________________
is eaten should be digested and absorbed into the blood, thus furnishing nourishment and wastage is extracted.
In a hurried lifestyle that so many lead, it may be difficult to allow enough time to eat ones' food. If one does not properly chew food, what is eaten goes through the digestive system as large pieces of food, making the digestive organs work that much harder, as there is no teeth anywhere else in the body. Stomach acids are not working sufficiently - which is often the case in those following a modern-styled diet and gobbling it hastily on the run - food can remain in undigested clumps and move into the intestines where it rots and festers away. It will create and become waste in the blood stream, thereby increasing the acid level in the body. The solution to the problem is much simpler than one thinks.
Mahavira said, "Gautama, Ascetic consuming inanimate, faultless and begged food, not prepared for himself does not violate self-discipline."
Mahavira preached in the common man's language and used comparisons and analogies to make his point clear. He explained through a very simple and easy to understand illustrations. Monks and nuns are advised to eat like a cow so their food is called “goachari”. In native dialect "go" stands for cow and "chari” stands for eating. Cow is often used as an indicator of a healthy and comfortable herd. A happy, healthy animal will produce more milk or have a higher production of muscle.
A cow grazes on the grass without uprooting it. Monks and nuns take painstaking effort to avoid various errors or omission in their begging of alms.
29