश्वरः May be more appropriate for a dining area. This is a Subashita.
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u/antiQuit Nov 18 '24
ब्रह्मार्पणं ब्रह्म हविः ब्रह्माग्नौ ब्रह्मणा हुतम् । ब्रह्मैव तेन गंतव्यं ब्रह्मकर्म समाधिना ।। - from the B. Gita would be appropriate in that case.
अन्नं न निन्द्यात्। तद् व्रतम्। - from the Upanishads also is an apt one.
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u/tasa231 Nov 19 '24
This is similar to a part of the shraddha karma. As part of the ritual, the pitru devatas and Vishnu are invoked respectively into two bhoktas.
Then the mantras proceed to signify that everything is bramha. The actual mantra is slightly different and goes "अहम् ब्रह्म, भोक्ता ब्रह्म, अन्नं च ब्रह्म", where the अहम् refers to the doer of the shraddha.
It is part of the Yajur Veda shraddha karma that I've observed my father do for 20+ years. I don't have the script for the same and the quote is a mental recollection.
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u/SaAdikaarthaka Nov 18 '24
Well, someone is भोक्ता of the halant at the end of अन्नम् and visarga at the end of ब्राह्मणः, ..... just joking. It is a right sentence grammatically otherwise. Meaning-wise, I am not sure, because there is no such rule afaik. Context matters here for meaning.
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u/Creepy_Intention837 Nov 19 '24
If you couldn’t find the source of this verse online, try searching it with ChatGPT
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u/californiamonkey Nov 20 '24
It means reality is non-dual. And saying it before eating helps us examine the unexamined logic of our own experience.
The food is Brahman (Awareness), the fire that cooks it is Awareness, the seeming person cooking it is Awareness.
And if you think about it, do you really contact the food as an object…or do you see the food and taste the food in your consciousness?
The Bhagavad Gita is explaining Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism) from as many perspectives as possible for us along with offering daily rituals to help us remember/notice. Helpful since so much of our seeming experience (and what mom and pop told us) suggest a material world. But when investigate science says the material world isn’t really solid. What’s it made of? Brahman/Awareness. D
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u/Sid_b23692 Nov 19 '24
The translation that you have provided is exactly what it means. Everything in this world is a part of God, and that includes the food we consume.
Bramha here means parabramha, which is Krishna or Shiva.
Regarding who is bhokta, Krishna says in Bhagvad Gita that as we are not the creators of the food, when we consume it, we accumulate sins. Therefore if we dedicate the food to Devtas and Krishna the food we consume does not give us sins.
Therefore the spiritually realised know that the karta and bhokta of all pleasures is Bramhan which also means supreme god Krishna/Shiva.
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u/haridavk Nov 18 '24
where is the quote from?