Vivekananda Mailing List-10/26/03

[Guest guest]

These two explanations are apparently conflicting, yet both are true

and necessary. The manipulating and controlling of what may be called

the finer body, viz the mood, are no doubt higher functions than the

controlling of the grosser body of flesh. But the control of the

grosser is absolutely necessary to enable one to arrive at the control

of the finer. The beginner, therefore, must pay particular attention to

all such dietetic rules as have come down from the line of his

accredited teachers; but the extravagant, meaningless fanaticism, which

has driven religion entirely to the kitchen, as may be noticed in the

case of many of our sects, without any hope of the noble truth of that

religion ever coming out to the sunlight of spirituality, is a peculiar

sort of pure and simple materialism. It is neither Jnâna, nor Bhakti,

nor Karma; it is a special kind of lunacy, and those who pin their

souls to it are more likely to go to lunatic asylums than to

Brahmaloka. So it stands to reason that discrimination in the choice of

food is necessary for the attainment of this higher state of mental

composition which cannot be easily obtained otherwise.