Whereas apparently many do die of it and of lack of food. This is a fact on the one hand and a mystery on the other, and may be solved as follows:
The Sustainer’s guarantee is true; none die of hunger. For that All-Wise One of Glory stores up some of the food He sends to the bodies of living creatures as fat, as reserves. In fact, He stores up a part of the sustenance He sends to each cell, in the cell, like a reserve stock to be spent when no food comes from outside. The creatures die before the store is finished. That is to say, death in such cases is not from lack of sustenance; the creatures die from mistakenly acquired habits and due to illness resulting from the desire for the wrong things and the giving up of habit.
Yes, the natural sustenance stored up in the bodies of living creatures in the form of fat generally lasts perfectly well for forty days. It may even last twice that long in cases of illness or certain ecstatic states. It was written in the newspapers thirteen years ago (and now it is thirty-nine) that out of extreme stubbornness, a man in prison in London managed to live quite healthily for seventy days eating nothing at all.
Since the natural sustenance lasts from forty days to seventy or eighty; and since the manifestation of the divine name of Provider is apparent on the face of the earth truly extensively; and since foods flow forth from breasts and from wood even in completely unexpected fashion; if man so full of evil does not interfere with his mistaken choices and confuse things, that name comes to the assistance of the living creature before the natural sustenance is consumed, preventing death from starvation. In which case, if those who die of hunger do so in less than forty days, it is definitely not from lack of sustenance. Rather, in accordance with the saying, “the abandoning of habit is fatal,” it occurs either from a bad habit or from illness resulting from the giving up of habits. In which case it may be said that there is no death from hunger.
Indeed, observedly, sustenance is in inverse proportion to power and will. For example, when still in the womb, young are completely deprived of power and will yet are fed to repletion. Then when they come into the world they still lack power and will, but since they have some sort of ability and potential senses, needing only to fasten their mouths to the breast, the most perfect, nutritious and easily digestible food is given to their mouths from those fountains, in the gentlest form and strangest way. Then as they acquire a little amount of power and will, that readily available, fine food starts to be withdrawn from them. The fountains of the breasts dry up and the infants’ food is sent from elsewhere. However, since their power and will are still insufficient to search for it, so the Munificent Provider sends their parents’ tenderness and compassion to assist them. Whenever