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DISCOURSE 80
105
fication through serene and noble means. If this policy is acted upon by people, even their Kamapurushartha provides inspiration to their Dharmapurushartha. This is the meaning of what I have been saying.
Eat only such food as is fit to be eaten; as is not contrary to nature and as is not prohibited by the shastras. You should not eat prohibited food. You should not eat the food which is contrary to nature and which is prohibited by the shastras. In the same manner, drink only such things as are not contrary to nature and are not prohibited by the shastras. Dharma does not prohibit eating and drinking but it exhorts people to use their discretion in the choice of things that they eat or drink. If you want to gratify your sense of taste, you may do so but do so with discretion. You must exercise your discretion from two points of view; from the point of view of Dharma and from the point of view of Artha (your economic condition).
STOP EATING OUTSIDE
You must think carefully about your financial condition. You must organise your habits of eating and drinking in accordance with your financial condition. In large cities and towns, it has become a fashion for people to go and eat food in hotels on holidays. You think that hotel food is sweeter than the food prepared at your house; do you not? But how much money have you got to spend on this habit? If a family of four members goes to a hotel and if those four members eat food there they have to spend one hundred rupees. If you go to fivestar hotels, you have to spend large sums of money on tea and tiffin.
In large cities like Ahmedabad and Bombay and even in small towns, it has become a fashion for the people to stand on the roads and to eat snacks and fried and cooked vegetables; and that too in the night. From the economic point of view, this habit involves much wasteful expenditure. It is highly improper from the point of view of Dharma. You commit the breach of eating food in the night and of eating such prohibited food as roots.
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