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THE METHOD AND THE MEANS.
83
memory becomes unfailing, *" and Râmânuja quotes this from the Chhandogya Upanishad.
The question of food has always been one of the most vital with the bhaktas or devotees. Apart from the extravagance into which some of the bhakti sects have run, there is a great truth underlying this question of food. We must remember that, according to the Sankhya philsophy the sattva, rajas, and tamas, which in the state of homogeneous equilibrium form the prakriti and in the heterogeneous, disturbed condition form the universe, are both the substance and the quality of prakriti or the creative principle. As such they are the materials out of which every human form has been manufactured, and the predominance of the sattva material is what is absolutely necessary for spiritual development. The materials which we receive through our food into our bodies go a
ITV Tayfa: Javni ya fa: 1
(Chhandogya Upanishad, VII-31).
