________________
DISCOURSE 71
311 A HEALTHY BODY ASSISTS SPIRITUAL ENDEAVOURS
Maharajashri : What is the aim of people in desiring physical welfare? Their aim is to endeavour to attain spiritua. progress. If your body is healthy and free from diseases, your endeavour to attain spiritual purification will be easy. Another point is this. How can a man who does not discard his taste for food for his physical welfare, discard it for his spiritual welfare ? How can he think of his soul? The body-has a form while the soul is formless? When a man does not discard his taste for food for the welfare of the body which is visible, how can be discard his taste for food for the welfare of his soul, which is invisible ?
From the Audience : We are so greatly enslaved by our sense of taste that we do not even remember the soul. ---
Maharajashri : You may not remember the soul; at least do you not think of your physical health ? People are so greatly enslaved by the sense of taste that they do not think of the nature of their constitution; nor do they distinguish between permitted food and prohibited food. Permitted food and prohibited food are connected with punya (merit) and sin and in their turn, merit and sin have their effect on the soul. How can a person who is a slave to the sense of taste think of his soul ?.
There are certain types of food which do not agree with man's constitution and they should be discarded. This will be possible only when you treat the sense of taste as subsidiary and your health as a primary factor. Those men who think of their physical welfare will also think of the welfare of their minds and souls. We come across the story of a beggar in the Dharmagranthas.
THE STORY OF A BEGGAR
Once there was a beggar. He was living on the alms, he got from people. He ate whatever he secured. "He used to eat the remaining food of the previous day. He was suffering from many physical ailments. He used to sit beneath a tree outside the town. He had lost all hopes in life and was in bittér đes
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
