Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Now Krishna start firstly with food.

Srila Prabhupada given common purport for all the three verses 

Bg 17.8

āyuḥ-sattva-balārogya-
sukha-prīti-vivardhanāḥ
rasyāḥ snigdhāḥ sthirā hṛdyā
āhārāḥ sāttvika-priyāḥ

Synonyms: 

āyuḥ — duration of life; sattva — existence; bala — strength; ārogya — health; sukha — happiness; prīti — and satisfaction; vivardhanāḥ — increasing; rasyāḥ — juicy; snigdhāḥ — fatty; sthirāḥ — enduring; hṛdyāḥ — pleasing to the heart; āhārāḥ — food; sāttvika — to one in goodness; priyāḥ — palatable.

Translation: 

Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart.

Why is Sri Krishna talking about these four specific characteristics i.e. Aahar, Yajan, Dana and Tapa. Yajn? 

Dana and Tapa are considered to be very central activity in Vedic Culture, very important activities, Sri Krishna has quoted in 18th Chapter that Yajan, Dana and Tapa should not be given up and that these purified even the Manishinah means the great souls. So Yajna, Dana and Tapa are glorious activity. When He talks about Yajan, Dana, Tapa He is essentially talking about the ways in which the faith within heart is expressed. 

When we do Yajan, Danan and Tapa we are not gaining anything tangible through these activities. As by these activities we are sacrificing something immediately and not gaining anything at a tangible visible level. So these activity involve certain kind of faith, these activity are associated with religion, and these involve doing sacrifice at three different levels. 

The soul is caught in three circles, 

1.the Adhyatmic i.e. body, mind circle.

2. Soul is caiught in Adhibhautic that is in social circle.
3. And the soul is caught in Adhidaivic, that is in the cosmic circle. 

So psycho-physical, social and environmental circles the soul is in.

And wherever we are placed we have obligations to the situations we are placed, whoever gives us anything we become obligated to that person and we are expected to return something to that person. 

1. So as far as this body is concern we are using this body for dharma so we are expected to do something for the body so we sacrifice by doing Tapa, the austerity is Adhyatmic circle, 
2. Then Dana is for other living beings.
3. And Yajan is for sacrificing to the gods.

gods are giving many things through the medium of universal utilities e.g. air, water, heat, light etc.

So these are the activity through which we are returning what we take from universe at different levels.

Now different people understanding will be different and they will act in different ways. Depending on their situations within modes at different levels they will do different kind of activities.

Even Ahara, the food we take indicate the kind of faith we have that we will see later on.

So basically these four activity demonstrate our faith. 

Food in the mode of goodness Krishna says:

 āyuḥ-sattva-balārogya-

sukha-prīti-vivardhanāḥ

So what the food in mode of goodness do? vivardhanāḥ is to increase, it increases āyuḥ-sattva-bala arogya-

We have duty to take care of our body also as the body is the tool for dharma. Therefore maintaining the body is also our duty.

There is a say that what you eat one fourth of that maintains you and three fourth maintains your doctor. Ayurveda says we should eat up to fifty percentage of our stomach, remaining 25% for water and air so that Prana and Jala can help us in digesting. 

Sattva is existence, Srila Prabhupada translated that the food that can increase one’s life purifies one’s existence, what goes inside affects us inside, that is not only physical but also emotional and spiritual, so whatever way we interacts with matter that interaction has its effect it effects and shapes our perception, e.g. if someone has seen an obscene picture that is just some color in some shape but when our eyes sees it, it effects our consciousness, it creates certain kinds of mentality within us. 

Now with food we feel that raga, attraction and dvesha repulsion are the only two effect with respect to food based on our experience, but there is much more to it, actually food shapes our consciousness at subtle level, this is mentioned in Ayurvedas, that is why we become what we eat, modern science generally thinks in gross terms. So food which is cooked with love and devotional disposition towards Krishna helps us in bhakti. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu talks about this in CC Visayi Annya Khiele Dusta Haya Mann, if we eat food that is cooked by Karmi then mind becomes wicked, means it starts thinking about self-centered desires in an exclusive and excessive way. Such a Dusta Haile Mann Nahi Krishnera Smaran, then with such a mind we cannot think about Krishna. So the food we eat can purify us if it is properly made. 

Sri Krishna talks about food in mode of goodness that itself is purifying. Nirmalatvat, it is purifying as we discussed in 14th Chapter. In mode of goodness we are not getting further contamination, but we are getting more and more in mode of goodness by taking that food, but higher then goodness is transcendence when we offer to Krishna and take Prasad that is transcendental that enables us to transcends and become free from Karma and become more and more attracted towards Krishna. 

And the food gives energy if we eat more, then after eating we feel so loaded that we cannot do anything otherwise we can do a lot, 

sukha-prīti-vivardhanāḥ, also talks about emotional effects, we feel happy, priti yes this is nice, so happiness and satisfaction, yes I like it.

If we take food in mode of passion then rather than feeling satisfied we rather feel agitated, we feel like craving for more and more. We never feel satisfied by food in mode of passion. 

rasyāḥ snigdhāḥ sthirā hṛdyā, and what kind of foods rasyāḥ is juicy, snigdhāḥ is fatty, sthirāḥ — enduring; hṛdyāḥ — pleasing to the heart

āhārāḥ sāttvika-priyāḥ, such is the food in the mode of goodness.

Purport: Fatty foods, as mentioned in the eighth verse, have no connection with animal fat obtained by slaughter. Animal fat is available in the form of milk, which is the most wonderful of all foods…. Slaughter is the way of sub-humans.

Someone may say slaughter was happing in past also, yes there were hunters and butchers but it was not organized and animals were not brutalized the way it is happening today.  

There is a whole industry out there… They keep hens and chickens in such a constricted space there is no space for them to move and lack of fresh air, in this agony they peck / bite at each other, so to avoid it these hens are caught and when they are alive their beaks are ripped apart, it is brutal to an extreme degree, and this is just one of the terrible things, like that there are hundreds of ghastly things that are done, so such type of brutal slaughter are inhuman entirely. So such kind of food are definitely not in mode of goodness.

There are people called Vegans they don’t take milk also and they says that even milk is a product of violence, so is it true? It can be. In Vedic time cows were valued as a mother and were served with love, and when they were served like that they give milk in abundance but today cows are treated as manufacturing units and instead of lovingly taking milk from their udders, machines are attached to their udders and milks are squeezed out from their udders till the cow cry in pain and blood starts dripping out. This is brutal. Also cows are not taken care of. So when people do farming in traditional ways and they care for cows and cows give milk with love then that milk is expression of love and that milk has many good properties health enhancing, life enhancing properties within it, but the milk that is manufactured today are often product of brutality so as far as possible the vegans in practice what they say is right, in today’s society milk is often a product of violence, in principle milk itself is not a product of violence, the milk is meant to be given out of love and traditionally when the cow is taken care of adequately the cows will give more milk then the calf’s can drink and calf should drink the milk but drinking all the milk is not good for calf health also, so calf are given milk and they are trained to take other kinds of food also, cows anatomy is designed in such a way that it gives more milk then what its own offspring calf needs to take, and that milk can be used by humans. So as much as possible devotees should avoid industrialized milk that is often a product of torcher, devotees can take milk which is produced in traditional settings. Vegans don’t take any milk but that idea is not supported by our Acharyas it is not vedic. Srila Prabhupada said excess of anything becomes passion so excess of milk also may not be required apart from health issues.

End of transcription.