Yogic Diet
A diet that is conducive to the practice of Yoga and spiritual progress can be rightly termed ‘Yogic Diet’. Diet has intimate connection with the mind. The mind is formed out of the subtlest portion of food. Sage Uddalaka instructs his son Svetaketu as follows: “Food when consumed becomes threefold, the gross particles become excreta, the middling ones flesh and the fine ones the mind.” Again you will find in the Chhandogya Upanishad: “By the purity of food one becomes purified in his nature; by the purification of his nature he verily gets memory of the Self, and by the attainment of the memory of the Self, all ties and attachments are severed.”
Diet is of three kinds, viz., Sattvic diet, Rajasic diet and Tamasic diet. Milk, fruits, cereals, butter, tomatoes, cheese, spinach are Sattvic food-stuffs. They render the mind pure. Fish, eggs, meat, etc., are Rajasic food-stuffs. They excite the passionate nature of man. Beef, onions, garlic, etc., are Tamasic food stuffs. They fill the mind with inertia and anger. Lord Krishna says to Arjuna in the Gita (XVIII: 8-10): “The food which is dear to each is threefold. Hear thou the distinction of these. The foods which increase vitality, energy, vigour, health and joy and which are delicious, bland substantial and agreeable are dear to the pure. The passionate man desires foods that are bitter, sour, saline, excessively hot, pungent, dry and burning and which produce pain, grief and disease. The food which is stale, tasteless, putrid, rotten and impure is dear to the Tamasic.”
Food is of four kinds. There are liquids which are drunk; solids which are pulverised by the teeth and eaten; some solids which are taken in by licking; and soft articles that are swallowed without mastication. All articles of food should be thoroughly masticated in the mouth. Then only they can be readily digested, easily absorbed and assimilated in the system.
The diet should be such as can maintain physical efficiency and good health. The well-being of a man depends rather on perfect nutrition than on anything else. Various sorts of intestinal diseases, increased susceptibility to infectious diseases, lack of high vitality and power of resistance, rickets, scurvy, anaemia or poverty of blood, beriberi, etc., are all due to faulty nutrition. It should be remembered that it is not so much the climate, as food which plays a vital part in producing a healthy strong man or a weakling suffering from a host of diseases. A knowledge of the science of dietetics is essential for every man if he wants to keep up physical efficiency and good health. He should be able to make out a cheap, well-balanced diet from certain articles of diet. Then only all the members of his family will be hale and hearty. What is wanted is a well-balanced diet but not a rich one. A rich diet produces diseases of the liver, kidney, pancreas. A well-balanced diet helps a man to grow, and turn out much work, increases his body weight and keeps up the efficiency and a high standard of vigour and vitality. A man is what he eats. This is a truism indeed.
Food is required for two purposes: 1) to maintain our body-heat and 2) to produce new cells and to make up for the wear and tear of our bodies. Foodstuffs contain proteins, carbohydrates, hydrocarbons, phosphates, salt, various kinds of ashes, water, vitamins, etc. Protein substances are nitrogenous. They build the tissues of the body. They are present in abundance in dal, milk, etc. They are called ‘tissue-builders’. Proteins are complex organic compounds which contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen and sometimes sulphur, phosphorus and iron. Starches are carbohydrates. They are present in abundance in rice. Carbohydrates are ‘energy-producers’ or heat givers. Carbohydrates are substances, like starch, sugar or gum and contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrocarbons or fats are present in ghee and vegetable oils. Fats are compounds of glycerine with fatty acids. The human machine of the body necessarily needs lubrication. Butter, cream, cheese, olive-oil, groundnut-oil, mustard-oil are good for lubrication.
A well-balanced diet is one in which the different principles of diet that go to keep the body and mind in perfect health and harmony exist in proper proportions. Milk is perfect food, because it contains all nutritious principles in proper well-balanced proportions. The protein, fat and carbohydrate should be in right proportion. They should be of the right kind also. If a diet contains too much of one thing or too little of another, if it is faulty in one way or the other by being deficient or preponderating in one or more important constituents of food, then it is called an ill-balanced or faulty diet. This will lead to malnutrition, stunted growth, physical deficiency, etc. Many diseases take their origin from malnutrition. If the food is nutritious, wholesome and well-balanced, one has good power of endurance and physical efficiency. If he has physical efficiency he can turn out more work. Some take milk as an animal diet, while some others regard egg as vegetable diet. All these people are under a delusion. Milk is a vegetable diet, while egg is an animal diet. This is the emphatic declaration of learned sages. Yogic students should give up eggs. All the nutritive principles are found in milk, butter, cheese, fruits, almonds, tomatoes, carrots and turnips.
The important digestive juices are saliva in the mouth, gastric juice in the stomach, and pancreatic juice, bile and intestinal juice (succus entericus) in the small intestines. Saliva is alkaline. It is secreted by the salivary glands. It digests starches. Gastric juice is acidic in reaction. It contains hydrochloric acid. It is secreted by the gastric glands. It digests proteins. Pancreatic juice digests starches, proteins and fats. It contains three kinds of digestive ferments. It is manufactured by the pancreas. Bile is secreted by the liver. It digests fats. The food-stuffs are rendered into chyle by the action of these digestive juices, which is absorbed by the lacteals of the small intestines.
Gluttons and epicureans cannot dream to get success in Yoga. He who takes moderate diet, he who has regulated his diet can become a Yogi. That is the reason why Lord Krishna says to Arjuna: “Verily Yoga is not for him who eateth too much, nor who abstaineth to excess, nor who is too much addicted to sleep, nor even to wakefulness, Arjuna. Yoga killeth out all pain for him who is regulated in eating and amusement, regulated in performing actions, regulated in sleeping and waking” (Gita, VI: 16,17). Take pleasant, wholesome and sweet food half-stomachful, fill the quarter-stomach with pure water and allow the remaining quarter free for expansion of gas. This is moderate diet.
All articles that are putrid, stale, decomposed, fermented, unclean, twice-cooked, kept overnight should be abandoned. The diet should be simple, light, bland, wholesome, easily digestible and nutritious. He who lives to eat is a sinner but he who eats to live is a saint. The latter should be adored. If there is hunger, food can be digested well. If you have no appetite do not take anything; give rest to the stomach.
A good quantity of food overworks the stomach, induces capricious appetite and renders the tongue fastidious. Then it becomes very difficult to please the tongue. Man has invented many kinds of dishes just to satisfy his palate and has made his life very complex and miserable. He calls himself a civilised and cultured man when he is really ignorant and deluded by the senses. His mind gets upset when he cannot get his usual dishes in a new place. Is this real strength? He has become an absolute slave of his tongue. This is bad. Be natural and simple in eating. Eat to live and do not live to eat. You can be really happy and can devote much time to Yogic practices.
A Yogic student who spends his time in pure meditation only, wants very little food. One or one and a half seer of milk and some fruits will suffice. But when he comes on the platform for work he wants abundant nutritious food. A man who does immense labour (physical work) wants more food.
Meat is not at all necessary for the keeping up of health. Meat-eating is highly deleterious to health. It brings a host of ailments such as tape-worm, albuminuria and other diseases of the kidneys. After all, man wants very little on this earth. Killing of animals for food is a great sin. Instead of killing the egoism and the idea of ‘mine-ness’ ignorant people kill innocent animals under the pretext of sacrifice to Goddess but it is really to satisfy their tongues and palates. Horrible! Most inhuman! Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah. Ahimsa is the first virtue that a spiritual aspirant should possess. We should have reverence for life. Lord Jesus says: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Lord Jesus and Mahavir shouted at the top of their voice: “Regard every living being as thyself and harm no one.” The law of Karma is inexorable, unrelenting and immutable. The pain you inflict upon another will rebound upon you and the happiness you radiate to another will come back to you, adding to your happiness.
