Mandukya_Upanishad

it were. This is the function of the mouth. The medium ofthe reception of objects into our own self is the mouth. Inone sense, the eyes also are the mouth, the ears, are themouth, because they receive and absorb certain vibrationsthrough different functions. Vibrations impinge on ourpersonality through the avenues called the senses, viz., eyes,ears, etc., and all these may be regarded as mouths; in thissense, everything that is cognised by the senses is āharā orfood for this personality. Anything that we consume withour senses is āharā. Āharā-śuddhau sattva-śuddhih: Whenthere is purity of food, there is illumination by means ofsattva from within, says the Chhāndogya Upanishad. Itdoes not mean that we should take only milk and fruitsevery day, which we usually regard as sāttvica diet, whilewe may think evil thoughts, see ugly sights, hear bad news,and so on. Sāttvica āharā is the purified vibration which thesenses receive and communicate to the personality throughall their functions, at all times. So, the senses are themouths, and every kind of sense may be regarded as amouth. There are nineteen functional apparatuses of thiswakeful consciousness through which it receives vibrationsfrom and establishes a contact with the outer world. Whatare the nineteen mouths? We have the five senses ofknowledge, or jñānendriyas, as we call them: śrotra (ears),tvak (skin), chakṣhus (eyes), jihvā (tongue) and ghranā(nose). These are the five senses of knowledge. And we havethe five organs of action: vāk (speech), pāṇi (hands), pāda(feet); upastha (genitals) and pāyu (anus). Then, we havethe five operational activities through the subtle body aswell as the physical body, which are called the prānas:57