Namaskar Hi All A healthy body means a healthy mind and a healthy mind means a good spirit. Topics on food and yogic practices. Dharma --- Importance of Eating Properly Anandamurti gave the advice that, "If you want to eat more, eat less". The meaning is to avoid over-eating, which will keep the body much healthier and allow one to live a longer life, and over the course of those added years or decades one would consume more food than in a life cut short by illness from habitual over-eating! --- Cardinal Human Values and Eating All living beings progress with the help of three factors: physical clash, psychic clash and longing for the Great. The results of all the actions performed by a unit being over eons in uncountable lifetimes through many species from a single cell to a human being defines one's present characteristics. So in this sense, each individual's path is truly unique as one moves ahead making daily choices under the influence of one's sam'skaras (potential karmic reactions) and inspiration from within. In another sense there is just one path: from imperfection to perfection. One may take any number of approaches at different stages along the path, but essentially the path is from imperfection to perfection (or from animality towards divinity). People in life make mistakes. That is natural. Embedded within each so-called mistake or wrong-doing lies a lesson to be learned. Until we learn the lesson thoroughly, we shall continue to commit a particular mistake in different circumstances. So in this sense, it has been said that everything happens for the best, which supports the contention that the Supreme Entity does not judge; people simply reap the consequences of their past actions and (hopefully) learn. However, living in the relative world we find it helpful and necessary to consider the benevolent or malevolent consequences of a particular action on other animate or inanimate beings. Such consideration is crucial towards developing harmonious relations in the world. Morality/ethics comes into play when a living being begins to distinguish between benevolence and malevolence in actions. The ability to make ethical distinctions marks the end of animality and the beginning of humanity. One gradually grows out of a narrow, preachy morality towards living benevolently and, rather than focusing on others' defects, nurtures one's conduct towards pure benevolence. As people learn to accept and appreciate the value of each living being's existence they tend to acquire sympathetic attitudes towards all beings. Some people choose to take food as far as possible from the lower end of the food chain. Some people prefer to eat meat. The application of ethics or morality lies not in following rigid dos and don'ts, but by applying a set of cardinal human values (universal guiding principles) according to one's understanding. As one's mind grows in magnitude one makes choices that result in greater benevolence and harmony. Whatever living beings one kills for food, one will reap the consequences of those actions until one learns the science of detachment from one's actions and thereby halt the creation of new sam'ska'ras (reactions in potential form from one's actions the potential reaction to which is stored in the mind). Animate life is a continuum from the least expression of consciousness as in a unicellular creature through ever-greater expressions of consciousness to the human being. Therefore a gradation list is used to determine one's food in yogic practices and Ananda Marga philosophy. When no food is available it is better to die than to take another human life as food; when only an animal with somewhat developed consciousness like a cow is available, one might choose to eat it than to die because human consciousness is more developed than the cow's; similarly one would choose to eat a goat rather than a cow, a bird rather than goat, a reptile rather than a bird, a fish rather than a reptile, and when there is scope to live on just plants, one would choose plants. We need to take life as food to survive, so taking food from the lower end of the gradation list (food chain) allows higher evolved animals to not have their progress thwarted. An ethical question comes into play at every meal: can I survive without taking a higher life form as my food? One may wish to debate over which animal species have higher evolved consciousness than others, but it is not difficult to discern that animals have a greater expression of consciousness than plants. Ac. Giridevananda Avt. --- Caring for plants Just dissect a plant and you will find no complex nervous system in it comparable to a human being. Dissect a cockroach and there is no brain in it compared to the human being. Dissect a rat and a small brain, but not much. The experiences of a human being come from mind translated through nervous system and brain. The more complex these are the larger they are and the more the nerve cells and fibres. A large animal does not necessarily have an advanced nervous system or brain, but they certainly have them. The size of a dinosaur brain is very small even though it had a big body. The complexity of life and the ability to express intellect, feeling and intuition is much more in complex metazoic structures than simple protozoic structures or very simple metazoic structures. The dinosaur was not a complex metazoic structure despite its size. Plants and animals do not behave and think to the capability of human beings. Of courses, plants and animals use instinct and some higher animal forms can have an ability to use intelligence and reason to a limited degree. But they do not have the same qualities of conscious expression as a human being. Nor can it be logically or rationally inferred from observation or study that they have capabilities to that of a human being. However, all living things have a sensory system of some type and to some degree. Clearly, plants and animals have some sensory structures and nerve fibres (depending on their evolution) - but nowhere near that of human capacity. Animals can feel pain and would feel more pain than plants which have a lesser evolved sensory structure. So clearly plants and animals require care and have rights of some extent. They have some propensities no doubt, but not the conscious awareness of a human being or the ability to express it in their bodily structure. However, from a spiritual point of view, everything needs to be cared for while higher life forms (such animals and human beings) should be given scope to expand. This means one should take food only from the lowest life forms which inflicts the least or no pain. --- Diet for Consciousness The Cosmic Force is the resultant of 3 forces (sentient, mutative, static forces). The Cosmic Force creating this universe is not always the same. When the mutative force is active (dominating the 2 other forces), we witness changes and growth in all the structural levels (Atomic, Molecular, Cellular, Individual entities, and Society). When the sentient force dominates, beauty, peace and harmony are expressed by the fully grown, mature structure. And when the static force is dominant, we witness decay and death of the same structures. In this way, the play of these 3 forces gives expression to a grand variety of thoughts, objects and other animated or unanimated structures each of them dominated by one of the 3 forces. The sentient force will create subtle feelings of love, compassion, harmony, and peace and desire for the Great, joy and enthusiasm. Mutative force will create feelings of doer-ship, restlessness, and desire for movement and action, egoism, ambition, desire for retribution. Static force will create feelings of lethargy, dullness, laziness, helplessness, fear, anger, depression, suicidal thinking. Food is also of 3 kinds. As are all objects in the universe, each food is dominated by one of these 3 forces. Sentient foods will help generate subtle feelings and thoughts. Mutative foods will help generate mutative feelings and thoughts. Static foods will help generate mental staticity. Yogic practitioners for centuries have classified food in this way derived by experimenting with various foods and noticing the effects on their minds. We should eat mostly sentient food, take as little mutative food as possible, and completely avoid static food. Sentient Food: Food which produces sentient cells and is thus conducive to physical and mental well-being is sentient. Examples of sentient food are rice, wheat, barley, all kinds of pulses, fruit, milk and milk products. Mutative Food: Food which is good for the body and may or may not be good for the mind, but certainly not harmful, is mutative. Static Food: Food which is harmful for the mind and may or may not be good for the body is static. Onion, garlic, wine, stale and rotten food, meat of large animals such as cows and buffaloes, fish, eggs, etc., are static. Many static foods are rotten or decomposed Very often people eat food without knowing its intrinsic value. Fasting is a panacea for physical and mental well being. Fasting will rest all bodily functions (digestive, glandular, senses, nervous, etc) and is indispensable for physical well being and mental balance. One day at a time (from sunrise to sunrise) allows the good effects to take place, without weakening too much the body. A total fast (dry) gives the bests results, so it should be done if the health condition allows it. Two fasting days by month is the proper amount needed. The best dates are the Ekadashi (about 4 days before new moon and full moon) to counterbalance water's upward pull by the moon which disturbs the brain by concentrating the water from the cells of the body into the head and brain cells. A dry fast will force the cells to pull back the surplus water from the head, needed for their proper functioning. Starting and breaking a fast has to be done in a scientific and progressive way. Before starting fasting at the sunrise, sufficient amount of liquid have to be taken to provide the body with sufficient fluids during the fast. For example, one litre of water would give a comfortable start to the fast. When the time to break the fast comes, after the second sunrise, a sufficient amount of lemon water with salt can be taken. This is soon to be followed by a ripe banana, then take your breakfast which should have more fruits than usual. --- Anandamurti also advised, citing the sixth of Lord Shiva's seven secrets of success, that while controlling the quantity of food one should take a nutritious, well-balanced diet. "S'as't'hainca pramita'ha'ra, that is, balanced diet, balanced food. You must not take this much [stretches arms far apart], you should take this much [holds hands closer together]. But the food should be substantial. And not only that, it should be good for your body, mind and spirit. Meat and other animal products may be good for the body, but not good for the mind and spirit. So yours should be a careful selection of food. It is called 'Pramita'ha'ra' - 'Pramita' means 'balanced', 'A'ha'ra' means 'food'. " - Shrii Shrii Anandamurti Source: "Shiva's Seven Secrets" A'nanda Vacana'mitram Part 12 21 May 1979, Timmern, Germany -- Vegetarian diet: panacea for modern lifestyle diseases? http://qjmed.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/92/9/531 http://qjmed.oupjournals.org/cgi/reprint/92/9/531.pdf Autor: Segasothy M; Phillips PA Dirección: Department of Medicine, Northern Territory Clinical School of Medicine of Flinders University, Alice Springs, Australia. Email: m.segasothy@nt.gov.au Título: Vegetarian diet: panacea for modern lifestyle diseases? In: QJM. 2000 Jun; 93(6):387 Fuente: QJM; 92(9):531-44, 1999 Sep. ISSN: 1460-2725 País de publicación: UNITED KINGDOM Resumen: We review the beneficial and adverse effects of vegetarian diets in various medical conditions. Soybean-protein diet, legumes, nuts and soluble fibre significantly decrease total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides. Diets rich in fibre and complex carbohydrate, and restricted in fat, improve control of blood glucose concentration, lower insulin requirement and aid in weight control in diabetic patients. An inverse association has been reported between nut, fruit, vegetable and fibre consumption, and the risk of coronary heart disease. Patients eating a vegetarian diet, with comprehensive lifestyle changes, have had reduced frequency, duration and severity of angina as well as regression of coronary atherosclerosis and improved coronary perfusion. An inverse association between fruit and vegetable consumption and stroke has been suggested. Consumption of fruits and vegetables, especially spinach and collard green, was associated with a lower risk of age-related ocular macular degeneration. There is an inverse association between dietary fibre intake and incidence of colon and breast cancer as well as prevalence of colonic diverticula and gallstones. A decreased breast cancer risk has been associated with high intake of soy bean products. The beneficial effects could be due to the diet (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, minerals, fibre, complex carbohydrate, antioxidant vitamins, flavanoids, folic acid and phytoestrogens) as well as the associated healthy lifestyle in vegetarians. There are few adverse effects, mainly increased intestinal gas production and a small risk of vitamin B12 deficiency.