Book Title: Jaina Philosophy
Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi, Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: World Jain Confederation

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 194
________________ The Science of Eating From the earliest age, the girl assists her mother and the mother asks her first to pick the pebbles of the rice, wash the vegetables, and so on, and she assists her mother in other duties of the household as she grows older. But when everything is left to, the servants, how is it possible to lead a healthy life? We must first understand the object of life, the raising of humanity on all three planes of being. But how is this to be done? Unless all the members are raised, if the good of individuals is not advanced the good of the whole society cannot be advanced. With regard to drink, I should say that until the advent of British rule, the Hindus did not know what tea was. I, myself, did not taste tea before I was twenty years old, and even in this day, in our small towns and villages, the people never use it. They consider it kind of medicine, and an acquired taste like this is not a natural taste. The very nature of tea is stimulating, and the natural result is nervousness, people who drink much tea, do not know how to keep still. Our simple drink in India is water, and that, also, is not mixed with anything. The Germans sometimes think water is not enough, and so they drink beer, but that is not allowed in our communities, and if a person even touches wine he takes a bath. If you understand the science of the aura which comes out from the human body, you will understand the reason for taking a bath. Taking wine means to us stimulating certain feelings in the body, and that nature can be gotten rid of by the use of water. When a person is very angry the religious teacher asks him to take a bath at once and he is pacified in this way. Of course, such things are not to be found every day, because with the Hindus, there is no such thing as the weekly bath; they take the bath early in the morning, generally. Their idea of life and their science being different, their remedies for various evils are also different. With regard to the time of eating, I may say that in hour city, we have only two meals, 185 Jain Education International For Personal & Private Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298