________________
55
vitality of the system, and encourage prostration and coarsening of the nerves. At the same time, they feed desires and passions over-stimulating them.
But listen to what an eminent modern physician has to Bay on the subject. Doctor Bircher of Zuich, has evidently given much care and consideration to the question of diet. In his book "Food Scince for All" he writes "Neither with flesh nor with poultry, nor eggs, nor caviare, not even with cow's milk can one strenghthen the weak much less cure the sick, So many thousands have already had dearly to expiate such ignorrant experiments; they have paid for them, with early death or with long illness. The excessive proteids in the food are not only a bad source of energy-their breaking down in assimilation grievously overloads the organs, as any chemist, familiar with the facts, can tell you.
The observance of rules which aim at imparting health and strength to the body and the elimination of all softness and habits of luxury, is a necessity for the layman. Plainly it is his duty to make his body capable of bearing the constantly increasing strain of trial and hardship involved in the more severe forms of self-denial. For this season, food plays the most important role in the physical training for asceticism,
As the American in vestigator Mac Collum says:
Diet is an essential, if not the most important factor for spiritual, moral, physical, and cultural development and for resistance to disease."
We have just seen that the constitution of the body and the condition of the nerves are directly affected by the food taken in. Has it not be said that we are what we eat? If the nerves are to respond to the impulses of the will, in the desired manner, they are to be purified of any grossness they have accumulated. When impure fco is allowed to coar.en them and the matter of the brain, none of the desired results can be hoped
Jain Education International
For Private Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
