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COMMANDMENT 8
Be happy to eat in constant Divine thought whatever you get, with due regard to honest and pious earnings.
The philosophy involved in it starts from materiality and ends in the final state we all have to arrive at. A happy disposition is a state which percolates its effect upon the lower layers and purifies them. This is a state which may aptly be taken as that next to the Divine. Fixing our thought on it means taking into account that which is our final goal. In other words, we begin from the point beyond which remains but That alone. This is the warp and woof which has been interwoven by Nature herself. We may call it as a material aspect of Nature, though materiality be only for name's sake, which reveals the nature of the Real Being. The word materiality is used for it only because, after all, it comes into the human conception. Possibly men may misunderstand it as a veil of Maya but that would not be correct. This is in fact the state which pervades the entire sphere of Maya. Now we fix it up in our thought at the time of taking our food, so the effect filters down on the substance which is there. When we eat it, the effect taken in by it enters our body and begins to spread all through our veins and arteries. In other words we have utilised to our best purpose the thing which we take in from outside. The particles and atoms of the body begin to get purified. The impulse of thought created thereby combines with the food, and helps to promote our physical and spiritual health. The power of Prana being all pervasive, nothing is free from its influence. It is inside the food as well as outside it. We apply the push of our thought to it, which brings it to a state similar to that which causes spark by friction, though it is somewhat different and purer. That which springs up by our contact with Reality leads us towards to Supreme, the power below it not being capable of the job. Human imagination has no access to it. This paves our way to the Infinite. Thus so much distance is covered so very easily. Our rules provide for taking food in the remembrance of God. All our actions should likewise be such as may be helpful to us in the attainment of the Ideal. While taking food we fix our thought upon the Ultimate which we have finally to attain, in order to take in its effect too, and increase our purity all the more. We have originated from Purity. The pure streams which were the cause of our coming into being had also originated from the purest Source, and for that reason the thought of purity persisted in us all through. Never can any impurity enter into them; not even the ravages of time could affect them in any way. Now because these currents had come from a very powerful source, they were permeated with absolute purity. These currents are really the result of the action of the original stir which had caused the creation and which were perfectly pure. Whatever came into existence through their medium was also perfectly pure in its original state. But the influence of time stained their purity and this was the result of our own actions and doings, as explained under Commandment 4. The thing got from Nature is very pure because its basis is purity. The thing earned by man can also remain in a pure state when that is got through pure and pious means. The influence thereof will affect the nearest layers and help to purify this human web. This is the reason why sages have laid so much stress upon honest and pious earning.