Chapter XVII: The threefold faith

The outer man is what his inner faith is. All our activities, physical, vital and mental, have a common fount. And the name of that fount is faith. With our faith we can create, control, conquer and transform our fate. To be sure, what unconsciously we call human faith is nothing short of the divine will in us and for us.

What does a Sattvic man do with his luminous faith? He uses his faith to invoke and worship the Supreme. What does a Rajasic man do with his passionate faith? He uses it to worship and satisfy the deities. What does a Tamasic man do with his tenebrous faith? He worships the unsatisfied, dissatisfied, hungry, obscure, impure and earth-bound spirits and ghosts.

They say that in the West, food has very little to do with faith. In India the link between food and faith is almost inseparable. Our Upanishadic Seers cried out: “Annam Brahma" — "Food is the Brahman.”

A Sattvic man eats the foods that are fresh, pure and soothing so that he can acquire energy, health, cheerfulness and a long life.

Sour, salty and excessively hot foods are liked by a Rajasic man. Illness captures him. Pain tortures him.

A Tamasic man also has to eat after all. He avidly eats the foods that are stale, tasteless, impure and filthy. The result of his eating can be better felt than described.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita: the Song of the Transcendental Soul, Rudolf Steiner Publications, Blauvelt, New York, 1971
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