<p>With longevity becoming a matter of serious scientific enquiry, the concepts of immortality and consciousness assume importance. Can consciousness exist without a body? Does it cease with the body or continue as an energy, or is all this just speculation? The Chandogya Upanishad has an interesting take on this. The word chanda or stanza is derived from chad, which means a cover. This is linked to a story.</p>.<p>The Gods fearing death covered themselves with knowledge. They covered themselves with the three vedas, Rig, Sama and Yajur. Hence the stanzas became chandas, the metre. Death saw through this. Realising that they had been spotted, the Gods exited the Vedas. Then they entered Svara, the sound. They took refuge in the syllable OM, the sound from which the cosmos had emerged. </p><p>It is the pranava which reverberates. It is immortal. By entering the pranava the Gods became immortal and fearless. In the mortal orbit, this reverberation became the udgitha. </p><p>It became that with which the priests invoked the deities and sang the desires of the patron into being. The Chandogya laid down the rules for such chanting in rituals. The ancients believed it was only by the use of the correct intonation and metre that the desired came into being. The priest became powerful. </p><p>The restraint on his power was his belief that if the chanting was faulty, his head would roll, literally. Outsourcing the fulfilment of desires was a luxury that only the rich patrons could afford. Desires, however, cut across all mortals. It is perhaps in recognition of this, that the first book or adhyaya of the Chandogya ends with a strange anecdote: Galva Maitreyi, a student intent on mastering chanting on behalf of a patron and to understand the concept of immortality for himself, set out to meditate. A white dog appeared to him. Other dogs approached the white one and said “Blessed one, sing into being food for us. We are hungry.”</p>.<p class="bodytext">The white dog made them form a circle holding each other’s tail. He led the chanting and they followed. OM, let us eat, OM let us drink, the chant reverberated. The food and drink appeared. The dogs ate. It was perhaps the first lesson for Galva. For the mortal world food was supreme. It sustained life. The desire for life was earnest and went beyond all techniques. The quest for immortality was but a concept.</p>
<p>With longevity becoming a matter of serious scientific enquiry, the concepts of immortality and consciousness assume importance. Can consciousness exist without a body? Does it cease with the body or continue as an energy, or is all this just speculation? The Chandogya Upanishad has an interesting take on this. The word chanda or stanza is derived from chad, which means a cover. This is linked to a story.</p>.<p>The Gods fearing death covered themselves with knowledge. They covered themselves with the three vedas, Rig, Sama and Yajur. Hence the stanzas became chandas, the metre. Death saw through this. Realising that they had been spotted, the Gods exited the Vedas. Then they entered Svara, the sound. They took refuge in the syllable OM, the sound from which the cosmos had emerged. </p><p>It is the pranava which reverberates. It is immortal. By entering the pranava the Gods became immortal and fearless. In the mortal orbit, this reverberation became the udgitha. </p><p>It became that with which the priests invoked the deities and sang the desires of the patron into being. The Chandogya laid down the rules for such chanting in rituals. The ancients believed it was only by the use of the correct intonation and metre that the desired came into being. The priest became powerful. </p><p>The restraint on his power was his belief that if the chanting was faulty, his head would roll, literally. Outsourcing the fulfilment of desires was a luxury that only the rich patrons could afford. Desires, however, cut across all mortals. It is perhaps in recognition of this, that the first book or adhyaya of the Chandogya ends with a strange anecdote: Galva Maitreyi, a student intent on mastering chanting on behalf of a patron and to understand the concept of immortality for himself, set out to meditate. A white dog appeared to him. Other dogs approached the white one and said “Blessed one, sing into being food for us. We are hungry.”</p>.<p class="bodytext">The white dog made them form a circle holding each other’s tail. He led the chanting and they followed. OM, let us eat, OM let us drink, the chant reverberated. The food and drink appeared. The dogs ate. It was perhaps the first lesson for Galva. For the mortal world food was supreme. It sustained life. The desire for life was earnest and went beyond all techniques. The quest for immortality was but a concept.</p>