Chapter 17 Shloka 9

कट्वम्ललवणात्युष्णतीक्ष्णरूक्षविदाहिनः।

आहारा राजसस्येष्टा दुःखशोकामयप्रदाः।।९।।

Bitter, sour, salty, excessively hot,

pungent, dry and caustic foods

which give rise to sorrow,

suffering and disease are the foods

which are dear to the rajsic being.

Chapter 17 Shloka 9

कट्वम्ललवणात्युष्णतीक्ष्णरूक्षविदाहिनः।

आहारा राजसस्येष्टा दुःखशोकामयप्रदाः।।९।।

The Lord says, “Listen! I shall now elaborate on the rajsic diet.” Kamla, listen carefully. rajsic and tamsic people are replete with demonic attributes. Therefore let us first discuss the demonic diet.

Bitter, sour, salty, excessively hot, pungent, dry and caustic foods which give rise to sorrow, suffering and disease are the foods which are dear to the rajsic being.

My very dear Kamla, listen!

The gross diet of people of varied lands is diverse.

1. It differs in accordance with the climate.

2. It differs in accordance with the varied resources.

3. It differs according to the digestive capacities of different people.

4. It differs in accordance with the individual’s bodily requirements.

Generally this gross diet has very little effect on a person’s disposition to sorrow, remorse etc. So obviously the diet that the Lord is referring to is of a different nature.

Every man can produce his own (subtle) food. The intake of a demonic being comprises pride, arrogance etc.

Now let us consider the food that augments anger, greed and desire.

1. What kind of intake will enhance conceit and delusion?

2. What is the diet which promotes deceit, treason, arrogance and wickedness?

3. Which is the food that increases one’s tendency to lose one’s temper, to be jealous and to malign others?

4. What will be the diet that enhances hard-heartedness and indifference?

Kamla, if you reflect on this, you will indeed understand the true connotation of this shloka.

A man ‘cooks’ his own food – this means that what he offers to another:

a) he partakes of that same ‘diet’ in a subtle manner;

b) his intellect absorbs that same quality.

Just as:

1. Any tyranny you perpetrate on account of your self esteem, will in fact nourish your pride; your negative qualities will flourish on account of your tyrannical nature.

2. Any atrocities you commit on account of your innate wickedness will yield an inevitable result – the strengthening of your own wickedness.

The energy that spurs the rajsic being into action comprises of:

a) Greed and desire;

b) Pride, hypocrisy and arrogance;

c) Selfishness and the desire for self-aggrandisement.

1. Those who are replete with these tendencies, use the other merely for selfish gain.

2. They do not reflect on the trauma the other suffers in the bargain.

3. They are given to temper and attachment to desire.

4. They are pretenders and full of extremely sinful qualities.

5. They are full of malevolent and contemptuous attributes.

6. They are full of arrogant and hypocritical traits.

A pungent diet of the Rajsic

1. Their diet is extremely pungent and bitter.

2. Their diet is disagreeable – one can say it consists of harsh speech.

3. They are critical and prone to speaking and hearing unpleasant and bitter words.

4. They are ungrateful. They attack the very people who helped them and then they forsake their benefactors.

5. They hurl all kinds of accusations on the very person who has helped to establish them.

6. They have varied worldly interests.

7. They are full of criticism.

When they treat others in this manner, on the subtle level they receive the same food in return from others. As a result, their tyrannical qualities are strengthened.

It is clear that whatever one cooks and serves the other, one eats the same food oneself. If one prepares a diet of sorrow for another, one strengthens one’s attribute of generating sorrow. Just as the remnant of the sattvic diet and its consequent action is the fragrance of the Supreme Self, so also, the diet of the tamsic being and the despicable deeds it generates, results in a putrid and foul smelling residue.

Amla (अम्ल) – Sour

Such people savour sour food, that is, food that sours another’s mind. Rajsic tendencies are strengthened by such food that sours others.

Such people:

a) are hard hearted and hence ‘sour’;

b) are deceitful, shameless, tyrannical, hard and merciless – thus they can be described as ‘sour’;

c) are ill tempered themselves and also provoke anger in others. Thus their own tendency towards anger is nurtured.

A salty diet

Such people cook excessively salty food.

1. They sprinkle salt on another’s wounds.

2. They speak harsh words that cause sorrow to others.

3. They speak a language that causes injury to others.

4. They cause distress to whosoever comes in their path.

5. They take advantage of the poor and torture them further in their penury – rubbing salt on their wounds of poverty.

6. They desert those who are enmeshed in difficulties.

7. They turn away from their duty and hurt their parents.

8. The son deprives his parents of their son – such are the wounds they inflict.

9. The child denounces his parents – sprinkling salt on their wounds.

Excessively hot food

Such people are used to eating extremely ‘hot food’. Anger too, is hot. It has the power to burn.

a) It consumes the other.

b) It burns the intellect.

c) It destroys all the virtuous and good qualities.

The speech and the actions of such people verily burn the other, reducing happy homes to ashes.

Caustic food

Those who are predominantly rajsic, partake of such food.

1. Harshness is their diet.

2. Their interaction is therefore full of negative energy.

3. Their intellect is sharp but reserved only for selfish purposes.

4. Their astute intellect is used merely for the downfall of the other.

5. Their sharpness becomes like an arrow for the other.

6. The sharpness of this attribute causes great sorrow.

7. The speech of such people is also sharp and pierces the other.

8. The deeds of such a one are fierce; they are deeds that destroy others.

Such are the ways of the avaricious, who are full of desire. Such is the effect of the rajsic diet. Food cooked by the rajsic further strengthens the rajsic qualities in them.

Ruksh (रूक्ष)

Dry and insipid beings are rajsic in nature.

1. They are not concerned whether the other lives or dies.

2. They are not concerned when another is in agony before their very eyes.

3. Immersed in arrogant pride, they bow low only for their selfish gain.

4. When their selfish purpose is accomplished, they dry up, they look away – they have no further interest.

5. The blood of their parents runs in their veins but they cannot spare it even for their own kith and kin.

6. No relationship matters to them no matter howsoever close it may be. They recognise relations only for their selfish needs.

7. They do not even know the term ‘duty’.

Such people can only spread sorrow.

Ati ushna (अत्युष्ण)

The diet of the rajsic being is burning hot.

1. It inflames the minds of others.

2. Filled with hatred and inspired by jealousy such people aim only at reducing the other to ashes.

3. They cause extreme agony to others.

4. Their language is sharply critical and full of sarcasm.

5. These highly critical people denounce others and heap insult and calumny upon them.

6. They are eternal enemies of other people and cause constant friction.

1. The use of a quality is its nourishment.

2. The use of a quality causes it to increase.

3. The use of a quality augments that quality.

4. The use of a quality is its sustenance.

The fire of the attribute of rajas leaves the individual ever unsatisfied. The fire of desire causes perpetual dissatisfaction. Such individuals scorch others with the flame of their desire and thus perpetuate their own cravings and discontent.

The Lord says that it is this diet which is naturally dear to the one who is predominantly rajsic. Such people, who are ever given to desires, cravings and worldly indulgences, give nothing but sorrow and pain to all. They perpetually bring on new mental illnesses, because they are constantly attacking others.