Dear Readers! This is the heart of the teaching of the Bhagavadgeetha. The body and life in it are based on food and are sustained by food, Anna. So, food decides the level of attainment, high or low. Nowadays, emphasis is being laid on discipline and regulated behaviour (Nishta), without reference to the Naashta (food). However great and learned a person may be, however much he pays attention to the teachings of the Vedantha and takes care to spread them, if he neglects the strict code laid down for the food that is the very basis of the body and its functions he cannot succeed. The purity of the provisions, of the cook, and of those who serve what has been prepared these are not attended to. They feel content when their stomachs are filled and hunger is appeased. The first temple they visit when dawn breaks is the restaurant, where 'Idli' and 'Sambar' are offered to the Atmarama! How can such gourmands get concentration? Purity in cooking, purity of provisions, and purity of service - how can these be guaranteed in restaurants? Who pays attention to these? Without doing this, people complain aloud that they do not get success in concentration, and suffer greater confusion! The effect will be secured only when the proper causes function well. When bitter things are cooked, how can the final dish be sweet?

Aahaara and Vihaara (food and recreation) should both be very carefully regulated according to the Geetha, but little heed is paid to its teaching. Nor is it considered so essential. There are people everywhere who swear by the Geetha, who expound it for hours together and who preach about it, but very few put its teachings into practice. The verses fill their heads but they are powerless to meet the reverses, with philosophical cheer. Ananda and Santhi can be secured only when food and recreation are cleansed and purified.

Darkness and light cannot coexist; Kama and Rama cannot be in the same place together; they are like fire and water. How can one escape an evil reaction of the Geetha is held in one hand and hot tea or coffee or a lighted cigarette or beedi or a pinch of snuff is held in the other? Some even justify their unregulated lives by declaring that whatever is eaten, however eaten, wherever eaten, the stuff is rendered pure and acceptable on account of the raging fire of Jnana which they have in them!