Bhashya
अथैतत् वामेऽक्षिणि पुरुषरूपम्, एषा अस्य पत्नी- यं त्वं वैश्वानरात्मानं संपन्नोऽसि तस्यास्य इन्द्रस्य भोक्तुः भोग्या एषा पत्नी, विराट् अन्नं भोग्यत्वादेव; तदेतत् अन्नं च अत्ता च एकं मिथुनं स्वप्ने ।कथम्? तयोरेषः- इन्द्राण्याः इन्द्रस्य च एषः संस्तावः, संभूय यत्र संस्तवं कुर्वाते अन्योन्यं स एष संस्तावः; कोऽसौ? य एषोऽन्तर्हृदय आकाशः- अन्तर्हृदये हृदयस्य मांसपिण्डस्य मध्ये; अथैनयोः एतत् वक्ष्यमाणम् अन्नं भोज्यं स्थितिहेतुः; किं तत्? य एषोऽन्तर्हृदये लोहितपिण्डः- लोहित एव पिण्डाकारापन्नो लोहितपिण्डः; अन्नं जग्धं द्वेधा परिणमते; यत्स्थूलं तदधो गच्छति; यदन्यत् तत्पुनरग्निना पच्यमानं द्वेधा परिणमते- यो मध्यमो रसः स लोहितादिक्रमेण पाञ्चभौतिकं पिण्डं शरीरमुपचिनोति; योऽणिष्ठो रसः स एष लोहितपिण्ड इन्द्रस्य लिङ्गात्मनो हृदये मिथुनीभूतस्य, यं तैजसमाचक्षते; स तयोरिन्द्रेन्द्राण्योर्हृदये मिथुनीभूतयोः सूक्ष्मासु नाडीष्वनुप्रविष्टः स्थितिहेतुर्भवति- तदेतदुच्यते- अथैनयोरेतदन्नमित्यादि ।किंचान्यत्; अथैनयो-रेतत्प्रावरणम्- भुक्तवतोः स्वपतोश्च प्रावरणं भवति लोके, तत्सामान्यं हि कल्पयति श्रुतिः ; किं तदिह प्रावरणम् ? यदे- तदन्तर्हृदये जालकमिव अनेकनाडीछिद्रबहुत्वात् जालक- मिव ।अथैनयोरेषा सृतिः मार्गः, संचरतोऽनयेति संचरणी, स्वप्नजाग्गरितदेशागमनमार्गः ; का सा सृतिः ? यैषा हृदयात् हृदयदेशान् ऊर्ध्वाभिमुखी सती उच्चरति नाडी ; तस्याः परिमाणमिदमुच्यते- यथा लोके केशः सहस्रधा भिन्नः अत्यन्तसूक्ष्मो भवति एवं सूक्ष्मा अस्य देहस्य संबन्धिन्यः हिता नाम हिता इत्येवं ख्याताः नाड्यः, ताश्चान्तर्हृदये मांसपिण्डे प्रतिष्ठिता भवन्ति ; हृदयाद्विप्ररूढास्ताः सर्वत कदम्बकेसरवत् ; एताभिर्नाडीभिरत्यन्तसूक्ष्माभिः एतदन्नम् आस्रवत् गच्छत् आस्रवति गच्छति ; तदेतद्देवताशरीरम् अनेनान्नेन दामभूतेनोपचीयमानं तिष्ठति ।तस्मात्- य- स्मात् स्थूलेनान्नेन उपचितः पिण्डः, इदं तु देवताशरीरं लिङ्गं सूक्ष्मेणान्नेनोपचितं तिष्ठति, पिण्डोपचयकरमप्यन्नं प्र- विविक्तमेव मूत्रपुरीषादिस्थूलमपेक्ष्य, लिङ्गस्थितिकरं तु अन्नं ततोऽपि सूक्ष्मतरम्- अतः प्रविविक्ताहारः पिण्डः, तस्मा- त्प्रविविक्ताहारादपि प्रविविक्ताहारतर एष लिङ्गात्मा इवैव भवति, अस्माच्छरीरात् शरीरमेव शारीरं तस्माच्छरीरात्, आत्मनः वैश्वानरात्- तैजसः सूक्ष्मान्नोपचितो भवति ॥
In plain words
Now picture a second figure, this one in the left eye -- she is his wife: the wife, that is, of the very self you have already become, the one called Vaiśvānara. She belongs to Indra as the one he enjoys, and he is her enjoyer. Her name is Virāj, and Virāj simply means food -- she is called that because being enjoyed is exactly what she is for. So food and the one who eats it are, in dream, a single couple. How does that work? Their meeting place -- Indra's and Indrāṇī's -- is wherever the two of them come together and unite. And where is that? It is the space inside the heart -- inside, meaning right in the middle of the heart's own flesh. Now, what feeds this pair and keeps them going is a particular food, which is about to be described. And what is it? It is the red mass inside the heart -- called that simply because it is red matter shaped into a lump. Once eaten, food splits into two: the coarse part passes downward and out, while the rest is cooked again by the body's inner fire and splits a second time. The coarser of those two refined portions builds the ordinary, five-element body, stage by stage, starting with blood. But the very finest portion -- that same red matter in its subtlest form, belonging to Indra the subtle self now joined with his mate in the heart -- is what is called the Taijasa. This finest essence slips into the tiny channels of Indra and Indrāṇī, joined there in the heart, and that is what keeps the pair alive. This is exactly what the words "now, of these two, this food..." are pointing to. There is more. This same pair also shares a covering -- just as, in ordinary life, two people who have eaten and gone to sleep pull a covering over themselves, and scripture simply borrows that familiar picture. What is the covering here? It is this net-like structure inside the heart -- net-like because of how many tiny channel-openings run through it. And this pair also shares a road: it is called the "moving path" because they travel by it, the very route between the world of dreams and the world of waking. Which channel is that? It is the one that rises up out of the heart, out of the heart's own region, angled upward. And here is its measure: take a hair and split it a thousand times over until it is impossibly fine -- these channels, which belong to this very body, are that fine. They go by a name of their own: the "hitā," the beneficial ones. They are rooted right inside the heart, in its flesh, and from there they branch out in every direction, the way filaments spread from a kadamba blossom. Through these impossibly fine channels, this subtle food streams and moves -- it flows, it travels. And this subtle, luminous body stays alive, kept nourished by that food as if by a lifeline. So here is the whole picture: the ordinary body is built from gross food, but this subtle body is built from subtle food. Even the food that builds the gross body, refined as it already is, only counts as refined next to something coarser still -- urine, waste, and the like. But the food that keeps the subtle body going is finer than even that. So the gross body eats refined food -- and the subtle self eats food more refined than that refined food, more refined, in fact, than this whole body, than the bodily self, than the self called Vaiśvānara. The Taijasa, the dreaming self, simply lives on subtler food.
Close to the Sanskrit
Now, this person-shaped figure in the left eye -- this is his wife: of him whom you have become, [namely] the Self called Vaiśvānara; of this Indra, the enjoyer, this is the enjoyed wife -- [named] Virāj, [that is,] food, simply because she is the object to be enjoyed. So this food and this eater together are a single pair, in the dream state. How so? Of the two of them -- of Indrāṇī and of Indra -- this is their meeting-place, where, having come together, the two perform union with each other; this is that meeting-place. What is that? It is this space that is within the heart -- 'within the heart' meaning in the middle of the heart's flesh-lump. Now, of these two, this food about to be described is what is eaten, the cause of their subsistence. What is that? It is this red lump that is within the heart -- called the 'red lump' because it is precisely red matter that has taken lump-form. Food, once eaten, transforms in two ways: what is coarse of it goes downward; what remains, being further cooked by [digestive] fire, again transforms in two ways -- the middling essence builds up, by the sequence beginning with blood, the gross, five-element body; the finest essence -- that is this same red lump, of Indra the subtle-body-self, paired [with his mate] in the heart, which they call the Taijasa. That [essence], having entered the subtle channels of Indra and Indrāṇī paired in the heart, becomes the cause of their sustenance. This is what is meant by 'now, of these two, this food...' and so on. What else? Now, this is their [shared] covering: in the world, there is a covering for those who have eaten and are sleeping; scripture applies that same common fact here. What, here, is that covering? It is this net-like thing within the heart -- net-like, because of the great number of openings made by the many channels. Now, this is their path, their road -- called the 'moving-path' because the two of them move about by means of it -- the path for passing between the dream-region and the waking-region. What is that path? It is this channel that rises from the heart, from the region of the heart, facing upward. Its measure is now stated: just as, in ordinary life, a hair split a thousandfold becomes exceedingly fine, so too these channels, belonging to this body, are fine -- the channels known by the name 'hitā' [the beneficial ones]. And they are established within the heart, in the flesh-lump; having sprouted from the heart, they spread on all sides, like the filaments of a kadamba flower. Through these exceedingly fine channels, this food, flowing, moving -- flows, moves. This subtle, deity-body remains nourished by this food, which serves as its sustaining tether. Therefore: since the [gross] lump is built up by gross food, but this subtle, deity-body remains built up by subtle food -- the food that builds the gross lump, though itself refined, is refined only relative to the coarse residue of urine, feces, and the rest; but the food that sustains the subtle body is even finer than that. Hence the [gross] lump has [merely] refined food, while, more refined even than that refined food, this subtle self becomes, as it were -- [more refined] than this body, than the bodily [self], than that body, [namely] the self called Vaiśvānara -- the Taijasa becomes one built up by subtle food.