[Points: Importance of bread—other foods required—food for the mind and the heart—intellectual food—spiritual food—conclusion.]
The word 'bread is used here in the general sense of material food, the food we eat Next to air and water, it is the most important thing for life. A person may live without it for some time; but after that he will surely die if he does not get it. This is why man wants food so keenly. In fact, want of food is the principal cause of most of the crimes committed by men, and of the political revolutions recorded in history.
But important as bread is, it is not the only food man wants. It meets only his physical needs; but as a rational being, he requires food for other kinds of hunger-hunger of the mind and the heart, hunger of the intellect and of the spirit. It is these hungers that dis tinguish him from the brute and have made him the lord of creation. It is these again that bind society together and have led to all the progress in civilisation.
Thus, family and society are based on the hunger of the mind and the heart for love and affection. A man may be very rich; yet he feels lonely and unhappy unless he has a family of his own to love and to be loved We all know how a man and a woman yearn for children. We also know how love and affection enable a person to go without material food for days together and bear great physical sufferings with a smiling face.
Intellectual hunger has led mankind from more to more of the light of knowledge. It has produced the masterpieces of science, literature and philosophy. It is at the root of the lofty thoughts and ideas that have inspired mankind at all times. Indeed, ideals are more powerful than caunon, and a life without an ideal is as useless as a boat without a rudder. We know how ideals have inspired men to bear great sufferings, even to sacrifice their own lives, in all ages and all countries.
The spiritual hunger is the basis of all religions. Man Jankers after material comforts and enjoyments. But he soon realises that they do not give real happiness of mind. So he hungers for some thing that will enable him to go through the joys and sorrows of life with cheerfulness of spirit, and set him free from the bonds of life. And this he finds in religion. So we see that, however important material food may be in a man's life, he has other interests also to inspire and guide him, to make his life worth living and to give bim true happiness.
