Dr. N.L. Kachhara
Food is an essential need of all organisms. The food is of three types; luminous food (ohja ahara), skin food (roma ahara) and alimentary food (kavala ahara). The luminous food is the need of the subtle body and is received by tejas and karma bodies. The skin food is taken in every moment through skin in a continuous process. The alimentary food consists of eatables, drinks and other items we take by mouth.
1. Plants
Plants get their nourishment from the land they grow on. The constituents of the earth, water, sunlight, air (carbon-di-oxide) and the plant waste (manure) are the means of nourishment. The electric charge present in earth also provides nourishment to plants. Some trees also attract mobile creatures in their near vicinity for food. Such plants suck the fluid content of their prey and kill them. The colour, odour, taste and touch attributes of the earth influence the quality and growth of plants. For instance, a mango tree gives mangoes of different colour, taste, shape etc. when properties of earth, water, climate and seed etc. differ.
2. Human beings
The seed (first cell) and womb are governing factors determining the birth of human beings. The soul chooses his parents in accordance with his karmas. The karmas of a soul may also motivate parents to engage in sexual activity so that conception takes place. The karma and tejas bodies of the soul occupy the first cell produced by the union of egg and sperm cells of parents. Thus a new birth takes place either in the form of male, female or hermaphrodite. The egg and sperm cells of parents thus provide the first food to soul. Thereafter the soul accepts a part of nourishment taken by mother. On completion of the pregnancy period the soul comes out of the womb and birth takes place. In the infant age the soul feeds on mother's milk. On growing up the cereals, vegetables, fruits, meat etc. become food for nourishment. In addition to this, soul also needs earth constituents like minerals etc., water, sunlight, and air for his life and growth. All these inputs are converted into suitable products that become a part of body of the soul. The material contents of the bodies of human beings have different colour, smell, taste; touch and shape and therefore bodies exist in a wide variety of colours, shapes and forms.
The characteristic like male, female or hermaphrodite of humans is due to the karma of a soul. There is no rule that a female after death is reborn as female or male is reborn as male. The karma decides the first cell to be received from parents and the type of body in the next birth of soul. The necessary condition for birth is that the egg and sperm cells of parent are not deficient in any way and are suitable for birth. A male is born when sperm cells are more than egg cells, a female is born when egg cells are more than sperm cells and a hermaphrodite is born when the two cells are in equal quantity. Normally a male child is born when the fetus is on right side and a female child is born when fetus is on left side of womb. A hermaphrodite is born when the fetus is in the middle of the womb.
The infernal beings enjoy their bad deeds and the celestial beings enjoy their good deeds as food. Both of these beings take luminous food only for their nourishment. The luminous food of infernal beings consists of bad matter particles (varganas) and that of celestial beings consists of good matter particles. The luminous food is of two types first which has a continuous input and the second that has a discontinuous input. The minimum input interval is four time segments and the maximum input interval is thirty three thousand years.
3. Five sense animals.
The birth and nourishment methods of five sense animals are similar to human beings except that the first nourishment varies with the kind of animal as follows.
- The aquatic beings have the first nourishment of water body souls.
- The terrestrial animals receive the first nourishment of the sperm and egg cell of the parents.
- The creeping reptiles have the first nourishment of air body souls.
- The armed reptiles also have the first nourishment of air body souls.
- The birds get the first nourishment from the heat of the body of mother.
4. Deficient Mobile Creatures
These creatures have the first nourishment of excreta, urine, sweat, blood, pus etc. of the animals and that that is present in the surrounding areas they are born in.
