Diet — Spiritual Elixir

(Spiritual Elixir, chapter 6 — from part 1 “Answers to Questions”)

Question: Is Sat­vic food diet as stressed in the “Crown of Life” best for my devel­op­ment? I am try­ing this out.

Answer: The Sat­vic diet pre­scribed in Crown of Life is help­ful for your spir­i­tual devel­op­ment. You will find the results in due course. Please note that mod­er­a­tion should always be main­tained for hav­ing steady progress and sound phys­i­cal health.

Q. With friends of long stand­ing it is often dif­fi­cult to ask if a dish is pre­pared with eggs. How can this be over­come? It is espe­cially dif­fi­cult for one not advanced on the path.

A. The ini­tiates should, as a mat­ter of prin­ci­ple, be very cau­tious in their food arti­cles espe­cially when they have to dine at friends. It is so sim­ple to inquire hum­bly and dis­cretely before­hand and tell­ing your friends that the pro­hib­ited food arti­cles are not allowed by your spir­i­tual doc­tor.

Q. Why do I get so fatigued and require so much rest on this diet?

A. This is a per­sonal ques­tion involv­ing your own phys­i­cal endu­rance. You should select bet­ter food com­bi­na­tions from the veg­e­ta­ble and fruit king­dom which may give you bet­ter nutri­tion. Some natu­ro­path should be con­sulted in this behalf.

Q. Will you please explain: Mark 7:14-16, ‘And when he had called all the peo­ple unto Him he said unto them, hearken unto me eve­ry­one of you and under­stand: There is noth­ing from with­out a man, that enter­ing into him can defile him but the things which come out of him, these are they that defile the man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear?’ He did not for­bid the eat­ing of meat.

A. I am afraid we do a great unjus­tice to the world-teach­ers, by tak­ing iso­lated sen­tences and things in frag­ments rather than tak­ing an over-all and inte­grated view of their teach­ings. If we study the scrip­tures care­fully we find that the word ‘meats’ as used in the gos­pels, stands for ‘foods’ or ‘meals.’ It is not ‘meats’ alone that purge out of the body, but the refuse of all the foods that we take. The beau­ti­ful teach­ings of Jesus were for all the man­kind and not for meat-eat­ing peo­ple alone.

Now refer to Matt. 15:11-20, wherein these very words are repeated. These words have no ref­er­ence to meats etc. On the con­trary, they refer to defile­ment by eat­ing with unwashen hands before tak­ing meals. In Hos. 6:6 as well, it is stated:

I desired mercy and not sac­ri­fice
and the knowl­edge of God more than ‘burnt offerings’.

In Essene Gos­pel of Saint John, Chapter XXII, we have the words of God Him­self.

Behold, I have given you every herb 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.