17.8 Food of clarity is not austere Krishna speaks
आयुःसत्त्वबलारोग्यसुखप्रीतिविवर्धनाः
रस्याः स्निग्धाः स्थिरा हृद्या आहाराः सात्त्विकप्रियाः
āyuḥ-sattva-balārogya-sukha-prīti-vivardhanāḥ
rasyāḥ snigdhāḥ sthirā hṛidyā āhārāḥ sāttvika-priyāḥ
Foods that increase life, clarity, strength, health, ease and satisfaction — juicy, rich, nourishing and pleasing — are dear to those of clarity.
Explanation
Food of clarity is not the austere option, which surprises most readers.
Juicy, rich, nourishing, pleasing — and increasing life, strength, health, ease and satisfaction.
Nothing here recommends deprivation. What is being described is food that leaves you better afterwards, which turns out to be a different axis entirely from how little of it there is.
Going further
Word by word
- āyuḥ sattva
- which promote longevity
- bala
- strength
- ārogya
- health
- sukha
- happiness
- prīti
- satisfaction
- vivardhanāḥ
- increase
- rasyāḥ
- juicy
- snigdhāḥ
- succulent
- sthirāḥ
- nourishing
- hṛidyāḥ
- pleasing to the heart
- āhārāḥ
- food
- sāttvika-priyāḥ
- dear to those in the mode of goodness
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Three verses on food, and a scripture willing to be this specific is unusual.
What counts as food of clarity is not the austere option — juicy, rich, nourishing, pleasing. The restless choose the sharp and burning; the inert, the stale and left over. It is a claim that diet is continuous with disposition, made without apology, and it sits alongside 6.16's insistence on moderation.