To quote Acharya Ganesa Sharma:

We work. We know that to be able to work, we need energy. The question arises as to where we get the energy from.

”Scientists ” say that we derive it from the food we take and to most people that seems to be true.

They compare the human body to a steam engine, which utilizes heat energy and converts into locomotive power. They say that the body produces heat by the combustion of food and that it converts it into other forms of energy as and when needed from time to time.

But DR. Dewey says that food does not directly supply the heat energy. IT has to be digested at the cost of energy. Digestion means splitting up of the food into its various constituents choosing the ones necessary for the body and excreting the ones not needed and also those not digested because some of the food might have been beyond its capacity to digest.

All this work demands expenditure of energy. IF food at all yields energy, it can be only after it had been assimilated not before that.

Where did the man get the energy to deal with the food?  A ”SCIENTIST” would say that he had gained it from the food that he had eaten earlier. If you go on stretching this point, how far can you proceed? The child, who is yet to start suckling the mother’s breasts has received energy directly from his mother even before birth.

Pulling it still further, who gave this energy to the FIRST man and woman? They could have started getting energy after they started taking food may be in any form, liquid or solid. But how did they make a beginning? Who endowed them with the starting energy?

This seems to be a little philosophical question and therefore beyond the ken of science. YES, science cannot answer this, only philosophy can.

Let me take you to science again.

Science teaches us that man does not produce any energy. He is only able to convert one form of energy into another form.. Where he claims to produce energy by the use of a fuel, he releases a latent form of energy form of energy into its patent form.

Even if we consider the human body is a machine, it does not have a cent percent efficiency. Just as we compared a machine with less and more efficiency, man — the same man– may have more efficiency at one time and less at another time, There are a number of governing factors.

When a man is healthy, his efficiency is high. When one is ill his efficiency goes down, I want to draw your attention to this factor that when one is ill, because the efficiency at that time being low, the loss of energy in the attempt to do a job is more than when the efficiency is high.

Similarly, efficiency goes down when one has a divided attention– maybe mental or physical.

Now going back to the production of energy in human system , because food is not directly energy, because it is only in a latent form and has to be brought out into a patent form, the human machine has to work over it through its digestive system., it has digest some part and rest to eliminate the undigested part, All this involves labour at the cost of energy. So, meeting all these losses incidentally, the output cannot be more than the latent energy in the food.

Having understood this point, Father [ Acharya K Lakshmana  Sarma ] posed the question

‘IF FOOD BE THE SOURCE OF ENERGY, WE ASK THIS QUESTION; ” WHY SHOULD THERE BE DEATH AT ALL? POOR PEOPLE MAY DIE OF STARVATION; BUT WHY SHOULD THE RICH ONES ALSO DIE ?.

We do see that every being that has had a birth has also an end, with the exhaustion of the vital energy.

The gear of a car is in the ‘neutral’. The engine is on. In this condition, it is not putting out any energy that can be put to use. At this stage, the engine is said to be ‘idling’. ‘Idling’ though it is consuming energy.

Similarly, a man who is at total rest is also consuming energy, to keep on the human system alive. The involuntary functions are on. The energy consumed when we work is above this minimum.

I repeat DR. Dewey’s statement; ” Food is a tax on vitality”. Food is not the source of energy. BY EATING MORE FOOD, ONE CANNOT PRODUCE MORE ENERGY AND BE ABLE TO DO HARD WORK. The abstemious eater turns out more work than the glutton, who becomes dull of muscles and as well as of mind.

FOOD IS JUST THE BUILDING MATERIAL.

Vital energy,  is what we derive from universe through our parents , This is the reason why we say that the health of the couple is of prime importance when they think of having a progeny, so that they can communicate a better endowment of VITAL ENERGY.