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"Be happy to eat in Constant Divine thought
Whatever you get, with due regard to
honest and pious earnings."
The Eastern thinkers have taken special regard of the question of food. It
should be cooked neatly and cleanly in a proper manner. That is the hygienic
point. But if it is sattvik and is cooked in constant remembrance of God, its
effect will be surprising. And if it is taken meditating all the while on God
it will cure all kinds of spiritual diseases and remove things which hinder our
progress.
But neglecting altogether the really essential hygienic and spiritual basis of
food, we must not be whimsical, thinking that it is defiled if merely touched
by one other than of a particular sect, even though he be more innocent, pious
and spiritually elevated. Hindus have experienced sufficiently and ought now to
realise that the present day policy of food is neither social nor spiritual.
Our custom has cut life into pieces, and we have transferred it to our brain,
that unless we can have a guest for whom we can have the table made and the
cutlery laid and good food prepared, we won't even invite him to eat. Therefore
our invitations have become too artificial. We don't feed a man when he wants
food, we invite him when we are ready to invite.
When we go to simple people, simple houses, poor people, you enjoy the food much
more. They have no table to think about, they have no cutlery, they have no
tablecloth, and therefore they think of the food. And even if it is only one
carrot and half a tomato and two potatoes, they cut up what they have, put it
into a pot, do something with it, all the time thinking of the guest who is
coming. The food tastes delicious.
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