Rate Khata Pahela - Book Summary

Here's a comprehensive summary of the Jain text "Rate Khata Pahela" by Priyam, based on the provided pages:

The book, "Rate Khata Pahela" (Before You Take Your Dinner), by Priyam, published by Ashapuran Parshwanath Jain Gyanbhandar, strongly advocates for the practice of abstaining from dinner after sunset until sunrise. The author asserts that this practice is not merely a religious tenet but is deeply rooted in scientific principles, a fact acknowledged by leading scholars worldwide. The book systematically presents various arguments, drawing from different fields of knowledge, to support the abandonment of night meals.

The core arguments presented are:

Yoga Science and Night Meals: After sunset, the digestive organs function at only 20% capacity. Even light food taken at night can strain the digestive system, leading to indigestion, which is identified as the root of many diseases. Modern yoga trainers even advise against consuming liquids after 4 PM.
Dharma Science and Night Meals: Citing the ancient Sanskrit text "Nitivakyamrutam," the book states that exercising or engaging in conjugal activities immediately after eating is detrimental to health. It implies that having meals with insufficient time gaps between them, as is often the case with night dinners, can lead to health deterioration.
Sleep Science and Night Meals: Eating with a full stomach disrupts the digestive process during sleep. If sleep is forced under these conditions, indigestion occurs, inviting diseases. Alternatively, staying awake to digest food leads to disturbed sleep, further damaging digestion. The book emphasizes the importance of deep sleep between 9 PM and 1 AM for health, which is difficult to achieve with late-night meals. A popular verse highlights the benefits of sleeping and waking early: "He who sleeps early and wakes early is brave; strength, intellect, and wealth increase; the body remains in happiness."
Sun Science and Night Meals: Digestion requires oxygen, which is abundantly provided by sunlight. Sunlight, with its ultraviolet and infrared rays, also sterilizes the atmosphere. Eating during daylight boosts immunity. At night, the absence of sunlight reduces hormone levels in the blood, decreasing the body's functional efficiency and slowing down digestion. This prolonged digestion, coupled with insufficient blood supply to the brain, can lead to serious illnesses, gas, ulcers, and negatively impact pregnant women and their offspring.
Diabetes and Night Meals: During night meals, saliva, crucial for digesting sugars, mixes inadequately with food. This increases the risk of diabetes, with a noted correlation between the rise of late-night dinners and the increase in diabetes patients. Daytime meals, with more saliva and the amino acid tyrosine, promote better digestion and reduce the risk of diseases like diabetes.
Glucose and Night Meals: Night meals hinder the activation of the body's enzyme system, preventing the breakdown of glycogen into glucose. This can trigger various diseases and adversely affect organs, skin, bones, heart, muscles, pancreas, kidneys, lungs, brain, and glands.
Acidity and Night Meals: Eating at night stimulates the secretion of acids like hydrochloric acid, leading to acidity problems.
Aging and Night Meals: Continuous eating day and night accelerates cellular aging. Keeping the stomach empty at night aids in the complete cleansing of the intestines. Fasting at night rejuvenates the body, making it active and well-shaped, thus promoting a longer youth.
Fitness and Night Meals: Abstaining from night meals enhances the capacity of lymphocytes and phagocytes in the blood, strengthening the immune system. It also promotes early sleep and wakefulness, allowing the brain to rest fully, stabilizing heart rate and pulse, normalizing liver blood flow, and reducing mental stress.
Nature and Night Meals: The book argues that night meals are unnatural and go against the principles of nature, which dictate activity during the day and rest at night. This is supported by observing animals and birds, most of whom do not eat at night. A verse from the "Ratrisajaya" work questions why humans, unlike superior animals and birds, would not embrace the practice of avoiding night meals.
Family Life and Night Meals: Late dinners disrupt household routines, potentially leading to arguments and late bedtimes. Conversely, finishing dinner by 6 PM and household chores within an hour creates a relaxed atmosphere, allowing for quality family time and bonding.
Personal Opinions: The author includes testimonials from individuals who have abstained from night meals for decades, reporting no need for medicine, sustained energy levels, mental peace, and benefits in their personal and business lives.
Medical Science and Night Meals: Dr. Yuvraj Bhosle, a lecturer at a Mumbai Municipal Corporation Medical College, states that the body's biological clock is synchronized with the sun. He emphasizes that digestion is most efficient around noon. Medical science recommends eating at least two to three hours before sleeping to allow for proper digestion. Late-night eating is linked to Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), causing heartburn and esophageal inflammation, and the increasing trend of late dinners correlates with rising rates of esophageal cancer.
Heart Disease and Night Meals: Dr. V.N. Shah of Ahmedabad notes that most heart attacks occur in the evening or early morning, suggesting a link to post-dinner indigestion. Research from Hong Kong and China supports the reduced risk of heart attacks among those who eat early. High-calorie foods commonly served at night parties contribute to obesity and related diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure, especially when not compensated by physical activity.
Ayurveda and Night Meals: Ayurveda compares the stomach to a lotus that blooms with the rising sun and closes as the sun sets. Food eaten into a blooming stomach is digested well. Food consumed in a contracted stomach is not digested properly, leading to the formation of "ama" (toxins) that deposit in organs or burden the intestines. An Ayurvedic verse emphasizes not eating at night due to the closing of digestive organs and the presence of minute organisms.
Modern Science and Night Meals: Modern science principle "Where there is darkness, there are germs" is applied to night meals, highlighting the health risks associated with consuming food in a germ-infested environment. Artificial light cannot replace sunlight. Electric lights can even attract more germs, increasing the risk of ingesting insects and causing various health issues, sometimes requiring surgery. Eating in daylight is the best prevention. Surgeons often perform major operations during the day to avoid micro-organisms.
Yoga Shastra and Night Meals: Yoga Shastra details the negative effects of consuming contaminated food at night, citing that ants reduce mental power, contaminated water causes ascites, flies induce vomiting, spiders cause leprosy, thorns cause throat pain, scorpions sting the palate, and hair in the throat causes voice loss.
Vedic Science and Night Meals: The Vedas prohibit night meals, associating them with demons and negative entities. Eating at night is considered "abhojan" (improper food). A Yajurveda verse states that gods eat in the morning, sages at noon, ancestors in the afternoon, demons in the evening, and yakshas/rakshasas at twilight. Eating at any other time, especially at night, is considered wrong.
Puranas and Night Meals: Various Puranas strongly advise against night meals. The Padma Purana lists night meals as one of the four gates to hell, along with adultery and consuming root vegetables and pickles that harbor micro-organisms. The Markandeya Purana states that water becomes blood and food becomes flesh after sunset, urging abstention from even water at night for ascetics and prudent householders. The Skanda Purana mentions that those who eat only once a day gain the merit of Agnihotra, and those who consistently eat before sunset gain the merit of pilgrimage.
Yogavashistha and Night Meals: The Yogavashistha states that those who refrain from night meals, especially during Chaturmasya, attain all desired objects in this life and future lives.
Mahabharata and Night Meals: The Mahabharata equates night meals with consuming alcohol, meat, and root vegetables, deeming them futile for any spiritual practice or pilgrimage. It states that water turns into blood and food into flesh at night, making night eating equivalent to consuming flesh.
Ramayana and Night Meals: The Ramayana illustrates the severity of a vow against night meals through an anecdote where Lakshmana takes such a vow to reassure his wife Vanmala.
Reincarnation and Night Meals: Studying reincarnation cases, the book asserts that night meals lead to rebirths as creatures like owls, crows, cats, vultures, pigs, snakes, scorpions, and monitor lizards. These beings then commit similar or worse sins, leading to further degraded existences.
Lord Mahavir Swami and Night Meals: Jain Agamas explicitly prohibit night meals. Lord Mahavir Swami advised against consuming anything, including food, water, or even mouth fresheners, after sunset. Thousands of monks and nuns strictly follow this principle, abstaining from water even in extreme heat. Millions of Jains eat before sunset and break their fast after sunrise. Some devout householders also refrain from water at night. The Jain principle of "Ahimsa Parmo Dharma" (non-violence is the supreme religion) is evident in the avoidance of night meals to prevent unintentional violence against minute organisms. Night meals are listed as the fourteenth forbidden item in Jain scriptures.
Lord Gautam Buddha and Night Meals: The Buddhist scripture Tripitaka, in Pali language, advises against eating after sunset.
Receptions and Night Meals: At night receptions, there is a higher probability of insects and other organisms contaminating food. This can lead to vomiting, diarrhea, or food poisoning. In extreme cases, poisonous snakes have been known to contaminate food, causing fatalities. Caterers' negligence can result in insects, lizards, frogs, rats, and even small snakes being mixed and cooked into dishes. Avoiding night meals is presented as a simple and direct solution to these issues.
Fast Food and Night Meals: The concerns regarding food contamination also apply to fast food. Those who value compassion for life should avoid restaurants, street food, and packaged foods, especially if they aim to be vegetarian. When business drives food sales, stale or unhygienic food is disguised and served. The night hours exacerbate these problems. Even those who don't prioritize compassion should care for their own health and opt for carefully prepared home-cooked meals during the day. A proverb states: "He who eats fresh and sleeps on time, his diseases weep." This highlights the importance of fresh, home-cooked food during the day and timely sleep.
Life Vision and Night Meals: The purpose of eating is to sustain life, not to live for food. Food is a mere support for achieving higher life goals. Consuming food that harms health is like turning support into a burden, leading to downfall rather than progress. Unlike animals whose lives are primarily focused on food, humans have higher aspirations.
Digestive System and Night Meals: Those who eat at night often eat multiple times during the day. Just as the body needs rest at night after a day's work, the digestive system also requires rest. Night meals impose an extra burden on the digestive system, which eventually leads to illness and shortens lifespan. Eating less, fewer types of food, and less frequently are secrets to a healthy long life, as observed in the robust health of ascetics.
Benefits of Night Meals: The book humorously points out that the "benefits" of night meals are reaped by others, such as hotel owners, dispensaries, medical stores, diagnostic centers, and hospitals, due to the illnesses that arise from this practice.
Fruits and Night Meals: A cultural proverb states that eating fruits in the morning is like diamonds, in the afternoon like gold, in the evening like silver, and at night like iron, indicating that night fruit consumption is harmful.

Conclusion:

The book concludes that from both scientific and cultural perspectives, night meals are to be rejected. It emphasizes that what is harmful to other living beings is also harmful to oneself, advocating for the principle that collective well-being leads to individual happiness. By abandoning night meals, one not only avoids diseases but also practices compassion and frees themselves from suffering. The final decision, however, rests with the individual's wish.