Bg 17.7
āhāras tv api sarvasya tri-vidho bhavati priyaḥ
yajñas tapas tathā dānaṁ teṣāṁ bhedam imaṁ śṛṇu
Bg 17.8
āyuḥ-sattva-balārogya- sukha-prīti-vivardhanāḥ
rasyāḥ snigdhāḥ sthirā hṛdyā āhārāḥ sāttvika-priyāḥ
Bg 17.9
kaṭv-amla-lavaṇāty-uṣṇa- tīkṣṇa-rūkṣa-vidāhinaḥ
āhārā rājasasyeṣṭā duḥkha-śokāmaya-pradāḥ
Bg 17.10
yāta-yāmaṁ gata-rasaṁ pūti paryuṣitaṁ ca yat
ucchiṣṭam api cāmedhyaṁ bhojanaṁ tāmasa-priyam
Translation
7. The food also which is dear to each is three-fold, as also sacrifice, austerity and alms-giving. You may now hear the distinction of these.
8. The foods which increase life, purity, strength, health, joy and cheerfulness (good appetite) , which are savoury and oleaginous, substantial and agreeable, are dear to the SATTWIC (Pure).
9. The foods that are bitter, sour, saline, excessively hot, pungent, dry and burning, are liked by the RAJASIC, and are productive of pain, grief and disease.
10. That which is stale, tasteless, putrid and rotten, refuse and impure, is the food liked by the 'TAMASIC.'
Commentary
Introducing the theme that is to follow, Lord Krishna enumerates the topics that He is going to discuss. The temperamental influences that govern the mind and its thought-life express themselves in all departments of activity in which the individual employs himself. His choice of food, of friends, of the type of emotions in his bosom, of the view-of-life that he will be entertaining are all indicative of the type to which the seeker belongs. As a matter of fact, everyone living on the surface of the earth expresses himself in one of these classifications, due to the preponderance of one or the other of the three temperaments (gunas).
Yajna, Tapa, Daana --- In the choice of 'food,' in the type of 'sacrifices' which he would feel inspired to make, in the texture of his 'self-denials,' and in the quality and quantity of his 'charity,' he will declare himself as belonging to one or the other of the three types.
Here follows a detailed analysis of one's inner nature, and naturally, one's outward expressions, when one is under the irresistible influence of any one particular guna. These verses are NOT to be misconstrued as ready-reckoners TO CLASSIFY OTHERS. Hinduism, in its essential beauty, is a subjective science for bringing about a fuller unfoldment of the dormant potentialities in AN INDIVIDUAL'S OWN PERSONALITY. In unravelling the beauties of the soul and in exploiting the strength of the heart, each one will have to purify himself from the dullness of Tamas, and from the agitations of Rajas, and keep oneself in the creative alertness and spiritual glow of Sattwa.
HEREUNDER, WE FIND ENUMERATED A SERIES OF SYMPTOMS BY WHICH WE CAN CORRECTLY CLASSIFY OURSELVES:
In describing the natural taste for some particular types of food in good men of spiritual urges (Sattwa), it is said that they like only such diet which increases the vitality (Aayuh), and not sheer bulk; which supplies the energy for meditative purposes (Veerya); which discovers for them a secret strength (Bala) to resist the temptations for the sense-objects; which provide health (Aarogya) so that they may not often fall ill and suffer a break in their regular sadhana. Such people will have a natural inclination to take food which will augment joy (Preeti) and inner cheerfulness (Sukha). In short, such creative men, by their own choice, enjoy only food that is clean and wholesome with no chance for them, when consumed, to putrefy within.
All the different types of food eaten by man in the world have been classified and brought under four types on the basis of their physical properties. They are the savoury, the greasy, the firm and the cordial types of food. Men of purity instinctively like all these types of foods when they have the above-mentioned effects upon the consumers --- when they (the consumers) have digested and assimilated them.
No doubt, food has certain effects upon the eater. Generally, an eater is, to some extent, conditioned by the type of diet he eats. Not only is our inner nature built by the type of food consumed, but the inner nature, in its turn, commands our tastes; and we find very often that we have developed an irresistible appetite for certain types of food. In the case of animals it is noticed that sometimes they change their diet, according to their physical need in life; dogs and cats are often seen eating grass, cows licking salt-slabs, etc., children eating sand, and pregnant women manifesting different tastes at different periods of their pregnancy.
EXPLAINING THE RAJASIC TYPE OF MEN AND THEIR TASTE IN FOOD, THE LORD SAYS:
Men of energy, the 'passionate,' desire such food (Rajasasya ishtaah) that have strong flavour and dense taste. Bitter, sour, saltish, very hot, pungent, harsh, burning tastes are to the liking of all vigorous men, restlessly striving to fulfil their uncontrolled passions and desires (Rajasic).
Such a diet, no doubt, creates in an individual brilliant energies, but in their wildness, they are, to a degree, un-controllable; and therefore, in their final reactions they lead the eater towards a life productive of 'PAIN, GRIEF AND DISEASE.'
A student of these discussions in the Geeta is NOT justified, if he considers that, by a control of diet the thought-discipline in himself will also be brought about. From these stanzas, we have to understand that, when the texture of thought improves, the individual finds himself changing his tastes: even his choice of food which would give him full satisfaction in totally revolutionised.
WHAT TYPE OF FOOD WOULD MEN OF DARKNESS (TAMAS) CHOOSE?
(Yaata-yaamam) --- A day is divided, in our old calculations in the Shastras, into eight Yaamas, wherein a period of three hours constitutes a Yaama. Therefore, food cooked three hours earlier, 'gone cold' is that which is considered as spoiled. In these days of canned food, preserved fruits, stored vegetables and refrigeration facilities, almost a substantial majority of us have come to love stale food.
TASTELESS (Gata-rasam) --- In South India, we find a peculiar hunger for taking rice that has been kept soaked in water the previous night. The next morning, it becomes both stale and tasteless. I suppose, in the north, some like old roti.
FOUL-SMELLING (Pooti) --- Men of inertia have a natural liking for stinking food that has an insufferable smell for others. The pulav of the modern tables perhaps belongs to this category; so too, prawns --- we can multiply examples. 'Men of purity,' however, would instinctively revolt against a diet that has any stink about it, e. g., seafood.
STALE (Paryushitam) --- Food that has been cooked over-night, or that has been kept for days together. Here we can include all the fermented drinks, which the Tamasic people love to drink. All drinks are fermented and the 'kick' in them increases as the time after preparation increases.
Unsanitary and unclean food seems to attract the taste of all despicable men of insufferable ignorance and low culture. They love to eat 'refuse' (Ucchishtam) that is left over, and impure (Amedhyam) filthy food that is not fit for human consumption. The above-enumerated list is a comprehensive report on the base and disgusting tastes of Tamasic men of low culture and dull discrimination.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
