Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
|
|
Chapter-17
Three Kinds of Faith
10. The food that is kept overnight, tasteless, smelling foul and stale, as also unclean left-overs of a meal is preferred by the tamas-type. He eats with great relish, the food cooked in the morning, at noon or the next-day (151-155). He also eats food half-cooked or half-burnt and also the food which is not savoury. He does not like savoury food or food which is well cooked. If by chance he gets wholesome food to eat, he keeps it like a tiger until it gives a foul smell. He eats from one plate, along with his family, food that was cooked many days back, that has lost all its flavour and has become dry, that has rotted or become infested with worms or food that has been crushed and squeezed by children like clay or a hotch-potch (bodana in Marathi) made by married and virgin women sitting together (156-160). When he eats such foul and dirty food, he feels that he had a satisfactory meal. But the wretch that he is, he is not even satisfied with such food. The marvel of it is, that he craves for food or drink which is prohibited by the scriptures and which is not fit for eating or drinking. O brave Arjuna, he is very fond of such food and he reaps the fruit of it immediately. When he partakes of such food, he commits sin (161-165). When he takes such food, he does not feed himself but stuffs himself with trouble. By eating such food, he experiences and suffers agonies, somewhat like that of a person who is being executed or who has entered a blazing fire, so said Lord Krishna. The effect of the tamasic food is not distinguished from the tamasic disposition. Now sacrifice is also of three kinds, like food. O noblest one, I shall now tell you, the characteristics of a sattvic sacrifice (166-170). |
 |
