DIET – PERMISSIBLE and FORBIDDEN
Permissibility or prohibition in diet is based on two factors – one determined by the Science of morals and religion, and the other by the Science of Health.
“The twice-born –Braahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas – must not eat such vegetables, fruits and roots as are raised in night soil and other kinds of refuse.” MANU 5:5
“They should abstain from flesh diet and intoxicants”, MANU 2: 177, such as wine, Ganja, Cannabis Indica, and opium, etc.
“Let them never use those articles that are prejudicial to the growth of the intellect.” SHARANGDHAR 4:21.
They should also avoid the use of all those articles of food that are decomposed, fermented, unclean or foul smelling, etc., and those that are not properly cooked as well as those prepared and handled by such men as live on flesh – diet and intoxicating drinks whose very bodies are saturated with the fine particles of meat and alcohol.
The Aryas should neither themselves kill such useful animals as cows, nor let other do the same. One cow in one generation benefits 475,000 people through her milk, butter and offspring – male and female. Thus, some cows give thirty-two pints of milk, other not more than three pints daily, say for twelve months ( some give mild for eighteen months, other for six, hence we have taken the mean of the two). Calculating on this basis, we find that 24,960 persons can be fed at one meal with the milk given by one cow in her whole life-time. On an average a cow calves about twelve times during her whole life. Supposing two of them die, of the remaining ten calves, say, there are five males and five females. The latter during their lives will together give enough milk to satisfy 124,800 persons at one meal. The remaining five male calves can produce at least 180 tons of corn,* and supposing we allow 11/2 lb. of corn per head, 180 tons will do on a rough estimate for 250,000 persons as food for one meal. Putting milk and corn together a cow in one generation can supply one good meal to 475,600 people.
Similarly if we go on calculating the amount of corn and milk yielded by one cow in all her generations, it will be found that they would be sufficient to feed millions upon millions of people. Besides bullocks are very useful to man for tilling the ground, riding, pulling carts and wagons, and carrying heavy loads, etc., but the chief use of cows is that they yield good milk.
Buffalo’s milk is not so useful in promoting the growth of the intellect as a cow’s. Therefore, it is that the Aryas have always regarded the xow as the most useful animal. Other enlightened people will do the same. One goat yields, enough milk to satisfy 25,920 people at one meal. Similarly, horses, elephants, camels, donkeys and sheep are of great service to man in various ways. Those who slaughter these animals should be looked upon as enemies of the whole human race.
When the Aryas were in power, these most useful animals were never allowed to be killed. Consequently, man and other living beings lived in great peace and happiness. Because , milk and butter, and such animals as bullocks being plentiful, there was abundance of food and drink ( as milk, etc.). But since the meat-eating, and wine-drinking foreigners – the slayers of kind and other animals – have come into this country and become the ruling power, the troubles and suffering s of the Aryas have ever been on the increase; because, it is said, “How can you get fruits and flowers of a tree when its root is cut off?” VRIDHA CHAANAKYA 10:13.
Q. Were all people to live on non-flesh diet, lions and other carnivorous animals would multiply in such large number that they will kill all such useful animals as cows. Your attempt to prevent their slaughter would come to nothing.
A.~ It is the business of the State to punish or even kill all those men and animals that are injurious (to the community).
Q. Should their flesh, i.e., (of the animals thus killed) be thrown away?
A.~ It would do no harm to the world whether it be thrown away, given to dogs or such other carnivorous animals, cremated or even eaten by some meat-eater. But if eaten by man, it will tend to change his disposition and make him cruel.
The use of all such food and drinks as are obtained through injuring or killing others or through theft, dishonesty, breach of faith, fraud or hypocrisy is forbidden, in other words they al come under the heading of forbidden articles of diet; while the acquisition of foods and drinks through righteous means without injuring or killing any living creature falls in the category of permissible articles, of diet.
This also includes all those articles that give health, and strength, destroy disease, promote intellectual power and energy and prolong life, such as rice, wheat, sugar, milk, butter, fruits, tubers and roots, when properly mixed in due proportion and cooked, and eaten in moderation at proper meal times.
Abstinence from the use of all those things that do not agree with one’s constitution and are apt to produce disease or other evil effects, and the use of those that are prescribed for one (by his medical attendant) also constitute adherence to what is called the permissible diet.
Q. Is there any harm in eating together, i.e., out of the same dish?
A.~ Yes, it is harmful, because people differ in their nature and constitutions, etc., from each other. Just as one is eating out of the same dish with a leper is apt to catch disease, likewise eating with other people is always liable to produce evil results. It can never do any good. Therefore it is said in the Manu Smriti:- “Let no man give the leaving of his food to another, nor eat out of the same dish with another, nor eat too much, nor after finishing his meal leave his seat without washing his hands and rinsing out his mouth.” MANU 2: 56.
Q. How will you then interpret the text “Let a pupil eat Uchhistha (the leaving of ) his preceptor”?
A.~ It means that a pupil should serve his tutor first and after he ahs finished his meal, let the pupil himself eat of what is left – behind not as leavings but what has not been used by the teacher and is still kept separately. This is only implies that the teacher should have his meal before his pupil.
O. If the use of all kinds of leavings is forbidden, honey – the leaving of bees, milk – the leavings of calves, and one’s own leavings – the food left after one had taken one morsel out of it – should also be forbidden.
A.~ Honey comes under this description only nominally. It is really the essence of many a medicinal plant, hence it is acceptable. The calf can only drink the milk that comes out of the teats of its mother, but not what is inside. Therefore the milk, that is obtained by milking a cow after the calf has sucked it off the teats cannot be called leavings. But it is proper that the udder and teats should be carefully washed and cleansed with pure water after the calf has had its share, before the cow is milked, and the milking vessel should also be dept perfectly clean.
One’s own leavings can do no harm to oneself. Even nature clearly teaches us that it is wrong to eat another man’s leavings. No one feels any great repugnance in touching the secretions from one’s own nose, mouth, ears and organs of reproduction, micturition and defecation,, but one does so in the case of others. It proves, therefore, that this practice is not against the laws of nature. No one, therefore, should eat the leavings of or in the same dish with another.
Q. Should not even husband and wife eat each other’s leavings?
A.~ No, even their natures and constitutions differ?
Q. Well, Sir! What harm is there in eating what has been prepared by any one as long as he is a man; because the bodies of all men, from a Braahman to the lowest of human beings, are made of flesh and bones? The same blood runs in the veins of all.
A.~ Yes, there is harm. A Braahman and Braahmani are fed on the very best of foods, hence their bodies are formed out of the reproductive elements, that are free from impurities and other deleteruous elements, which is not true of the bodies of the extremely degraded men and women that are simply laden with dirt and other foul matter. It is, therefore, right that we should eat and drink with Brahmans and other higher classes and not with scavengers and workers in leather. Now what would you say if you were asked “Would you look upon all other women, such as your mother, sister, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, with the same eyes as your wife, because all of them are made of the same kind of flesh and blood?” You will simply be filled with shame and make no answer. Again, as good, clean food is eaten with hands and the mouth, so can the bad, unclean and decomposed food be eaten, would you then eat dirt, etc. ? Can this ever be right?