The Upanishads - Mandhata Global

1
Chapter VII
How the Mind consists of Food
"A person, my dear, consists of sixteen parts. Do not
eat any food for fifteen days, but drink as much water
as you like. Since the prana consists of water, it will
not be cut off if you drink water."
2
Svetaketu did not eat any food for fifteen days. Then he
came
to his father and said: "What, Sir, shall I recite?"
His father said: "The Rik, Yagus and Saman verses."
He replied: "They do not occur to me, Sir."
3
His father said to him: "Just as, my dear, of a great
blazing fire a single coal, the size of a firefly, may be
left, which would not burn much more than that, even
so, my dear, of your sixteen parts only one part is left;
and therefore with that one part you do not remember
the Vedas. Now go and eat and you will understand
me."
566