स ह पञ्चदशाहानि नशाथ हैनमुपससाद किं ब्रवीमि भो इत्यृचः सोम्य यजूंषि सामानीति स होवाच न वै मा प्रतिभान्ति भो इति ॥ ६.७.२ ॥
sa ha pañcadaśāhāni naśātha hainamupasasāda kiṃ bravīmi bho ityṛcaḥ somya yajūṃṣi sāmānīti sa hovāca na vai mā pratibhānti bho iti || 6.7.2 ||
2. Śvetaketu did not eat anything for fifteen days. After that he came to his father and said, ‘O Father, what shall I recite?’ His father said, ‘Recite the Ṛk, Yajuḥ, and Sāma mantras.’ Śvetaketu replied, ‘I can’t recall any of them, sir’.
Word-for-word explanation:
Saḥ, he [Śvetaketu]; ha pañcadaśa ahāni, for fifteen days; na āśa, did not eat anything; atha, then [on the sixteenth day]; enam ha upasasāda, he went to him [his father]; bhoḥ, O Father; kim bravīmi iti, what shall I recite; somya, O Somya; ṛcaḥ yajūṃṣi sāmāni iti, the Ṛk, the Yajuḥ, and the Sāmas; saḥ ha uvāca, [Śvetaketu] said; bhoḥ, O Father; na vai mā pratibhānti iti, they do not come to my mind.
Commentary:
Now the father says to his son, ‘Will you please recite to me the Ṛk, Yajuḥ, and Sāma mantras?’ But the son replies: ‘They are completely gone. I do not remember them. They do not appear in my mind at all.’ Having been without food for fifteen days, Śvetaketu’s mind was almost gone. The mind is the finest part, the essence, of food—not of water, not of anything else. Therefore, the mind must be material.