You are what you Eat - By Sri Preethaji

11/16/20 • 4 min

You are what you Eat - By Sri Preethaji

Let me talk of four stages of food and four fundamental insights for each of the stages of food

The first stage of food is the way it is grown. when you grow food in the farm, remember this one principle alone – what you cannot put on your skin please don’t put it on the body of the plant.

Just as our skin suffers, so too the plant suffers. and that suffering of the plant energetically becomes a part of our body and becomes sickness in us.

The second stage of food is cooking. Everything in this universe has a field of energy around it.

Our emotions too are fields of energy that cause impressions. That is why in India, when you visit a home where death has happened and you return- they ask you to have a shower and change clothes. Why? One of the many reasons is that your clothes and skin carry the impressions of the sadness in that house as thoughts. Wash your body with turmeric water or salt, you are washing away those sad thought impressions.

Similarly, while coming to food- one has to be conscious of the emotional state you are in. Your anger, sadness or fear does become impressions on the food you are cooking and will generate similar thoughts in the ones who are eating it. If you are joyful and peaceful while cooking, people who eat your food will feel upbeat and positive. One of the most important factors we look into for our chefs on campus here is their levels of happiness or unhappiness.

The third stage of food is "what" you eat and "when" you eat. I will only say this much to you- feel how your body feels after eating. If it feels heavy and drowsy after eating, don't eat that food. If you feel too agitated and uneasy and does not allow you to sleep, don't eat that food. If it makes you feel light, it makes you feel awake and fresh- I would say that food is right for you.

Let not your tongue become the master and make decisions for you. Let your awareness be your master.

Regarding when you should eat? The best time to eat is when the sun has still not gone down the horizon. And give a gap of 14 hours between the last meal of the day and the first meal of the day.

The fourth stage is - how to eat?

The ancients say- Annam parabrahma swaroopam. Which means- that spoon of food in your hand today contains the entire universe in it. It is universal consciousness itself.

Before you eat- pause. Take a clear look at the food in your plate with total awareness of colour and smell. Breathe slowly. And for a few moments thank the earth, the wind, the sun, the moon, the rains, the earthworms, the farmer, the chef - everyone who went into making the food.

Thank them all. Thank the universe for blessing you with this food and begin eating. Eat slowly. Hold the food in your mouth for a few seconds before you chew it.

This kind of eating like a meditation, will for sure prevent every eating disorder, weight gain problem and make you into a joyful and radiant person.

Let food become such a conscious act of Meditation.

You are what you Eat - By Sri Preethaji

Previous Episode

Depression or search for Meaning ? - By Sri Krishnaji

How do you know if what you are going through is depression or a deeper search for meaning ?

The line is thin and the demarcation hard.

But let us enquire deeper.

Does life intrinsically have meaning? Does the tree that stands outside your window have a meaning?

It is existence isn’t it?. Pure existence.

Do the droplets of rain falling to the ground have a meaning?

They are rivulets of existence. Pure existence.

Does your breathing or waking up have a meaning in itself?

It is a movement of existence. Pure existence.

The tree may not have a meaning but it is true that it does serve a purpose.

The tree is necessary for the earth and its existence serves millions of life forms

So does the drop of water falling from the sky in nourishing the earth

So does your smile in bringing a smile to someone else's face.

This search for meaning is an existential quest. Why do I exist at all? what is the meaning of it all?

marriage ?

job?

money?

mine - not mine?

holding?

owning? it is as if you are relentlessly searching to go to the root of everything.

For some of you this search is a conscious act. It is a quest you are on. For some others it is as if the search has possessed you. Everything loses its charm quickly and discontent grips. All relationships, all achievements, all glamour - everything feels utterly superficial. Life feels fake, like a Truman show - all display and nothing real.

Let me ask you a critical question here. Does your discontent feel like an inner calling to rise beyond separation, beyond the mind created suffering to something beyond, to a state that is untouched by sorrow?

Or does it feel like a habit?

a depression?

a meaningless self engagement

a continuous process of taking offense for the smallest remarks

a feeling that life is going wrong

a helpless process of clinging on to something

Where do you think you are going?

Pause. Know your answer. And your answer will show you the way forward.

Whether you recognize that yours is a spiritual quest or that what you are going through is depression the journey ahead will only be beautiful.

you either have two stops or one.

your first stop could be healing your brain and body of depression and then to a process for spiritual awakening to never again fall into the trap of mind-created suffering.

Yours is a single stop journey, a journey to awakening into higher states of consciousness.

When your consciousness truly wakes up, the search ends, living begins.

Next Episode

EKAM MEANS ONENESS - By Sri Preethaji

Awaken to the truth of oneness of humanity - By Sri Preethaji

EKAM MEANS ONENESS

To us, every human experience is sacred. We see that there is one human experience, one humanity.

That is what Ekam means - it means oneness. Ekam is an enlightened state of consciousness where you are awake to the oneness of our existence.

We are one with all forms of life. We are one with the Universe.

When you are not established in this great spiritual realisation that we are one, your actions and behaviour cause division and conflict. You inflict pain upon yourself and another. Your actions lead to disharmony in nature and destruction to earth.

You move away from oneness when you begin to see the other as being different from you. Very often in your conversations you tell people, ‘I am not like you’ ‘I don’t behave like you’ ‘I am different from you’. You may not behave like someone else or express emotions the way someone else does. But are you really different from the other? We are one in our experience of sorrow and happiness, we are one in our fears, peace, pain and pleasure.

Right from childhood, you are taught to emphasize your differences and prove your superiority. You are taught to build your identity on how different you are. Division is at the very basis of our educational system and the foundation upon which you build your career and your achievements.

May be a thousand years ago, humanity had lesser number of factors upon which people divided themselves. But with civilizational progress and scientific advancement, the walls that differentiate us and divide us have become numerous. Our obsession to be unique and stand out as being different from the rest has assumed maniacal proportions creating distortions and aberrations in personality. As a civilization, we are inventing ever new ways, through our clothes, through our life style, through our activities - to constantly be different from the other.

This disease and sickness of the human mind has to be healed for you to move into a space of oneness. When division ceases conflict ceases to exist. You feel one, you live in harmony, you naturally care for another from a space of love.