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BHAKTI-YOGA.
great way to determine our mental constitution ; therefore the food we eat has to be particularly taken care of. However, in this matter as in others, the fanaticism into which the disciples invariably fell is not to be laid at the door of the masters.
And this discrimination of food is after all of secondary importance. The very same passage quoted above is explained by Sankara in his bhashya on the Upanishads in a different way, by giving an entirely different meaning to the word a hâra,-translated generally as food. According to him"That which is gathered in is dhåra. The knowledge coming through the different sensations such as sound, etc.,-is gathered in the mind for the enjoyment of the enjoyer (self); the purification of the knowledge which thus gathered through perception of the senses, is the purifying of the food (@hâra). Purification-of-food means therefore the acquiring of knowledge of all
