Verse 17.8

Verse 17.8: “Longevity, inner basic constitution (sattva), strength, health, happiness, and cheerfulness: such foods as promote these, and are savoury, succulent, sustaining and satisfying, are dear to those of Sattvika temperament. (125)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

Should the enjoyer be luckily inclined towards Sattva qualities, his liking for sweet articles of food increases; food articles which by themselves are savoury, sweet, and well-cooked, well-shaped, soft to touch and succulent and flavoury to the tongue,—articles that are full of syrup (rasa-pāka) inside, and with soft exterior and with the internal liquidity thickened by heat, but not over-cooked articles although small in size (are) big (highly invigorating) in effect, like a single letter alphabet from the mouth of the preceptor, which though small gives immense internal satisfaction—articles that are as beneficial to the interior as they are sweet (tasteful) to the mouth: such sorts of edible articles are greatly liked by the beings of Sattvic nature. Food possessing such signs should be known as Sattvic food. It conserves longevity. When the cloud in the form of such flavoury sattvic liquid food showers the interior of the body, the river of longevity gets swollen day by day.

The Sun is the cause of the advance of the day; in that way such kind of diet is most suitable for preserving the Sattvic quality. Such (kind of food) is also a great support for strengthening the mind as also the body and with such food the ailments find no scope whatsoever (to attack the body). When one gets such Sattvic food, then only can one enjoy sound health and the star in the form of goodluck is in the ascendant for the body: and it is with such food alone that a person gets scope for doing such acts as make him happy, and this happiness is firmly wedded to joy (lit. happiness augments its intimacy with joy). The Sattvic food proves in the long run thus great and beneficial to the body both externally and internally. Now I tell you, as the occasion demands, the diet dear to the Rajas—tempered persons.