Recipes: July-Aug 1926 — Three Recipes
Health Recipe
Did not the Spirit make your body out “of the dust of the ground” (Gen.2:7), i.e., from the same ninety-two elements that compose the material of the earth? Hence you must remember to follow the God-made material laws which govern your health and physical body. But do not over-emphasize the importance of the body, nor be too fastidious about diet, because mind-power is more essential. There are food “cranks” whose only interest revolves around “calories” and “vitamins,” and they talk of nothing but lettuce and nuts, lettuce and nuts when you meet them, until you wonder how they can be so blind to other and more interesting phases of life.
But don’t misunderstand me. I am not underestimating the value of a proper diet but simply point out that it is better not to become fanatical about it. It is necessary that modern people eat more raw, “unkilled” food. Walk more, bathe in the sunshine every day. If you have no time for a real sun bath, then open your window and, with eyes closed and head bared, absorb the ultra-violet rays of the sunshine. Take an early morning run in the park to keep your heart in good condition, otherwise you will find you get out of breath quickly. If you abstain from meat, be sure to eat the proper substitutes, such as well-ground-up nuts. Man’s almost universal habit of eating too fast makes it hard for him to masticate nuts thoroughly enough before swallowing; therefore, it is better to grind up the nuts before eating.
Obey the material laws of the body by sensible choice of food. Since you have to eat, eat the right kind of food. Choose a balanced diet, stick to it, and then forget the body; devote your time to the more important studies and problems of life.
Intellectual Recipe
Most bored people who think they have exhausted the joys of life do not know that a world of solace lies in good books. The vacant mind is the workshop of worry and despair. In choosing books, the first preference should be given to spiritual books which are free from dogma. In studying, remember you must master one subject or more, but you should also know something of every other subject, botany, logic, astronomy, music, languages, politics. The study of physiology is most important. Read a good scientific magazine every month. Reading is the best indoor intellectual sport. It keeps your mind busy and your intellect exercised. One or two hours’ daily reading will give any man a liberal education in ten years, if his choice falls on worthwhile books.
Don’t waste time and injure your mental faculties by reading purposeless or trashy books. Not to cultivate a genuine interest in books is to miss the heritage of the ages. Those who cannot get along with their friends and the world — let them read books and keep company with those silent friends who have the power to comfort and inspire. Those who are socially inclined will find a new power to help humanity through the lessons taught by books written by noble and gifted men.
Spiritual Recipe
Why are you asleep yet! Offer no excuses to yourself that you are too busy to think of God! When death will come, you will have to leave all your activities and your engagements at once without notice or delay. Then why not give up now some of your useless pursuits and idle thoughts and make time for God? The world takes out of you all it can, keeps you engaged with many worthless habits and unproductive activities. Day after day you wish to be different, but you are being carried a prisoner, bound hand and foot by the cord of your habits woven by you and your environment.
Remember you are responsible for yourself, and the world will not answer for your deeds. Then why not remember each day, “My most important engagement is with God”? To eat, work, and die is not enough; the animal does the same. Use your precious gift of reason and try to find Him. You have not to go to the forest, where other, though different, temptations will assail and conquer you. Your work is in the world, where your karma has placed you to work out your salvation by serving your fellow-man.
It is not necessary to act solemnly as though you were at a funeral in order to seek Him. You can find God in the solitude of your own room when, in the early morning hours and before sleeping, you compose yourself for meditation and thought on the great Divine principle that created you. With folded hands say mentally, “Father, Thou art omniscient. Thou knowest my thoughts every one; talk to me. I want to hear Thy voice.” Say it mentally again and again until you feel it. You have to culture this feeling, work for it. Repeat the prayer again and again until you find your heart throbs with love and yearning for God and you get a conscious response.
Whenever you find yourself with a few moments of leisure, make a sincere prayer, “Father, come to me, reveal Thy omniscient presence.” Let no one know of your secret prayers. And remember you cannot know God if other desires are in your mind at the same time. “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” means God will not reveal Himself to you if your thoughts for Him are not strong enough to blot out all other distracting thoughts. When you wish to express your love for someone, you do not need to quote from a book of poems to express that love. Your love finds its own words, which flow spontaneously from the awakened heart. So pray to God mostly in your own words of love and yearning, not in the borrowed language of others all the time. Never cease to keep up your prayers to God until He answers you.
We are not as big as we think or imagine; we are only as big as we act. So act from today on your desire to know God, make the effort now to cultivate His friendship, without ignoring your worldly duties, with the thought that you are realizing Him through them and thus are pleasing Him.
