Eat Well, Live Fully: How Nutrition Boosts Your Spirit, Mind, and Body

Vedic Diet And The Holy Cow

What you eat today will influence the way you think, in turn influencing the way you look, in turn influencing your future. Eat lovingly and you will be loved; eat mercilessly and the world will not be compassionate to you. Vegetarianism is good though all bodies are not designed for vegetables, depending on the shape of your teeth.

However, eating too much red meat – particularly cow’s meat – will not only pollute you mentally but will disturb your electromagnetic energy causing diseases such as cancer, allergies, Alzheimer’s, pollution of the blood, stress and depression.

The cow is a spiritually elevated animal. Vedic seers had the vision to realize this. If you crave meat, stay with lower consciousness animals until your consciousness grows and you begin respecting life.

The Wisdom Of Eating Right

The wisdom of eating is very simple. If you are very much in touch with your heart, you will never fail to crave the right food at the right time. The ultimate goal is to satisfy the body, mind and soul. Certain foods satisfy the body but are not light enough to reach the mind; there are foods that have the potential to nourish the mind. There are, however, only two foods to my knowledge that have the potential to nourish the soul.

The following foods will help you spiritually, mentally and physically:
Pungent foods nourish the lower chakras; aromatic foods nourish the higher chakras.

Foods for the soul are ghee and water energized with Mantra.

Foods for the mind are yogurt, sugar, walnuts, green vegetables, sweet fruits, basmati rice and coconut.

Foods for the body are milk, proteins, wheat, corn, barley, vegetables that grow under the earth, lentils, spices and citric fruits.

Ingredients Of A Yogic Diet

When white rice is boiled with ghee, white sugar and milk, it is called Cheru. This is a wholesome combination suitable for Sadhakas.

Highly seasoned dishes, hot curries and chutneys, meat, fish, etc., are forbidden for Sadhakas. Meat can make a scientist, but rarely a philosopher and a Tattva Jnani. Chilies, sour articles, tamarind, mustard, all kinds of oil, asafoetida, salt, onions, garlic, etc., should be avoided. Onions are worse than meat.

Myrobalan is a beautiful stuff for Yogis. They can chew it very frequently. In Bhagavata it is represented as even superior to nourishing mother.

What Are Our Three Gunas?

The entire universe is made of a combination of 3 Gunas (textures or qualities) ie. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Anything we hear, smell, see, taste or touch may be classified into these.

Sattva represents calmness, peace, balance, knowledge, purity, brilliance etc.

Rajas denotes agitation, passion, restlessness, ambition, greed, insecurity etc. Rajas the quality that drives action, motion & activity.

Tamas signifies lethargy, laziness, procrastination, destruction, ignorance etc.

In all of us one of the three Gunas has superior strength and it is reflected in all that we do and think. Our goal and endeavor should be to evolve to the Sattvik state. Thus, our association with all things sattvik will only aid and hasten this process.

Foods For Our Gunas

“Annamayam hi manah” meaning our mind is made from the essence of the food we eat. “Aahaarashudhausattvashudhih” meaning purify the mind by purifying the food.

Sattvic foods are foods that are abundant in Prana – the universal life-force that gives life to all sentient beings in both plant and animal kingdoms. A Sattvic diet is thus meant to include foods and eating habits that increase life, purity, strength, health, joy and cheerfulness.(Geeta Chapter 17 Verse 8).

Sattvic foods are those which purify the body and calm the mind. Cooked food that is consumed within 3-4 hours can be considered sattvik. Fruits, vegetables, dry fruits, sprouts, milk, cereals etc. are sattvik.

Rajasic foods are those which are pungent, salty, spicy, very hot, burning. (Geeta Ch.17 verse 9)

Tamasik foods are stale, tasteless, putrid, rotten, refuse, impure. (Geeta Ch.17 verse 10)

Works Cited In This Paragraph: Chinmaya Mission Publications ~ Notes On Sattvik Diet

Food According To Chandogya Upanishad

Find the guide HERE.

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About Sanatana Dharma

ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या जीवो ब्रह्मैव नापरः।
अनेन वेद्यं सच्छास्त्रमिति वेदान्तडिण्डिमः॥

Brahman alone is real; the universe is mithya – neither fully real nor unreal, but an appearance. The individual self (jiva) is none other than Brahman itself, not separate or different. This is the true teaching of the scriptures, as revealed by Vedanta. ~ Verse 20 from Brahma Jnānavali Māla