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MOKSHA.
101
avoidance of the habits of luxury would be generally found sufficient to bring the physical tabernacle of gross matter under the control of will, and to render it capable of bearing the constantly increasing strain of trials and hardships involved in the severest forms of self-denial. Food, it should be clearly understood, plays the most important part in the physical training for asceticism, since it directly affects the constitution of the body and the condition of nerves which have to be purified of their grossness before they can respond to the impulses of will in the desired manner. Hence, where impure food is allowed to coarsen the brain and nerves, it is idle to expect any happy results from the practising of yoga (asceticism). The aspirant after immortality and bliss must, therefore, make up his mind to exclude, from his daily menu, all those articles which augment the prostration of nerves together with those that do not increase the vitality of the system. Meat and wine, which not only tend to coarsen the nerves, but which also excite unholy passions and desires, at once fall in the category of things to be avoided, and the same is the case with foods that are hot, excessively sour, pungent, putrid, stale, unwholesome and those which become tolerable after a time, such as tobacco, and the like. Cereals, vegetables, fruits and nuts, along with milk and its different preparations (clarified butter, sourmilk, and the like), sugar and certain wholesome condiments, go to build up a healthy body, and being delicious, bland and nutritious in their nature, form the best articles of food. It should also be observed here
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