In English
Examine the source of the food offered
The young man cursed the day when the dream started haunting him, for he was now being sent by his master on purposeless errands to investigate irrelevant issues. He wondered how his spiritual practices could be helped by all this. Nevertheless, he pursued the inquiry about the feast and its origins and the wherewithal out of which it was prepared. It came to light that the funds were supplied by a sixty-year old money lender to whom a had given his daughter in marriage and received in return a sum of ten thousand . She was now appealing to the holy men for a bit of human kindness toward a forsaken child. thus demonstrated to his disciple that one should examine the source of the food, the motives for the gift, and the passions that surge and sway the giver before accepting such an intimate gift as food. You may say that only spiritual aspirants have to bear such rules in mind, but tell Me who is not a spiritual aspirant. All are pilgrims on the road - some going fast, some going slow, that is all. The goal is the same for you all, though the roads may be many. You are all cultured and civilised according to current notions. Of course, there is a vast difference between the methods of living now and in the past. Man has traveled far from the days when he wore the barks of trees or leaf garments. Today is the day of nylons and georgettes and bush coats. Well, admitting that all this is a sign of higher civilisation, should there not be a corresponding rise in the level of thinking and feeling and action, in the arts of living together and earning mental peace and poise? Spiritual life must also become more cultured and civilised, is it not? There must be gratitude for the chance of life, for the blessings of the beauty and bounty of nature, and a realisation of the more durable values of life. Attachment to sensory pleasure has to be discarded in preference to the more lasting joy of inner contemplation.