He practiced tapas. He, having practiced tapas, concluded: Food is Brahman. From food, verily, these beings are born; by food, having been born, they live; into food, upon departing, they enter.

Bhṛgu begins his investigation by practicing tapas — intensive spiritual discipline. Through this practice, he reaches his first conclusion: annaṃ brahma — food is Brahman.

This conclusion is partially correct. The physical body (annamaya-kośa) originates from food (semen and blood are essences of food), is sustained by food, and finally disintegrates returning to the earth. At this level, food fulfills the definition of Brahman.

However, Bhṛgu is not satisfied. He returns to his father and asks again, because he knows intuitively that there must be something deeper. The physical body, made of food, is insentient; it has no consciousness of its own. Brahman, as supreme Reality, must be the source of consciousness.

This sequence teaches the progressive method of yoga: beginning with the most tangible (the physical body) and gradually ascending to the most subtle. Each level is true in its own domain, but is only a step toward the complete truth.

Food, in the subtle sense, represents the entire physical universe — the densest manifestation of Reality.