Energy & Swami

Question: Swami, we take sumptuous meals twice a day. Again, we take heavy breakfast, evening snacks and several cups of coffee during the course of the day. Still, we feel weak and exhausted. You don’t take anything except one or two spoonfuls of food. But you work and strain yourself a lot. You walk miles in a day. How are you so energetic?

Bhagavan: This is Divinity. You derive energy from the food you eat. If you take less food, you become weak. But the energy of Swami is not derived from food. I don’t take any breakfast. I just drink a glass of water at 10 in the morning. I eat very little. I do not take curds [yogurt], ghee [clarified butter], sweets, ice cream, oily or spicy stuff. My food is a poor man’s food—‘ragi’ [cereal] and millet. You have seen Me not taking anything in the evenings for the last one year.

I do so much work. I personally look into every minute detail of the institutions here: educational, hospital, mandir [temple], besides the current water project. I have direct contact with every devotee. No one stands between us. Since there are no secrets, I have no secretary. It is all a connection of only love-to-love and heart-to-heart. For the work I do, it is estimated that I need 1,500 calories of energy. But the food I take has hardly 200 calories. Then from where do I get the energy I need? It is not from food. Know that I am energy, nay, its very source.

Physically, I am 70 [now 78]. Yet, I can see even an ant from a distance. I don’t wear glasses. You people begin wearing glasses from 40 years of age. I can hear any sound, even the slightest, and My teeth are very strong and sharp. I don’t have even a single grey hair. I feel like walking more and more. But it would put you all to inconvenience since many follow Me wherever I go. I attend to My personal work. You may wonder how My senses are so sharp.

What is your prayer before you take your food? You pray to God who is in the form of Vaisvanara and to whom food is offered as He digests, assimilates, and supplies the essence to the different parts of your body. Therefore, the food you all eat comes to Me and I am in you. Just examine why your senses are weak. The answer is simple, viz., misuse of senses, selfishness, and narrow-mindedness. There is not an iota of selfishness in Me from top to toe. You are Mine. My only concern is your welfare and spiritual progress.