The Higher Taste: What It Means to Rise and What It Means to Fall

Sometimes people say about someone: “He fell.” He was a spiritual person, he chanted, he wore the clothes of a monk — and then he fell. What does that mean? Fell from where? And where did he land?

To understand this, we first need to understand something simpler: what spiritual consciousness is. And the Vedic books explain it in a way that is surprisingly simple. It all comes down to one word — taste.

The soul and its costume

The Vedic picture of a human being is this. I am not my body. I am a tiny spiritual spark — the soul, the ātmā. And over the soul is a costume. In fact, there are two costumes, one over the other.

The inner one is the subtle body. Its center is the “inner instrument”, the antaḥkaraṇa, and it has four parts:

evaṃ bhūtasattvāṃśabhāgatrayasamaṣṭito'ntaḥkaraṇamasṛjat | antaḥkaraṇamanobuddhicittāhaṅkārāstadvṛttayaḥ | saṅkalpaniścayasmaraṇābhimānānusandhānāstadviṣayāḥ | galavadananābhihṛdayabhrūmadhyaṃ sthānam

“From the goodness of the elements He created the inner instrument. Mind, intellect, memory and ego are its movements; wishing, deciding, remembering and taking things as 'mine' are their work.” — Paiṅgala Upaniṣad 2.6

Manas, the mind, wants. Buddhi, the intellect, decides. Citta remembers. Ahaṅkāra, the ego, says “this is me, this is mine”.

The outer costume is the gross body, with its ten senses: five that know (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin) and five that act (speech, hands, feet, and the two lower organs). Kṛṣṇa names the whole material wardrobe in one verse:

bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca | ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā ||

“Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and ego — these eight are My separated material energy.” — Bhagavad-gītā 7.4

The soul is none of these. It wears them. (I wrote about this in detail in the study on the soul in the body.)

And here is the main point. The costume is not neutral. Each costume is made of a certain kind of material nature, with certain qualities. And the costume sends its own wishes up to the soul. The soul feels these wishes as its own.

Why a dog licks a slipper

Look at a dog. It finds an old slipper and licks it with great pleasure. Ask it why — it does not know. It just wants to. And while it licks, it is happy.

From the outside, to a human, this looks strange, even a bit disgusting. Why? Because a human does not have that impulse. The human costume does not send that wish.

Or take a pig. It eats excrement — and enjoys it. To a human this is terrible. But inside the pig is a soul exactly like ours. The same spark. Only it wears a different costume, and that costume makes it want what it wants — and feel it as pleasure.

The Bhāgavatam uses this very image. King Ṛṣabha tells his sons:

nāyaṃ deho deha-bhājāṃ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṃ ye / tapo divyaṃ putrakā yena sattvaṃ śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyaṃ tv anantam

“My children, this human body is not meant for chasing, with great effort, the pleasures that even those who eat excrement have. It is meant for divine austerity, by which one's being becomes pure — and from that comes endless happiness.” — Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.5.1

Viḍ-bhuj — “eaters of excrement”. The pigs have their pleasures too. A human being is not born just to have the same pleasures in a nicer form.

They would say they are happy

Now imagine the dog and the pig could talk. Would they complain? No. The dog would say: “I love licking slippers and chewing bones. It is wonderful.” The pig would say: “You have no idea how delicious this is.”

And they would be sincere. They are not able to see that something strange has happened to them — that material nature has put them in a state where they do odd things and feel happy about it.

This is what the Vedas call pseudo-happiness. It is real as a feeling, but it is not real happiness. Kṛṣṇa explains what it actually is:

mātrāsparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇasukhaduḥkhadāḥ | āgamāpāyino 'nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata ||

“The touching of the senses with their objects gives cold and heat, pleasure and pain. They come and go; they do not last. Learn to bear them, O Bhārata.” — Bhagavad-gītā 2.14

Mātrā-sparśa — “the touching of matter with matter”. Simply put: chemistry. One material thing touches another, and a sensation appears. Pleasant or unpleasant, it is just a reaction in the costume.

ye hi saṁsparśajā bhogā duḥkhayonaya eva te | ādyantavantaḥ kaunteya na teṣu ramate budhaḥ ||

“Pleasures born of such contact are a source of suffering. They have a beginning and an end, so the wise do not look for joy in them.” — Bhagavad-gītā 5.22

Prahlāda gives a picture that everyone understands:

yan maithunādigṛhamedhisukhaṃ hi tucchaṃ / kaṇḍūyanena karayoriva duḥkhaduḥkham / tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahuduḥkhabhājaḥ / kaṇḍūtivan manasijaṃ viṣaheta dhīraḥ

“The so-called happiness of family life, starting with sex, is small — like scratching an itch with your hands. It brings sorrow after sorrow. The poor souls are never satisfied. But the wise bear the itch of desire patiently.” — Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.9.45

Scratching an itch feels good. But nobody would call it happiness. It only feels good because something itches.

And he describes the circle such people live in:

matirna kṛṣṇe parataḥ svato vā mitho 'bhipadyeta gṛhavratānām / adāntagobhirviśatāṃ tamisraṃ punaḥ punaścarvitacarvaṇānām

“Those whose only vow is their home, with untamed senses, go into darkness. They chew again and again what has already been chewed.” — Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.5.30

The same pleasures, again and again, with less and less taste — like chewing gum that has long lost its flavor.

People wear different costumes too

All this is not only about animals. Among people, too, the costumes are different. They are made of different mixtures of the three qualities of nature — goodness, passion and darkness. Kṛṣṇa explains how each one holds the soul:

tatra sattvaṁ nirmalatvāt prakāśakam anāmayam | sukha-saṅgena badhnāti jñāna-saṅgena cānagha ||

“Goodness is pure, full of light and free from sickness. It binds by attachment to happiness and to knowledge.” — Bhagavad-gītā 14.6

rajo rāgātmakaṁ viddhi tṛṣṇā-saṅga-samudbhavam | tan nibadhnāti kaunteya karma-saṅgena dehinam ||

“Passion is born of thirst and craving. It binds the soul by attachment to action and its results.” — Bhagavad-gītā 14.7

tamas tv ajñāna-jaṁ viddhi mohanaṁ sarva-dehinām | pramādālasya-nidrābhis tan nibadhnāti bhārata ||

“Darkness is born of ignorance and confuses all beings. It binds them through carelessness, laziness and sleep.” — Bhagavad-gītā 14.8

So different people have different tastes — different ideas of what happiness is. Kṛṣṇa describes three kinds of happiness, one for each costume:

yat tad agre viṣam iva pariṇāme 'mṛtopamam | tat sukhaṁ sāttvikaṁ proktam ātma-buddhi-prasādajam ||

“Happiness that is like poison at first and like nectar in the end, born of a clear mind turned to the soul, is happiness in goodness.” — Bhagavad-gītā 18.37

viṣayendriya-saṁyogād yat tad agre 'mṛtopamam | pariṇāme viṣam iva tat sukhaṁ rājasaṁ smṛtam ||

“Happiness from the senses meeting their objects, which is like nectar at first and like poison in the end, is happiness in passion.” — Bhagavad-gītā 18.38

yad agre cānubandhe ca sukhaṁ mohanam ātmanaḥ | nidrālasya-pramādotthaṁ tat tāmasam udāhṛtam ||

“Happiness that fogs the soul from beginning to end, born of sleep, laziness and carelessness, is happiness in darkness.” — Bhagavad-gītā 18.39

One person eats a piece of meat, drinks some alcohol, and says: “This is happiness.” Another person looks at him and feels the way we feel watching the pig. He sees that this is not happiness at all — just a fog, a loss of clarity. It is the same thing the dog does with the slipper, only in a human costume.

This is not said to look down on anyone. Each of us has some slippers of our own. It is only said to see clearly: what we find tasty depends on the costume we wear.

Even food shows this. The Gītā says that each costume is drawn to its own food — and that food, in turn, makes the costume stronger:

āyuḥ-sattva-balārogya-sukha-prīti-vivardhanāḥ | rasyāḥ snigdhāḥ sthirā hṛdyā āhārāḥ sāttvika-priyāḥ ||

“Food that people in goodness love increases life, makes consciousness pure, and gives strength, health, happiness and joy. It is juicy, rich, nourishing and pleasing to the heart.” — Bhagavad-gītā 17.8

kaṭv-amla-lavaṇāty-uṣṇa-tīkṣṇa-rūkṣa-vidāhinaḥ | āhārā rājasasyeṣṭā duḥkha-śokāmaya-pradāḥ ||

“Food that is too bitter, sour, salty, hot, sharp, dry or burning is loved by people in passion. It brings pain, sorrow and illness.” — Bhagavad-gītā 17.9

yāta-yāmaṁ gata-rasaṁ pūti paryuṣitaṁ ca yat | ucchiṣṭam api cāmedhyaṁ bhojanaṁ tāmasa-priyam ||

“Food that is old, tasteless, smelly, stale, left over and impure is loved by people in darkness.” — Bhagavad-gītā 17.10

What we eat clears our consciousness or clouds it. And a clouded consciousness wants more of what clouds it.

Pure and covered consciousness

So what is “pure consciousness”? The soul's consciousness is always pure in itself. But it can be covered. Kṛṣṇa gives three images:

dhūmenāvriyate vahnir yathādarśo malena ca | yatholbenāvṛto garbhas tathā tenedam āvṛtam ||

“As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, as a baby is covered by the womb — so the pure consciousness of the living being is covered by desire.” — Bhagavad-gītā 3.38

āvṛtaṁ jñānam etena jñānino nityavairiṇā | kāmarūpeṇa kaunteya duṣpūreṇānalena ca ||

“The consciousness of the living being is covered by its eternal enemy, in the form of desire — a fire that can never be filled.” — Bhagavad-gītā 3.39

This is very important to understand. This desire is not the soul's own wish. It is an impulse from material nature — from the costume. Kṛṣṇa says so in the verse just before. Kāma, He says, is “born of the quality of passion”:

kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajoguṇasamudbhavaḥ | mahāśano mahāpāpmā viddhy enam iha vairiṇam ||

“It is lust, which turns into anger. It is born of the quality of passion. It devours everything; it is the great sin. Know it as your enemy in this world.” — Bhagavad-gītā 3.37

And right after, He says exactly where this desire lives:

indriyāṇi mano buddhir asyādhiṣṭhānam ucyate | etair vimohayaty eṣa jñānam āvṛtya dehinam ||

“The senses, the mind and the intellect are said to be its home. Through them it covers the knowledge of the soul and confuses the embodied one.” — Bhagavad-gītā 3.40

The senses, the mind, the intellect — that is the costume. Desire lives in the costume, not in the soul. The soul only feels its pull and, confused by the ego, says: “I want this.”

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ | ahaṅkāravimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate ||

“All actions are done by the qualities of material nature. But the one whose self is confused by the ego thinks: 'I am the doer.'” — Bhagavad-gītā 3.27

That is why the dog does not choose to love slippers, and the pig does not choose its trough. The costume wants it — and the soul inside thinks: “I want it.” It is the same with us. The soul by its own nature does not want anything material at all. Its own wish is for rasa, for love. And it is exactly this wish that is covered.

Three levels of covering: smoke — a light cover, the fire still shines through. Dust on a mirror — you cannot see yourself until you wipe it. The womb — a full cover, the child cannot come out until its time.

“Contaminated” or “material” consciousness is simply covered consciousness. And “pure” consciousness is the same consciousness, uncovered. The Bhāgavatam describes the moment when the covering lifts:

tadā rajastamobhāvāḥ kāmalobhādayaśca ye / ceta etairanāviddhaṃ sthitaṃ sattve prasīdati

“Then passion and darkness — lust, greed and the rest — no longer touch the consciousness. It rests in goodness and becomes clear.” — Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.19

Prasīdati — “becomes clear”, like water when the mud settles.

The higher taste

How does the covering lift? Not by force. You cannot make a dog stop loving slippers by beating it. You cannot make a person stop wanting something just by forbidding it. Kṛṣṇa says this directly — and then gives the real answer:

viṣayā vinivartante nirāhārasya dehinaḥ | rasavarjaṁ raso 'py asya paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate ||

“The embodied soul may stay away from the objects of the senses, but the taste for them remains. But when he tastes something higher, even that taste goes away.” — Bhagavad-gītā 2.59

This is the whole secret. Rasa — “taste”. Param dṛṣṭvā — “having seen, having tasted the higher”. You do not get rid of a low taste by fighting it. You get rid of it by finding a higher one. A child does not give up its toys because someone takes them away. It grows up, and finds something more interesting — and the toys lose their pull by themselves.

What is that higher taste? The Taittirīya Upaniṣad says it in three words:

yat vai tat sukṛtam rasaḥ vai saḥ rasam hi eva ayam labdhvā ānandī bhavati kaḥ hi eva anyāt kaḥ prāṇyāt yat eṣaḥ ākāśe ānandaḥ na syāt eṣaḥ hi eva ānandayāti

“He is rasa — taste itself. Only by getting this taste does a person become happy. Who could even breathe, if this joy were not in the space of the heart? It is He who gives joy.” — Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.7

Raso vai saḥ — “He is taste”. God is not only the source of the world. He is the source of every sweetness. The happiness God Himself feels — that is the real rasa. And the goal of spiritual life is to taste it.

bāhyasparśeṣv asaktātmā vindaty ātmani yat sukham | sa brahma-yoga-yuktātmā sukham akṣayam aśnute ||

“One who is not attached to outer touches finds happiness within. Joined with the Supreme, he enjoys a happiness that never runs out.” — Bhagavad-gītā 5.21

The fifth goal of life

The Vedas usually speak of four goals of human life — the catur-varga: dharma (living rightly), artha (prosperity), kāma (pleasure), and mokṣa (liberation). A good life, a rich life, a pleasant life, and finally freedom from the whole cycle.

But a Vaiṣṇava is not really interested in any of these four. He wants a fifth thing. The Caitanya-caritāmṛta says it plainly:

kṛṣṇa-viṣaẏaka premā—parama puruṣārtha | yāra āge tṛṇa-tulya cāri puruṣārtha ||

“Love for Kṛṣṇa is the highest goal of life. Before it, the four goals are like a blade of grass.” — Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi 7.84

pañcama puruṣārtha—premānandāmṛta-sindhu | mokṣādi ānanda yāra nahe eka bindu ||

“The fifth goal is an ocean of the nectar of loving joy. The joy of liberation and the rest is not even one drop of it.” — Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi 7.85

pañcama puruṣārtha sei prema-mahādhana | kṛṣṇera mādhurya-rasa karāẏa āsvādana ||

“This great treasure of love is the fifth goal of life: it lets one taste the rasa of Kṛṣṇa's sweetness.” — Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi 7.144

This is prema — love for God. It is not a feeling that comes from matter touching matter. It is the taste that comes from God Himself. Rūpa Gosvāmī lists what it does:

kleśa-ghnī śubhadā mokṣa-laghutā-kṛt sudurlabhā | sāndrānanda-viśeṣātmā śrī-kṛṣṇākarṣiṇī ca sā

“It destroys suffering, gives everything good, makes even liberation look small, is very rare, is made of a special, thick joy, and attracts Kṛṣṇa Himself.” — Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.17

“Makes even liberation look small.” That is why the devotees, Kṛṣṇa says, do not even take liberation when it is offered to them:

sālokya-sārṣṭi-sāmīpya- sārūpyaikatvam apy uta / dīyamānaṃ na gṛhṇanti vinā mat-sevanaṃ janāḥ

“Even if they are offered life in My world, power equal to Mine, nearness to Me, a form like Mine, or oneness with Me — they do not accept it without serving Me.” — Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.29.13

Why would anyone refuse liberation? Because liberation is only the absence of suffering. Prema is the presence of joy. One who has tasted honey does not dream of just not being hungry.

What it means to rise

So what is spiritual elevation? It is getting access to this taste. Starting to feel it. And then living from it: acting in a way that comes from this taste, and that makes it stronger.

The Bhāgavatam gives a perfect picture of what this feels like — the picture of a hungry man eating:

bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra caiṣa trika eka-kālaḥ / prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣud-apāyo 'nu-ghāsam

“Devotion, the experience of the Lord, and losing interest in everything else — these three come at the same time to one who takes shelter. It is like a hungry man eating: with every bite comes satisfaction, strength, and the end of hunger.” — Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.2.42

With every bite. No one needs to tell a hungry man who is eating good food to “give up” being hungry. His hunger goes by itself. In the same way, detachment is not a separate effort. It comes by itself, together with the taste.

The Bhāgavatam calls this the highest dharma:

sa vai puṃsāṃ paro dharmo yato bhaktiradhokṣaje / ahaitukyapratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati

“The highest dharma for people is the one that gives devotion to the Lord — devotion without selfish motive, which nothing can stop. By it the soul becomes completely satisfied.” — Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.6

Su-prasīdati — “completely clear and satisfied”. Not just fed — full.

evaṃ prasannamanaso bhagavadbhaktiyogataḥ / bhagavattattvavijñānaṃ muktasaṅgasya jāyate

“When the mind has become clear through devotion to the Lord, and is free from attachments, real knowledge of the Lord is born in it.” — Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.20

Kṛṣṇa calls this clarity prasāda — grace:

rāgadveṣavimuktais tu viṣayān indriyaiś caran | ātmavaśyair vidheyātmā prasādam adhigacchati ||

“One who moves among the things of this world with senses free from craving and dislike, under the control of the soul, receives grace.” — Bhagavad-gītā 2.64

prasāde sarvaduḥkhānāṁ hānir asyopajāyate | prasannacetaso hy āśu buddhiḥ paryavatiṣṭhate ||

“In that grace, all his sorrows end. And the mind of one whose heart is clear soon becomes steady.” — Bhagavad-gītā 2.65

And such a person, Kṛṣṇa says, is free — not because he forces himself, but because he no longer wants what he used to want:

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati | samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām ||

“One who has reached the spiritual level is joyful. He does not grieve and does not crave. He sees all beings equally — and he receives the highest devotion to Me.” — Bhagavad-gītā 18.54

This is what a liberated soul is. To put it simply: slippers no longer attract him. What attracts him is God, and the taste of happiness he gets from being close to Him.

What it means to fall

And now we can understand what “falling” means. To fall is to lose access to the higher taste.

When this happens, the person becomes hungry again. The soul cannot live without taste. If it loses the higher one, it goes looking for any taste it can find. Consciousness grows cloudy again — and the person starts, so to speak, licking slippers again.

Kṛṣṇa describes the steps down very precisely:

dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ saṅgas teṣūpajāyate | saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ kāmāt krodho 'bhijāyate ||

“When a person thinks about the objects of the senses, attachment to them is born. From attachment comes desire, and from desire comes anger.” — Bhagavad-gītā 2.62

And the next verse continues the ladder down: from anger comes confusion (sammoha), from confusion — the loss of memory (smṛti-bhraṁśa), from the loss of memory — the loss of intelligence (buddhi-nāśa), and with the loss of intelligence, a person falls (praṇaśyati) (Bhagavad-gītā 2.63).

Notice that the fall begins with forgetting. First the person forgets the taste. Then he forgets who he is.

What makes a person lose the taste? The most dangerous thing, the scriptures say, is offense — especially offense against devotees and against the holy Name. I wrote about this in the study on sin: one who offends the Name, the Padma Purāṇa says, “falls down”. The Bhāgavatam describes those who climbed very high by their own effort, but without love for the Lord — and fell:

ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas / tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ / āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṃ padaṃ tataḥ / patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ / tathā na te mādhava tāvakāḥ kvacid bhraśyanti mārgāt tvayi baddha-sauhṛdāḥ / tvayābhiguptā vicaranti nirbhayā vināyakānīkapa-mūrdhasu prabho

“Others think they are liberated, O lotus-eyed Lord, but their intelligence is not pure, because they have no love for You. With great effort they climb to the highest place — and then they fall, because they did not honor Your feet. But Your own devotees, O Mādhava, never fall from the path, because their heart is bound to You in friendship. Protected by You, they walk without fear even over the heads of those who try to stop them.” — Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.2.32–33

Two ways to be “high”. One is to climb by your own strength — and then there is nothing to hold you. The other is to be held by love. Those who are held do not fall.

And even for one who has fallen, Kṛṣṇa leaves the door open:

śrī-bhagavān uvāca | pārtha naiveha nāmutra vināśas tasya vidyate | na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid durgatiṁ tāta gacchati ||

“O Pārtha, such a person is not lost — not in this world, and not in the next. One who has done good, my friend, never comes to a bad end.” — Bhagavad-gītā 6.40

prāpya puṇya-kṛtāṁ lokān uṣitvā śāśvatīḥ samāḥ | śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate ||

“The one who fell from yoga goes to the worlds of the pious, lives there a long time, and then is born again in a good and prosperous family” — to continue from where he stopped. — Bhagavad-gītā 6.41

The taste, once tasted, is never completely forgotten.

Robes and tastes

Today we see this often. A person puts on the clothes of a monk, speaks beautifully about God, calls himself a great teacher — and then it turns out that when no one is watching, he enjoys very low things.

The Bhāgavatam foretold exactly this, describing our age, the age of Kali:

liṅgaṃ evāśrama-khyātāv anyonyāpatti-kāraṇam … anāḍhyataivāsādhutve sādhutve dambha eva tu … dākṣyaṃ kuṭumba-bharaṇaṃ yaśo 'rthe dharma-sevanam

“Only the outer sign will show a person's place in spiritual life, and by the sign alone people will pass from one station to another… To be poor will be counted as being unworthy, and holiness will be only hypocrisy… and dharma will be served for the sake of fame.” — Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 12.2.4–6

Liṅgam eva — “only the sign”. The clothes are there, but what they were a sign of is gone. The library's commentary puts it in one line: the mark has outlived what it was a mark of.

This is sad, but it is not confusing. It just shows the simple truth of this whole article: spirituality is not in the clothes. It is in the taste. Clothes can be put on in a minute. A taste cannot be faked for long. Sooner or later, a person does what he really finds tasty.

That is why the scriptures give such a simple test for a real teacher: “One who wants service, fame or money from his disciples is not a guru” (Hari-bhakti-vilāsa 1.45; more in the study on the guru). A real teacher has tasted something so sweet that he does not need those things.

And the same test is for each of us. Not to judge others — but to look honestly at ourselves. What do I really find tasty? What do I do when no one sees? That is where my consciousness truly is.

Hombre and hambre

There is a beautiful coincidence in the Spanish language. The word for “man” is hombre, and the word for “hunger” is hambre. The two words come from different roots — but they sound almost the same. And it describes human nature very well.

We are hungry. That is what a human being is. A dog is content with its bone, a pig with its trough. A human being is never quite content. Something is always missing. This hunger is not a mistake. It is the most human thing in us. It is the soul's hunger for the taste it was made for.

That is why Christ taught people to ask: “Give us this day our daily bread.” And He Himself explains what bread He means. In the Gospel of Luke, right after giving this prayer, He says:

“If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?… If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” — Gospel of Luke 11:11, 13

The bread we are taught to ask for is the Holy Spirit. And in the Gospel of John, Christ speaks of this bread again:

“I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” — Gospel of John 6:35

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” — Gospel of John 6:63

So the Holy Spirit is exactly the food the hungry soul needs — food that does not cloud consciousness, as so many earthly pleasures do, but makes it clear. “Man shall not live by bread alone,” Christ says, “but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

In the Vedic language, this food is rasa — the taste of God's own joy. And the Bhāgavatam promised what happens when we receive it: “with every bite — satisfaction, strength, and the end of hunger.”

So what does it all mean?

• We are souls wearing costumes — a subtle body and a gross body.
• The costume sends its wishes up to the soul, and the soul takes them as its own. That is why a dog loves slippers and a pig loves the trough — and why people love so many strange things.
• This “happiness” is chemistry — matter touching matter. It comes and goes.
• Contaminated consciousness is covered consciousness. Pure consciousness is the same consciousness, uncovered.
• The covering does not come off by force. It falls away when the soul tastes something higher.
• That higher taste is rasa — the joy God Himself feels. Love for Him, prema, is the fifth and highest goal of life.
• To rise means to gain access to this taste. To fall means to lose it, and to become hungry again.

We are all hungry. That is not a problem — it is a promise. The hunger is there because the food is there. And the One who is rasa Himself is not far away. He is waiting in the heart, ready to feed us — bite by bite, until the hunger is gone.