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Chapter 17
(3) Had the Lord described the food, He would have described the food in more details, such as that livelihood, should be earned by honest means; the food should he cooked by wearing clean clothes in a well cleaned and pure kitchen; it should first be offered to God, and then eaten by thinking of Him, and chanting His name. This sort of food, is sattvika.
Similarly, He would have described the rajasa food. Livelihood should be earned by fair means or foul, having predominance of pride and selfishness. The food should be eaten for taste and fashion, and it should be eaten by having attachment, to it. This food is rajasika.
In the same way, food is earned by foul means, such as falsehood, fraud, theft and robbery etc., without any sense of purity and cleanliness; in an impure atmosphere, the food items, may be meat and egg etc., no attention is paid to how the food is cooked. One who takes food, does not wash his hands and feet and takes it with his shoes on. No cleanliness is maintained and it is eaten, in an impure atmosphere. Such food is tamasika.
But here the Lord, has described the foods, which are dear to the slttvika (good), the rajasika (passionate) and the tamasika (ignorant), so that their inclinations, or faith could be known.
(4) Besides this, in the Gita where there is description of food, there is reference only to the eaters, as 'others restrict their food',[1], 'Yoga is not for him, who eats too much, but for him who is temperate, in food'[2], 'Whatever thou eatert'[3] and 'He who eats, but little' [4].
Similarly, in the seventh verse of this chapter, me term 'tatha (also), denotes that a man performs sacrifice and austerity, and offers charity according to his slttvika, rajasika or tamasika, temperament. Similarly, in this chapter from the eleventh verse to the twenty-second verse, also there is description of the nature of those, who perform sacrifice and austerity, and offer charity.
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