Microvitum in a Nutshell
July 1, 2023

5 - Microvitum in a Nutshell


Microvitum in a Nutshell [a compilation]

Chapter 2

Some Examples of Microvita in Daily Life – Excerpt C

Published in:

Microvitum in a Nutshell [a compilation]

Notes:

from section on “Khara”, Discourse 93
Shabda Cayaniká Part 13

official source: Microvitum in a Nutshell

this version: is the printed Microvitum in a Nutshell, 3rd edition, second impression, 2005 version (obvious spelling, punctuation and typographical mistakes only may have been corrected). I.e., this is the most up-to-date version as of the present Electronic Edition. Words in double square brackets [[   ]] are corrections that did not appear in the printed book.

Some Examples of Microvita in Daily Life

Excerpt C

Khara.(1) From some living entities – whether living creatures, plants, fruits, flowers, leaves or roots or anything else – a kind of musty odour is emitted. This kind of smell is also emitted from unclean bodies or the bodies of those people who do not bathe regularly. Those who consume a lot of static food also emit this sort of foul smell.

Those who have excessively mean propensities also develop this kind of repulsive odour due to the defects in their hormones. In fact, smell particles are formed out of the hormones secreted from the various glands. Similarly, an intensely foul smell is emitted from the bodies of tigers because they are carnivorous. Although cats belong to the tiger family, they are partly vegetarian, so there is less foul smell in their bodies. The foul smell particles of some plants work as medicine in other bodies. The indigenous American Indians did not like to eat tomatoes because of their foul smell, although they fed them to their domestic animals. They would only eat tomatoes when they were sick. If the foul smell can be removed from tomatoes through scientific culture, a major change in the qualities of the vitamins may take place. Soybeans also have an unpleasant smell, and for this reason they are not very popular in India. If the repulsive smell of soybeans is removed, then a major change in their qualities will take place.

If you happen to pass an abattoir or some temples, you will invariably experience a kind of repulsive smell which is not exactly a stinking smell. The testes of a billy-goat produce a kind of foul smell that spreads throughout its body. Consequently, it is extremely difficult to go close to an adult billy-goat. A hilsa fish (an Indian herring) is extremely fond of flesh – rotten flesh is its favourite food – hence it produces a kind of repulsive secretion. If a fish bowl or container which held hilsa fish is cleaned with a cloth, and the cloth is used to clean another container, a repulsive smell will be emitted from the second container unless it is properly ventilated. A vegetarian will feel uncomfortable if this container is used for eating, drinking or anything else. Strict vegetarians avoid using any container which has been used to hold non-vegetarian food. [[Hilsas, sharks and crocodiles all emit the same type of foul smell, and for almost the same reasons.]]

Another meaning of the word “khara” is “a rotten smell or a stinking smell”. One will experience this kind of smell if one walks by a place where animal corpses are dumped. When a dead body is left exposed for more than twenty-four hours, germs which decompose the body set in. These so-called germs are in fact negative microvita. The slightest contact with these negative microvita is extremely pernicious for most creatures. However, for those creatures whose physical structure contains more powerful negative microvita, rotten flesh or rotten fish is not as harmful as is it for other creatures.

Milk is turned into curd through microvita. For about forty- eight hours, these microvita remain in positive form. But if curd remains exposed to heat for more than forty-eight hours, then the positive microvita decompose and change into negative microvita. This is why curd can be eaten up to forty-eight hours after it has become ready for consumption. Later, when the curd emits a rancid smell, it is unfit for human consumption because it is infested with negative microvita. As long as there are positive microvita in curd, it is more useful and nutritious than milk.

One may die if one eats the rotten flesh of a cow, goat or fish. A human being may be attacked with cholera, but a crow, jackal or vulture will not be harmed if it consumes rotten flesh. This is because of physical constitution. Some non-vegetarians can even digest stinking food such as cooked dried meat, dried fish, etc., but strict vegetarians will definitely become sick if they eat such food.

13 September 1987, Calcutta

Footnotes

(1) Other meanings of khara omitted here. –Trans.

Published in:

Microvitum in a Nutshell [a compilation]