Having known that, again he approached Varuṇa his father, saying: ‘Lord, teach me Brahman’. To him he said: By tapas investigate Brahman. Tapas is Brahman. He practiced tapas. He, having practiced tapas, concluded: Life is Brahman.

Bhṛgu, unsatisfied with the previous conclusion, returns to his teacher. Varuṇa repeats the instruction: “Tapasā brahma vijijñāsasva” — by means of tapas investigate Brahman. And he adds: “Tapo brahmeti” — tapas itself is Brahman.

This is a crucial teaching: tapas (spiritual discipline, austerity, concentration) is not merely a means, but an expression of Brahman itself. It is the concentrated energy that allows the vision of Reality.

Bhṛgu practices again and reaches his second conclusion: prāṇo brahma — life is Brahman. Life (prāṇa) is more subtle than food; it is the vital principle that animates the body. Without prāṇa, the body is merely inert matter. The prāṇa is the efficient cause of the physical body.

This is a deeper understanding, but still not the final one. The prāṇamaya-kośa is the energetic level, but it does not yet reach the conscious mind. Bhṛgu will return to ask again, driven by his dissatisfaction with partial answers.

For the yogi, this indicates that spiritual progress requires persistence — not settling for partial understandings, but continuing to inquire more deeply.