From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Fri May 07 21:56:32 1999
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: Natural Diet: From the Writings of Kirpal Singh
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 8 May 1999 04:56:32 GMT




                                NATURAL DIET

                                     by

                            Sant Kirpal Singh Ji


                     This compilation of the writings of
                     Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj on diet
                     was published in the Oct./Nov. 1977
                       issue of Sant Bani Magazine
                     ------------------------------------



                           EDITOR'S* INTRODUCTION
			     [*Russell Perkins]

"Nectar of one man may be poison to the other. It depends on various
temperaments. One should not impose his ideas on other people....
"The best thing would be to follow the diet (vegetarian) which suits
one."
                                - FROM LETTERS OF KIRPAL SINGH
                                  (Sat Sandesh, August 1970, p, 26)


  This compilation of the writings of Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj on diet
was prompted by an interchange between Sant Ajaib Singh and a disciple at
the last darshan of His American tour, August 23, 1977, at Sant Bani Ashram
in New Hampshire. The disciple asked Sant Ji if it was true that some
vegetarian diets were more conducive to spiritual growth than others,
particularly in regard to helping the Master stay in His body longer; and
Sant Ji replied, "You see, there is no real meaning to this question. You
know what Master has said about the vegetarian diet, and whatever He has
written about diet, you should eat that type of food." We are publishing
this article (which will also be available as a separate pamphlet) so that
all initiates may do that.

  The Master wrote many letters to individuals regarding diet; but most of
them are not included here. As I have written elsewhere, when He was going
over the manuscript of "The Way of the Saints," He refused to allow the
inclusion of a large number of letters in that book, because, as He said,
the letters were written to individuals and did not necessarily apply to
everyone. Sometimes His advice in a letter addressed to one person was
radically different from His advice in another letter on the same subject
addressed to another person.

  In the year 1965 I suffered terribly from a stomach disorder. I was in
constant pain and nothing I ate digested properly. I tried many doctors,
chiropractors, etc., and many dietary changes, but nothing seemed to help.
Finally my wife, Judith, in desperation wrote the Master about it; and He
replied as follows:

  "I feel concerned about the physical health of dear Russell when he is
having trouble with digestion. He may resort to expert medical advice,
preferably homeopathic. Besides he should eat some such of the food
ingredients which can be easily digested by him. Porridge is an ideal food
mixed with honey and milk. You need not feel embarrassed on this behalf.
My love and blessings are with you both."
                                                October 15, 1965


  I did do what Master had told me, and it worked immediately: I consulted
a homeopathic physician in Boston, and I immediately began eating porridge
mixed with milk and honey. My trouble subsided within a week and has not
returned since. But I think, even though the wording in the letter is a
flat statement, (i.e., "Porridge is an ideal food mixed with honey and milk"),
it would be a great mistake to say that eating porridge mixed with honey and
milk is a requirement on the Path and that all satsangis have to do that or
else run the risk of displeasing the Master. If it were important for all
satsangis to do that, He would have told them; and nowhere in His published
writings is such a statement found.

  Satsangis, like other people, have differences of opinion on everything.
As Master wrote, it is the sign of sentient life. This also includes diet;
but to allow our personal opinions to become moral issues and to make them
wedges which separate us from each other is a terrible mistake. Master has
written: "We must constantly remember that our aim is God ... We must be
above party spirit and avoid party factions. ... We must therefore form
ourselves into a band of selfless workers united in indissoluble bonds of
love and fellowship."
                                        (The Way of the Saints, p. 276)

  And even more specifically:

"There is a growing tendency with some persons to make divisions among the
Satsangis- "good" Satsangis and "bad" Satsangis. All Satsangis are Satsangis,
and one who has been chosen, called, justified, accepted, and glorified by
being linked with the living strands of life within ... is truly in touch
with Truth (Sat) and accordingly is a Satsangi. To classify Satsangis into
good and bad Satsangis is hardly justifiable, for it is said, 'God first
created the Light; We are all children of the Light; The whole creation
sprang from the Light; Why then dub anyone as evil? This being the case, we
are all equal in the sight of God. Whosoever thinks otherwise has, I am
afraid, not yet come by the rudiments of the sacred science. Some may be
slow and some rapid in their inner development ... but to give a bad name
to any is not justifiable in the least. And if one does that, he shows a
bad taste and the sooner he rids himself of the habit, the better it will
be for all concerned."

                                        (Ibid., p. 354)

   Following are the major references to diet found in the writings of
Master Kirpal Singh; there are a few other references, but they are either
in passing or duplicate what is contained in those published here. The
book, "The Wheel of Life," from which the last long reference is taken,
has been out of print, but, God willing, will be published soon by Sant
Bani Ashram along with other writings of Kirpal Singh on Karma.

                                                        RUSSELL PERKINS

                             *   *   *   


A NATURAL DIET consists of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and
permitted dairy products. Animal foods such as meat, fish, fowl,
eggs or their by-products, and spices and intoxicants should be strictly
avoided. A strict vegetarian diet is what is wanted. The stomach should
also remain partly empty. Let half of the stomach be full with food, one
fourth with water and let one fourth remain vacant, so that digestion will
not be difficult. The more your stomach is clear, the more concentration
you will have. If your stomach is upset, then naturally you cannot sit,
you cannot concentrate. So to help you in your meditations, the stomach
should be set. No overfeeding should be indulged in. Eat when you really
feel hungry, not everytime putting in something. Two meals a day are
enough, though you may have a little breakfast in the morning. Sometimes
the Masters say that those who would like to progress more should have
only one meal a day.

   Let the stomach remain partly empty. If you put more food in it than
can be digested, naturally the things which are not digested will create
disease. Eat as much as you can digest. Give some rest to your poor
stomach. It takes at least four to five hours to digest anything. If you
eat too much too often, your stomach will revolt. Eat a simple vegetarian
diet, and only as much as you really need. The servant who is engaged to
work 24 hours will revolt. He must have some rest during the day and
night. So the stomach should also have rest, and that will only commence
four or five hours after you have taken your food. If you take food at 8
a.m., then 12 noon, then 4 p.m., then 8 p.m., your stomach will have no
time to rest. So simple diet, simple living and high thinking is what is
required. The more you eat, the more you cannot digest, the more disease
will affect you. So let your stomach have some rest. Men do not die only
of hunger, but also from overfeeding. This creates diseases. So eat as
much as you require when you are really hungry. Don't for formality say,
"Now we should have something to eat." This is the usual course with most
of us, children and adult.

  The more we live a regulated life, the better our health will be. All
phases of life are touched upon by the Master to help people. If you have
a simple diet and eat only that much which can be digested, you will be
healthy. If you eat more than can be digested the result is you cannot
sit, you cannot think clearly, you cannot devote time, you feel lazy. So
simple living, simple diet and high thinking is what is wanted. You should
eat only what is really a necessity. Do not overfeed. Overfeeding will make
you lazy and slothful. You will always be procrastinating. You will say,
"No I will do it later, let me rest." This is because the stomach is not
well.

  Once it so happened that Prophet Mohammed had forty followers. One doctor
attached himself to them, so that if anyone fell sick, he would give him
some medicine. For six months the doctor remained with them but nobody fell
ill. Then he came to the Prophet and said, "Well, nobody has fallen sick,
so there is no use in my being here." Prophet Mohammed told him, "Well look
here, so long as they follow my behests, they will not be ill. I tell them
to take one morsel of food less then they really feel like, not to have a
full diet, to eat a little less, so that when they leave the table, they
are still a little hungry. I tell them to eat twice a day and during the
day they should work hard. They should also do their meditations. If they
follow these behests, nobody will fall sick."

  These are very small things but they have much effect. So a simple
diet, a strict vegetarian diet with no spices, should be adhered to. Eat
only as much as you need and leave the table still a little hungry. These
are the things to be followed which will make you active in all your
affairs, whether in meditation, physical work or anything else.

                                           MORNING TALKS, pp. 20-22


  What we eat goes to constitute the body and the mind. "Sound mind in
a sound body" is a well known aphorism. We can neither have one nor
the other with unwholesome diet. A strictly vegetarian diet consisting of
vegetables and fruits, both fresh and dried, cereals, dairy products like
milk, cream, butter, cheese, yogurt, etc., is essential for all aspirants 
for Truth. We must therefore avoid meat, meat juices, fish, fowl, eggs
both fertile and unfertile, or anything containing any of these ingredients
in any form or in any degree. Every action has a reaction and flesh eating
involves contracting fresh Karmas and thus helps to keep the inexorable
Karmic wheel in motion for we have to reap what we sow. We cannot
have roses if we sow thistles.

  The above prohibitions apply equally to all kinds of alcoholic drinks,
intoxicants, opiates and narcotic drugs, as they tend to dull our
consciousness and make us morbid.

  "The body is the temple of the living God" and it must therefore be
kept scrupulously clean.

  Any prospective candidate for Initiation should therefore try the
vegetarian diet for at least three to six months, to ensure that he or she
can adhere to it, when put on the Path.

                                     THE WAY OF THE SAINTS, pp. 266-67


  Everyone seeks rest and peace, but they remain as elusive as ever. All
our efforts in this direction come to naught and prove fruitless. Why?
Because we work on the wrong lines. Man lives on two planes, the outer
and the inner. First, we have to settle things outside to bring peace on
the outer plane before we can enter within. There are three factors that
count a great deal in this connection: Right Occupation; Right Conduct;
and Right Diet.

  The greatest purpose of human life is that one should know one's self
and know God, and all the rest is mere dissipation.

  "Sound mind in a sound body" is a well-known aphorism. One has therefore
to work for these before anything else. We have to keep both body and mind
in a healthy condition before these can be used as instruments for
spiritual advancement. For this, we have of necessity to resort to food.
We cannot do without food for keeping the body and soul together.

  Our first and foremost problem then is food, for food conditions body as
well as mind. Right Type of Food; Rightly Earned; Rightly Taken helps a lot
in this direction. One must, therefore, earn his daily bread by the sweat
of his brow, as the saying goes, and should not depend on others' earnings.
We must for our livelihood engage in some honest and useful pursuit, may be
physical or-mental, but it must be free from all guile, hypocrisy, ill will
and animosity, for Karmic Law is inexorable in its working. Every action
leads to reaction and thus the endless series rolls on interminably. Hence,
the need for an honest living, howsoever poor it may be. You cannot have
riches by honest avocation. Riches grow by the groans of the poor and the
downtrodden, the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, and thrive on the
lifeblood of our fellow beings. We ought not, therefore, to run after rich
foods and dainty dishes, for these bring in their train much blood-sucking
and are tainted with the untold miseries of the lowly and in the long run
make us miserable as well. All of us are being consumed in the invisible
fires of hell, and yet know it not.

  Food, as you know, is made for man and not man for food. We have to make
the best use of food like all the other things of life. One who is a slave
of the palate cannot do anything useful. By a righteous control of the
palate, we can control our entire physical and mental systems. A simple diet
is more nourishing and wholesome and conducive to spiritual advancement than
all the so-called delicacies which the modern culinary art provides. It
will always give a comfortable feeling and serenity of mind, and help you
to live within your means however limited they may be, without extending
your hand before others.

  When I was about to retire after my long government service, I was asked
by my Chief if I would like to have an extension, but I politely declined
the offer saying, "I don't want any extension as I know how to arrange my
affairs within the limited amount of my pension."

  Now, foods are of three kinds:

  1. SATVIK: Pure foods: milk, butter, cheese, rice, lentils, pulses,
     grains, vegetables, fruits and nuts.
  2. RAJSIK: Energizing foods: peppers, spices, condiments, Sour and
     bitter things.
  3. TAMSIK: Enervating foods: state foods, eggs, meat, fish, fowl and
     wine, etc.

  Out of the above, we should always prefer Satvik or pure foods. These
do a lot of good. Again, even of these, we must partake a little below
the saturation point of the appetite. When we get delicious foods, we
are tempted to eat more than what is actually needed; and the extra
food taken, instead of giving extra health and energy, proves baneful.
The food which is not digested properly and assimilated in the system
causes colic pains and aches and in some cases even cholera, and one
has to pay with one's life itself. "Do not overload the motor of your
stomach," else you fall an easy prey to nausea. A surfeit of even what
is good does prove harmful at times. A moderation in Victuals and viands
helps in the growth of vital powers in man. In the Puranas (ancient
Hindu scriptures) there is an allegory of the Food-god complaining to
the Lord Vishnu, the Sustainer of the Universe, that people misused
him a great deal. To this Lord Vishnu humorously replied, "Those who
eat you too much, you must eat them up, for that is the only remedy."

  Fresh air is the most essential part of our food. One must take long
breaths, retain them a while and then exhale them out fully so as to cast
out all the impurities of the body. Besides, one must drink a lot of pure
water and take fruit juices to flush the system through and through to
make one clean. But avoid all types of hot and soft drinks,* spiritous li-
quors, and intoxicants, for they render the mind and intellect morbid.
Grains and fruits should form our normal and staple foods.

(* I do not know what specifically the Master is referring to by "hot and  
soft drinks," but it cannot mean what it appears to. All recent Masters
have taken tea regularly and given it to their disciples, and Master
Kirpal occasionally drank coffee (although they don't advocate its use
for the purpose of waking up for meditation, as Sant Ji has pointed out).
And both Masters Kirpal Singh and Ajaib Singh (I cannot speak for Sawan
Singh) drank Coca-Cola whenever they felt like it, which in the case of
Master Kirpal, was often. During the 1963 tour, Judith and I watched the
Master go over to a Coke machine (at a gas station outside of Houston,
Texas), put in a dime, take out a Coke, and drink it right out of the
bottle. I later observed Him drink Coca-Cola on many occasions, and I have
been given Coca-Cola as parshad by both Masters Kirpal and Ajaib.
THE EDITOR.)

  Man, as said before, must earn his livelihood for himself by all fair,
legitimate, and honest means. Again, it is the moral duty of the housewife
to cook the Satvik food with heart engrossed in sweet remembrance of the
Lord. A food cooked like this, with the mind entrenched in the Beloved and
the hands engaged in the work, becomes a manna from heaven and proves a
blessing to those who partake of it. The Great Master, Hazur Baba Sawan
Singh Ji Maharaj, often used to give us an instance of an Indian peasant
with his hands on the plough but singing paeans of soul-enthralling songs
to his lady love. Such indeed should be our attitude in these things.

  In the year 1921, I was working as Accounts Officer in the Sikh Unit
No. 36. I got an orderly-cook in the field. I told him that I would not
mind what his life was in the past, so long as he cooked my food while
repeating the Holy Names of God on his lips and did not allow anyone
to enter the kitchen and divert his mind in idle talk. The cook promised
to do this and everything went well for two or three days, but on the
fourth day as I sat for my meditation I felt that my mind was not steady.
In the middle of the night, I called the cook and inquired of him if there
was anyone else with him in the kitchen while he was preparing the food.
At first he denied it, but ultimately confessed that a person had come and
had engaged him in conversation and thus diverted him from the sweet
remembrance of God. He was warned against this and thereafter he always
followed my behests scrupulously. This then is the best criterion to weigh
one's spiritual advancement and the purity of the food-stuff that one
takes, both in procuration and in preparation.

  Sheikh Saadi, a great mystic poet of Shiraz in Persia, always
preached to divide the stomach into four compartments:

  Two for filling with a limited quantity of simple diet; one for pure and
clear water, while reserving one for the Light of God.

  Baba Jaimal Singh Ji, a great Master in his time, used to buy some loaves
of bread or chapatis and would wrap them in a piece of cloth and hang them
on a branch of a tree. He would devote himself to meditation all the day
long and when he would get up from his Samadhi, he would take one loaf of
bread, soak it in water, and partake of it before going into meditation
again. Whole wheat bread is a complete food in itself and we deprive it of
vital elements by removing the husk and by grinding it into white flour by
power-driven mills and thus destroy the phosphorus and oil in the grains
and make a terrible mess of it.

  I very often witnessed with my own eyes Hazur Baba Sawan Singh's food
which was always very simple and consisted of just a few wholesome items in
very small quantities.

  All the Saints live on a very frugal repast. So did Shamas Tabrez, a
Muslim devout, and Swami Shiv Dayal Singh Ji, both of whom lived by the
principle: Eat Less and Remain Happy.

  With a life of simple food and high thinking coupled with high morals and
chaste conduct, one needs no tonics which glut the market in these days.
The luxurious food not only upsets the motor of the stomach but leads to
dire consequences that at times prove very dangerous. Very often persons
complain that they do not seem to progress on the path, but little do they
realize that it is due to faulty diet and wrong living. Prophet Mohammed,
we read, lived mostly on barley-bread.

                                        THE WAY OF THE SAINTS, pp. 291-96


  An analysis of the facts of life will show that normally much depends
upon our environment and mode of living. Diet plays an important part
in the build-up of our mental thinking. The food we take when assimilated
in the system, colors our life impulses in its own color. The very bones
and blood get dyed in the color of the food we take. Adulterated or dead
foods cannot be the source of Life. This is why the Masters on the Path
of Spirituality always insist on complete abstinence from all meats, fish,
fowl, and eggs (both fertile and unfertile), and from all alcoholic
beverages or intoxicants and other opiates and stimulants, as one dulls
the thinking faculty and the other flares up animal passions within and
renders one insensate to higher impulses in life. "As you think, so you
become," is an age-old aphorism and to it maybe added, "As is the food,
so is the mind."

  A natural diet, comprising vegetables, fruits, nuts, butter, bread and
cheese in moderate quantities, is highly nutritious for the health and
strength necessary for carrying on obligations of life, either earthly or
spiritual. An eminent physician says, "We dig our graves in the kitchen
and more deeply with our teeth." Moreover, closely connected with this
problem is the far-reaching inexorable law of Karma, the Law of Cause
and Effect or Action and Reaction. "As you sow, so shall you reap," is
an adage too well known to need any comments. You cannot have roses
out of tares. Everything in the world or of the world has to be paid for.
Even our so-called joys and pleasures require a price. You cannot take
away life without paying the penalty thereof. "The wages of sin," said
Christ, "is death," and you can well decide for yourself if you are
prepared to pay for it. ...

  All prohibited foods and drinks should be scrupulously eschewed even
in the face of medical advice, as none of these can lengthen the scheduled
life-span nor are, in fact, conducive to nourishment. It is certainly a
wrong notion that flesh or eggs give extra vigor or strength; on the
contrary, these things flare up the carnal appetites which in the long run
result in gross dissipation of energy.

                                SEVEN PATHS TO PERFECTION, pp. 10-12, 19


  First of all you see, we should stand on our own legs. Don't be dependent
on anybody. One Saint prays, 0 God, give me this: That I may stand on my
own legs. If I have to be dependent on others, it is better that You take
my soul from the body. To be dependent on others is a heinous crime; all
evils creep in. So we must have honest earning. All Masters have referred
to it; Guru Nanak said, He who earns his money in the honest way and shares
with others, such a man alone can know God. Whatever money we receive
through dishonest means, naturally, we have got that dishonesty creeping up
within ourselves. If money is earned by honest means, then you will find
some rest - some peace.

  Further, whatever we eat and drink has its own effect. If a dog is kept
on vegetable food, he is very amiable. If he is kept on meat, etc., he will
be howling and growling. So it is a satvik diet that we have to take.

  And even if we take that kind of diet, we have to watch the hands through
which the food passes: by whom it is cooked, and by whom it is served. That
diet also carries the effect of those through whose hands the food has been
prepared and served. All these things affect the man who eats it. If the
food is earned by honest means, and those who prepare the food have been in
the sweet remembrance of God, with chaste thoughts - then you will find that
when you eat, that will give you calmness within.

  And one more thing: If such food is prepared this way, that will have
its effect; but if you eat too much, more than what is wanted, then what
is the result? Diet which is digested will give you strength; that which is
not digested? So diet has a great effect, you see. Eat one morsel less than
you need.

  So our earnings should be honest; that is the first step. It should not
be blood squeezed from others. What is yours, is yours; what it others' is
for the others. Don't usurp the rights of others; that is the first thing 
required. Otherwise many evil thoughts will creep up in you.

  There was one Maharishi Shivbrat Lal. One man came to him and said, "My
head aches, I cannot sit in meditation for long." He said, Look to your
stomach." Then another man came the same day and said, "My mind wanders
away." "Well, look to your stomach." Then another man said, "I cannot sit
in meditation; my mind rebels." He said, "Look to your stomach." So this is
the first elementary thing which stands as an impediment on the Way you
have been put on.

                        THE THIRD WORLD TOUR OF KIRPAL SINGH, pp. 132-33


  Diet naturally plays a major role in the problem of life. We need food
for the upkeep of our physical being. We are compelled by nature to exist
in this world so long as our allotted span of life is determined by destiny,
or karmas do not run out. For our very existence we have to subsist on one
thing or another. Man is quite helpless in this respect. The law of Karma
is nature's unseen method of keeping the world in its iron grip, so as to
keep it peopled and going. It, therefore, becomes all the more necessary
that man should guard against contracting eating habits thoughtlessly,
heedlessly, and indiscriminately. As we cannot do without food, we must
select at least such articles of diet as may prove the least harmful in
our spiritual pursuit. Our diet should not contract for us unnecessary
Karmic debts which it may be possible to avoid by a little care. With this
end in view, let us study nature.

  Man's diet comes mainly from earth; i.e., land, air and water. We also
see that life exists in all that is moving and static. The moving creatures
live upon each other, as well as on static creation - to wit, vegetables,
plants, shrubs, herbs, trees and the like. Man, however, makes friends
with and loves creatures (birds and animals) as live upon the life in nature
and makes them his pets. The ancients knew well that man, bird, and animal
were all bound up with the same Karmic bond. Man with the thought of common
brotherhood worked hard both for himself and for his pets. He tilled the
land, grew fruits, and produced food both for himself, his bird friends,
and his kine and oxen. But in course of time, he grew ease-loving, with the
result that he first preyed upon the animals' milk and then upon their
flesh as well.

  According to the moral, social, and spiritual codes of conduct, one
must not interfere with the lives of any animal in God's creation. In India,
this standard of living is enunciated as Ahimsa or non-injury to all living
creatures. This led to the vegetarian diet as contradistinguished from the
non-vegetarian diet. As we think deeply over the natural and unnatural
phases of diet, we come to a better understanding of the problem of Gunas
or the innate propensities, natural inclinations and latent tendencies that
are inborn in all sentient beings.

  Diet must be classified into grains, cereals, vegetables and fruits
which are classed as Satvik or Satoguni diet that is pure and produces
serenity and equipoise, befitting sages and seers. The saints and hermits
who retired to secluded caves and huts for meditation always preferred
Kand (potatoes), sweet potatoes, zamikund or artichoke etc., which grow
and develop under the ground. They also took mool and phal; the edible
roots of which also grow under ground like radish, turnips, beet root. The
phal (fruits) provided them with sufficient vitamins and organic salts in
their original form to keep them fit for a life of concentration and
meditation. Some of the foods naturally grow in abundance while others are
produced with some effort. The grains and cereals were meant for the
general public.

  Satvik, or pure diet of mool, kand, phal and cow's milk, etc., prolongs
life and cures a number of diseases and ailments. Its utility has come to
be realized even by the medical science. Nowadays many medicines are
prepared from herbs, fruits and grains and these have been found to be
very efficacious. Again, all natural curative methods of sun-bathing,
sea-bathing, mud-bathing, water-bathing, massage, physiotherapy, nature-
therapy, and chromotherapy are producing wonderful results. The Satvik
foods and simple living are conducive to the development of highest culture
or civilization. We must remember that food is made for man and not man for
food. Eat to live and not live to eat should be our maxim in life. By
following this course, we create receptivity for higher things in life,
ethical and spiritual, leading gradually to self-knowledge and God-knowledge.

  Rajsic or energy-producing diet includes beside vegetarian foods, products
like milk, cream, butter and ghee, etc., from animals other than cows, if
taken in moderation. In ancient India, the use of milk was restricted mainly
to the princely order as the princes needed extra energy for keeping under
their control rough, turbulent and barbarous people not living up to any
set principles of life. The milking of dairy cattle was permissible only
after the cows were bred and treated with extra care,and sufficient milk
was left in their udders for feeding their own offspring, the calf. The
residue of milk was allowed to man under special circumstances. This
special rule was intended to prevent degeneration of the early
civilization. The limited use of milk was also made by rishis in ancient
times, who lived in comparative isolation, all by themselves, and devoted
most of their time to meditation in seclusion and they left a lot of milk
for the use and growth of the animal progeny.

  The traditional custom of using only the residue of milk is still
prevalent in some of the villages in India. But today, man in his lust for
unbridled power is violating all the laws of nature under the pretext of the
so-called freedom that he claims for himself. Man has unfortunately come to
believe in the principle of the "survival of the fittest" and has,
therefore, to pay dearly for his unwise choice in the matter.

  The only consideration of man, today, is to obtain as much milk as
possible even at the cost of the calves themselves. In some places, he
throws them in boiling water immediately after they are born, and applies
milking machines to the udders to draw out the last drop of milk to keep
pace with trade competition and profit-making. This is what some proudly
call high technical skill and civilization. Our budding reformers of today
thrust such trades and practices on man instead of improving agriculture
and rearing and developing livestock, both of which are harmless pursuits
and could relieve the pressure of want so much talked of these days.

  Tamsic or stupefying diet consists of meat and liquors, garlic, etc., or
in fact any other diet, natural or unnatural, stale or fresh. Those who
resort to free and uncontrolled eating, live to eat and not eat to live.
Their aim in life is hedonistic and their slogan is "eat, drink and be
merry." They indulge headlong in what they call the sweet pleasures of
life. When blessed with small powers of concentration, they direct all
their energies (mental and physical) towards glory of the little self in
them, the egoistic mind. Man is pleased to term this course of action as
higher reaction of civilization. This sort of living is strictly prohibited,
by the Masters of the highest order, to those seeking the knowledge of
the spirit in man and the final liberation of the soul from the shackles
of mind and matter.

  Will thinking persons just stop a while to cogitate on and realize the
true position of man? Why is he so proud to call himself, or to be
called, the noblest of creatures, the roof and crown of the creation?
Whither is man moving headlong? Is he not standing on the brink of a
terrific precipice with an extremely sharp declivity, ready to topple
down any moment? He has, by his conduct, exposed himself recklessly
to chance winds of Nature's vengeance. Hourly he stands in danger of
being swept to the deepest depths of physical and moral annihilation.

  Man has taken his lessons in diet from the beasts of the jungle and
acts like a wild creature. He delights in taking the flesh not only of
the harmless creatures like kine and goats, deer and sheep, the innocent
fowls of the air and fish of the water, but actually partakes of the
human flesh and the human blood to satisfy his insatiate hunger for gold
and riches. He has not yet finished his course of self-aggrandizement
which he proudly calls progress. He might well ponder over the basic
principles on which the Masters advise and prescribe vegetable diet.
Vegetables, too, contain life in a latent form, as has now been proved
by scientists all the world over. Still, as we have to play our part in
this panorama of life on the stage of the world and have therefore to
maintain ourselves, to keep body and soul together, we have to depend
on produce of the soil.

  Yes, of course, there is life in vegetables, fruits and grains. The
essential element of life is growth and decay. The truth of this can be
traced from the earliest times. It is not a new verdict, though some of
the scientific minds have rediscovered this truth and lay claim to it as
their own.

  Now let us come to the point. In the entire creation, the law of nature
holds that life depends on life. Like creatures in other grades of
creation, man also maintains himself by eating something containing life.
Outwardly it appears that with regard to contracting Karmas, man is in
the same boat with other creatures in the lower strata of life-animals,
reptiles and the like.

  Nature has one other propelling wheel working in this material world:
the law of Evolution. It provides that all living beings pass from one
position to another. As they travel from one order of creation to the
next higher, each being has a separate value from the lower one. The
basis of determining the face value as well as the intrinsic value is
matter and intellect: the more valuable the constituents of matter present
in a being in prominent form, the more the intellect and more the value of
the being. Saints apply this law in the solution of the problem of diet for
man. Whether he heeds it or not, Saints place this law before man, so
that he may reform his diet, and avoid, as much as possible, a heavy
load of Karmic chains in which he is inextricably held fast.

  Each kind of diet has its own inherent effect on man, detrimental to
the acquisition of the highest aim: self-knowledge and God-knowledge.
This law coincides with what man generally accepts although he is
unaware of the reason for his actions. Comparing the following data in
everyday life will confirm, to man's surprise, that what he takes as
acceptable in social living remains in total agreement with the law of
nature here explained.

  The man's body, with all the five tatwas (or creative and component
elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether) in full activity is valued the
most. This is why he tops the list of beings in the creation and is
considered next to God-his Creator. Man's killing of fellow-creatures is
considered as the most heinous of crimes, which merits capital punishment
or the death penalty. Next value is placed on quadrupeds and beasts having
four tatwas in active operation in them, the fifth, ether, being almost
absent or forming a negligible portion. The wanton killing of another's
animal, therefore, entails a penalty equivalent to the price of the animal
in question. Then comes the place of birds, with three active elements in
them, viz. water, fire and air, and hence are considered of a nominal
value. Lesser still is the value placed on creatures who have two elements
active - viz. earth and fire - and the other three existing in a dormant
or latent form, as in reptiles, worms and insects, which are killed and
trampled without the least compunction as no penalty attaches in their
case. Least value is placed on roots, vegetables, and fruits in which the
element of water alone is active and predominates, while the remaining
four elements are altogether in a dormant state. Thus, karmically
considered, vegetarian and fruitarian diet, in fact, constitutes the
least pain-producing diet, and man, by partaking of these, contracts the
least Karmic debt. He is, therefore, to be content with this type of food
so long as he cannot dispense with it and take to something which may
involve no consequence at all.

  Now let us see what the Essene Gospel of St. John* (*now published as
The Essene Gospel of Peace) says in this context:

  But they (the disciples) answered him: "Whither should we go, Master,
  for with you are the words of eternal life? Tell us, what are the sins
  we must shun, that we may never more see disease?"

  Jesus answered: "Be it so according to your faith," and he sat down
  among them, saying:      

  "It was said to them of old time, `Honor thy Heavenly Father and thy
  earthly mother, and do their commandments, that thy days may be long
  upon the earth.' And next afterwards was given this commandment: `Thou
  shalt not kill,' for life is given to all by God, and that which God
  has given, let not man take away. For I tell you truly from one Mother
  proceeds all that lives upon the earth. Therefore, he who kills, kills
  his brother. And from him will the Earthly Mother turn away, and
  will pluck from him her quickening breasts. And he will be shunned by
  her angels, and Satan will have his dwelling in his body. And the flesh
  of slain beasts in his body will become his own tomb. For I tell you
  truly, he who kills, kills himself, and whoso eats the flesh of slain
  beasts, eats of the body of death ... And their death will become his
  death ... For the wages of sin is death. Kill not, neither eat the
  flesh of your innocent prey, lest you become the slaves of Satan. For
  that is the path of suffering, and it leads unto death. But do the
  Will of God that His angels may serve you on the way of life. Obey,
  therefore, the words of God: 'Behold, I have given you every herb
  bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every
  tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall
  be for meat; and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl
  of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein
  there is breath of life, I give every green herb for meat.' Also the
  milk of everything that moveth and that liveth upon each shall be meat
  for you; even as the green herb have I given unto them, so I give their
  milk unto you. But flesh, and blood which quickens it, shall ye not
  eat..." XXII

    Then another (disciple) said, "Moses, the greatest in Israel,
  suffered our forefathers to eat the flesh of clean beasts, and forbade
  the flesh of unclean beasts. Why, therefore, do you forbid us the flesh
  of all beasts? Which law comes from God? That of Moses or your law?" 
     ... And Jesus continued, "God commanded your forefathers: `Thou shalt
  not kill.' But their heart was hardened and they killed. Then Moses
  desired that at least they should not kill men, and he suffered them to
  kill beasts. And then the heart of your forefathers was hardened yet
  more, and they killed men and beasts likewise. But I say to you: Kill
  neither men, nor beasts, nor yet the food which goes into your mouth.
  For if you eat living food, the same will quicken you, but if you kill
  your food, the dead food will kill you also. For life comes only from
  life, and death comes always from death. For everything which kills your
  food, kills your bodies also. And everything which kills your bodies
  kills your souls also. And your bodies become what your foods are, even
  as your spirits, likewise, become what your thoughts are..." XXIV

    "So eat always from the table of God: the fruits of the trees,
  the grain and grasses of the field, the milk of beasts, the honey
  of bees. For everything beyond these is Satan, and leads by the
  way of sins and of diseases unto death. But the foods which you eat
  from the abundant table of God give strength and youth to your body,
  and you will never see disease ..." XXV

                                             THE WHEEL OF LIFE, pp. 64-72

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