Food is Everything
The best time to write on food is when I am feeling hungry. So here I dish out the recipe Ganesh asked for at Hotel Aham International!
Food is Brahman. This has been mentioned in the Taittiriya Upanishad : Aham Annam. I am food. The human body is made up of the five elements and the mind. The source that forms the elements is drawn from food.
In the 17th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, reference is given to the different types of food that has a bearing on the three different qualities that make a human being. Satvam - the pure and tranquil mind, Rajas - the active, dynamic mind and Tamas - the inert, slow and lazy mind. All the three qualities are equally essential for the growth and development of the human potential. But each has its place. Food has a bearing on fostering these qualities. The nature of Satwa when the person is more meditative in the frame of mind is cultivated by eating more satwic food which includes raw fruits and vegetables, sprouts that have life energy in it and foods that are rich in energy, not fried or spicy. Rajas calls for a lot of physical energy and that's why people who do hard physical labour or tasks that call for physical strength and muscle power take to eating meat and other foods that build up faster. But it calls for hard physical work to digest it. Otherwise such foods can lead to complications. The tamasic foods are those that can dull the mind. They are all the fermented and other drinks or addictive habits that can pretend to raise the energy but actually dull the mind in the process.
The body is connected to the mind through the breath. Food supplies physical energy to all layers and that's why the first sheath of the body is called Anna Maya Kosha - the body in the form of food.
15 comments:
The mind is not independent of the
five elements. Even the mind is made up of the same. The space as a element where the thought occur and element air moves the thoughts and fire element illumines the presence of thoughts and water makes it flow (mostly wild) and
the earth makes it tangible or to be aware or comprehensible. In spiritual science even the mind
is a anatma vastu. All grosser principles are made up of he panchikaranam(the cocktail of the elements). Except the consciousness
the rest are all -Not Self- or just gross elements only. Mind is simply more subtler than the body but never can be free from influence of the five elements...
@Long Long Ago: So illumining, this comment. Thank You.
Great post and Long Long Ago nice one
do you blog ?
Swahilya I am looking forward for further info on the different layers of kosha
thanks
Nice Swahilya and long long ago. Loking forward for your posts on these things.
Aham Vaishvanaro Bhutva Praninam Dehamasritah Pranapana Samayukta Pachamyannam Chaturvidham.
*Ganesh: I'll speak on the Koshas soon.
*Kasthuri Srinivasan: Will continue.
*Agnibharathi: Vaishvanara is the collective flesh of all human and animal and plant bodies made up of elements five.
hi Swahilya...
it was a great experience reading your blog..
the content is really good and relaxing..
may i request you write on "how to start on meditation?"
looking forward for more on your blog....
Just a thought, the two digestive fires digest the four types of food that we take in. Similarly do not the twin fires of day and night digest the fruits of the four kinds of efforts (Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha)that we take? And is it not the same Brahman that sits indie everything and digests these fruits? Interesting isn't it?
@Lakshmi. Thanks. Soon I will write on 'How to Start Meditation.'
@Agnibarathi: Yes. The tiniest processes of the Universe are the most amazing.
i suppose thats why it is said the mind needs to be dissolved just as the gross body dissolves
on its own in the process of death. meditation is the process for dissolving of this mind and the Guru is the catalyst in this process. simply one has to seek the Divine Grace...
Sparkling Journey: Dissolution. That was exactly what I was thinking about when I wondered about this tidal wave fright happening in Chennai. The purpose of taking a birth is to move towards the divine and when the individual or the collective mind of humans are engrossed in everything other than this task of looking within, a major force in the form of the five elements overwhelm to dissolve or destroy that mind, individually as death or collectively as disaster or a natural calamity to prepare it for a new creation.
Just like the housewife rolls back the dough if the roti does not come out the round shape she desires, or the potter who puts back the clay to the mould if the desired shape does not emerge.
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