February 27, 2024
Young people are conscious of the need for pure food as a condition for health and inner harmony, and of many questions related to food.
The 'ideal' food is of course fruits, nuts, and whatever vegetable has run its cyclic course, ripe or unripe. Nature or God seems to have intended this cyclic exchange of material between the human and the vegetable kingdoms. In this exchange there is no destruction involved. The tree has no more use out of the ripe fruit: it is food for the humans. Even so with vegetables and cereals.
Even these have been elaborately classified by people who provide a lot of thought for food. The general principles for this classification are found in The Bhagavad Gita (Song of God).
Swami Sivananda followed Lord Krishna's example and gave us 'general hints', knowing that there are no absolutes in this relative existence. He emphasized that the food you eat should be conducive to peace of mind and should facilitate spiritual practices. His motto was "eat to live, not live to eat" which meant, in the words of one of his disciples, "to be always hungry". Swami Sivananda also believed that the "spiritual content" of the food may be assured by offering the food to the Lord and eating it as his prasad (sacrament). In the ashram everyone recites the 15th chapter of The Bhagavad Gita at mealtimes so that one remembers that God is the digestive fire in all beings and that eating is truly an offering of sacred fuel into that divine fire.
Swami Sivananda advised us not to be dogmatic but to preserve the spirit of sattvic food, which is whatever preserves a sattvic (holy, spiritual and noble) temperament in nature. May His light guide us.
Man is a problem-solver. If you solve all his problems for him, he will create some for you!
Since the Industrial Revolution, more and more of the simple problems of man have been eliminated by machines, hence he is creating bigger problems which involve whole societies - wars, revolutions, etc.
Not until we returned to the simple natural life (which would obviously keep men busy with simple acts of living and raising a family) will mankind see peace.