La Iniciación · Año III, Nº 22 · February 1944

1young, free of the illnesses and infirmities of old age, must know, apply and practise certain dietetic methods paired with a certain special gymnastics (Asanas) and a moral, mental and spiritual conduct and discipline.

2Could we imagine a Master — Buddha, Jesus, Ramakrishna — seated at a table full of rich dishes, eating and drinking without measure?

3What moral authority could a Spiritual Master have over his disciples or over the multitudes if he were not given self-control, knowledge, and the exemplary practice of all he teaches?

4We shall have to know the beneficent and noxious qualities of foods — the sympathy, the antipathy, the attraction and the repulsion these foods feel for one another.

5It is a well-known thing in operative technique that, when one wishes to perform a transplant of tissues from one individual to another, the so-called "shock" or "rebellion" is produced if the two tissues are not compatible.

6Tissues need to adapt, the same as blood [Sic: the original prints "la sangres".] for transfusions.

7Just as it is necessary to classify this blood, so also tissues are classified: this law rules also for our foods.

8There exists in Hindu literature an esoteric book, a true compendium of Yogic Initiation, held in India as the Golden Book of the Wisdom of the Ancient Hindu Initiates: the Bhagavad Gita (The Song of the Lord), which is thousands of years old and is in its turn an episode of the Mahabharata, the epic poem of India, which contains 220,000 verses divided into 18 books written by the Guru Krichna Dvaipayana, called the Vyasa, Orderer and Revealer of the great Mysteries and Master of the Science of the Soul.

9The Bhagavad Gita, which is a true exponent of Yoga, holds in one of its parts a philosophical discourse on the foods that most benefit man.

10The beloved Krichna says to his disciple Arjona [Sic: so printed for "Arjuna".] the following words (which show the great wisdom and perfect knowledge of the mysteries of dietetic science — a science that is only now beginning to interest all physicians).

11"The food each one has need of ingesting is triphasic, has a triple aspect; hear, O beloved disciple, the distinction of these… there are foods that concentrate vitality, energy, vigour, health and joy, and they are delicious, soft and perfumed, substantial and agreeable to the palate and to the eyes by their varied gamut of colours.

12These are much loved by the pure, the ascetics, the saints and all those who wish to advance on the Spiritual Path; they are the Sattvic foods… On the other hand, the passionate man desires foods that are sour, salted to excess, exciting, hot, pungent, dry and burning, which produce pain, sadness and illnesses; they are the Rajasic foods… The foods that are tasteless, rotten, decomposed, stale [Sic: the original prints "sazonados".] and impure are much loved by the lustful, and they are the Tamasic foods…" (Gita, Chap.

13XVIII, 8-10). [Sic: the passage is Gita XVII, 8-10.]

14Now, if we analyse those words we shall find profound truths in them, especially if we make the definitions of the three words Sattwic, Rajasic and Tamasic; and if we examine them in the light of the knowledge of Hindustani Esotericism, we shall see that the Great Spiritual Masters of antiquity who directed the famous Yogachari Schools maintained that man should eat fruits, vegetables, milk and fresh cheeses.

15They named and classified these foods with three distinct names; they considered that milk, fruits, cereals, etc., were Sattwic foods.

16And, as the word Sattwic indicates in Sanskrit — intelligence, understanding, repose, knowledge, placidity, goodness, equilibrium, purity, truth, energy, vital potency, light, power, illumination, force, resolution, harmony, brilliance, calm, serenity, spirit, heart, · 15

Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.