A diet that is wholly conducive to the practice of Yoga and spiritual progress is
called Yogic diet. Diet has intimate connection with the mind. Mind is formed
out of the subtlest portion of food. Sage Uddalaka instructs his son Svetaketu
“Food, when consumed becomes threefold: the gross particles become
excrement, the middling ones flesh and the fine ones the mind. My child, when
curd is churned, its fine particles which rise upwards, form butter. Thus, my
child, when food is consumed, the fine particles which rise upwards form the
mind. Hence verily the mind is food.”
Again you will find in the Chhandogya Upanishad: “By the purity of food one
becomes purified in his inner nature; by the purification of his inner 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,
barely, wheat, cereals, butter, cheese, tomatoes, honey, dates, fruits, almonds
and sugar-candy are all Sattvic foodstuffs. They render the mind pure and calm.
Fish, eggs, meat, salt, chillies and asafoetida are Rajasic foodstuffs. They excite
passion. Beef, wine, garlic, onions and tobacco are Tamasic foodstuffs. They fill
the mind with anger, darkness and inertia.
Lord Krishna says to Arjuna: “The food which is dear to each is threefold. Hear
the distinctions of these. The foods which increase vitality, energy, vigor, health
and joy and which are delicious, bland, substantial and agreeable are dear to the
pure. The passionate desire 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 and rotten, leavings and impure is dear to the
Tamasic.”
Food plays an important part in meditation. Different foods produce different
effects on different compartments of the brain. For purposes of meditation, the
food should be light, nutritious and Sattvic. Milk, fruits, almonds, butter, sugar-
candy, green gram, Bengal gram soaked in water overnight, bread, etc., are all
very helpful in meditation. Thed (a kind of root available in abundance in the
Himalayan regions) is very Sattvic. Tea and sugar should be used in moderation.
It is better if you can give them up entirely. Dried ginger-powder can be mixed
with milk and taken frequently.
Indian Yogins like this very much. Another health-giving stuff is myrobalan of
the yellow variety which can be chewed now and then. In the Vagbhata it is
represented as even superior to a nourishing mother. It takes care of the body
better than a mother does. A mother gets annoyed with her child sometimes, but
myrobalan always keeps an even temperament and is cheerful and enthusiastic
in attending to the well-being of human beings. It preserves semen and stops all
nocturnal emissions. Potato, boiled without salt or baked on fire, is also an
excellent food for practitioners.
A beginner should be careful in choosing food-stuffs of Sattvic nature. Food
exercises tremendously vast influence over the mind. You can see it obviously in
everyday-life. It is very difficult to control mind after a heavy, sumptuous,
indigestible, rich meal. The mind runs, wanders and jumps like an ape all the
time. Alcohol causes great excitement of the mind.
Evolution is better than revolution. You should not make sudden changes in
anything, particularly so in matters pertaining to food and drink. Let the change
be slow and gradual. The system should accommodate it without any trouble.
Nature non agit per saltum (nature never moves by leaps).
Food is only a mass of energy. Water and air also supply energy to the body. You
can live without food for several days; but you cannot live without air even for a
few minutes. Oxygen is even more important. What is wanted to feed the body is
energy. If you can supply this energy by any other means, you can entirely
dispense with food. Yogins live without food by drinking nectar.
This nectar flows through a hole in the palate. It dribbles and nourishes the
body. A Jnani can draw energy directly from his pure, irresistible will and
support the body without any food whatsoever. If you know the process of
drawing the energy from the Cosmic Energy, then you can maintain the body for
any length of time and can dispense with food completely.
Food is of four kinds. There are liquids which are drunk; solids which are
pulverized by the teeth and eaten; there are semi-solids which are taken in by
licking; and there are soft articles that are swallowed without mastication. All
articles of food should be thoroughly masticated in the mouth until they are
reduced to quite a liquid before being swallowed. Then only they can be readily
digested, absorbed and assimilated in the system.
The diet should be such as can maintain physical efficiency and good health. The
well-being of an individual depends more 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 due to faulty nutrition. It should be
remembered that it is not so much the climate as food which plays the vital role
in producing a strong healthy body or a weakling suffering from a host of
diseases.
An appreciable knowledge of the science of dietetics is essential for everybody,
especially for spiritual aspirants, to keep up physical efficiency and good health.
Aspirants should be able to make out a cheap and well-balanced diet from only a
certain articles of diet. What is needed is a well-balanced diet, not a rich diet. A
rich diet produces diseases of the liver, kidneys and pancreas.
A well-balanced diet helps a man to grow, to turn out more work, increases his
body-weight, and keeps up the efficiency, stamina and a high standard of vim
and vigor. You are what you eat.
Where can Sannyasins in India, who live on public alms get a well-balanced
diet? On some days they get pungent stuffs only, on some other days sweetmeats
only and yet on some other days sour things only. But they are able to draw the
requisite energy through power of meditation. This unique Yogic method is
unknown to the medical profession and to the scientists. Whenever the mind is
concentrated, a divine wave bathes all the tissues with a divine elixir. All the cells
are renovated and vivified.
Gluttons and epicureans cannot dream of getting success in Yoga. He who takes
moderate diet, who has regulated his diet can become a Yogi, not others. That is
the reason why Lord Krishna says: “Verily Yoga is not for him who eat too much,
nor who abstaineth to excess, nor who is too much addicted to sleep, nor even to
wakefulness, O Arjuna! Yoga kills out all pain for him who is regulated in eating
and amusement, regulated in performing actions, regulated in sleeping and
waking.” Therefore take pleasant, wholesome and sweet food half-stomachful;
fill a quarter stomach with water and allow the remaining quarter stomach free
for expansion of gas. Offer up the act to the Lord. This is moderate diet.
All articles that are putrid, stale, decomposed, unclean, twice cooked, kept
overnight, should be abandoned. The diet should be fresh, simple, light, bland,
wholesome, easily digestible and nutritious. He who lives to eat is a sinner, but
he who eats to live is verily a saint. In the Siva Samhita it is said: “Yoga should
not be practiced immediately after a meal, nor when one is very hungry; before
beginning the practice, some milk and butter should be taken.”
You will find in the Yoga-Tattva Upanishad: “The proficient in Yoga should
abandon the food detrimental to the practice of Yoga. He should give up salt,
mustard, sour things, hot, pungent or bitter articles, asafoetida, women,
emaciation of the body by fasts etc. During the early stages of practice, food of
milk and ghee is ordained; also food consisting of wheat, green pulse and red
rice is said to favor the progress. Then he will be able to retain his breath as long
as he likes. By thus retaining the breath as long as he likes, Kevala-Kumbhaka
(cessation of breath without inhalation and exhalation) is attained. When
Kevala-Kumbhaka is attained by one and thus inhalation and exhalation are
dispensed with, there is nothing unattainable in the three worlds to him.”
In the Bhikshuka-Upanishad you will find: “Paramahamsas like Samavartaka,
Aruni, Svetaketu, Jada Bharata, Dattatreya, Suka, Vamadeva, Haritaki and
others take eight mouthfuls and strive after Moksha alone through the path of
Yoga.”
Manu, Jesus and Buddha exhorted the people to refrain from using liquors,
intoxicants and drugs as these are deleterious in their effects. No spiritual
progress is possible without abandoning them.
The vast majority of persons dig their graves through their teeth. No rest is given
to the stomach. After all, man wants very little on this bountiful earth—a few
loaves of bread, a little butter and some cold water. This will amply suffice to
keep the life going. People, on the contrary, stuff their stomachs with all sorts of
things, eatable and uneatable, on account of the force of habit even when there is
no appetite. This is very bad. All diseases take their origin in overloading the
stomach. Hunger is the best sauce. If there is hunger, food can be digested well.
If you have no appetite, do not take anything. Let the stomach enjoy a full
holiday.
A variety of dishes overworks the stomach, induces capricious appetite and
renders the tongue fastidious. Then it becomes difficult to please the tongue.
Therefore control the tongue first; then all the other senses can be easily
controlled.
Man has invented so many kinds of dishes just to satisfy his palate and has made
life complex and miserable. He calls himself a civilized 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 very deplorable. Be natural and simple in eating and
drinking. Moderation is Yoga. Eat to live and not live to eat. Follow this golden
rule and be happy. You can then devote more time to Yoga practices.
A Yogic student who spends his time wholly in pure meditation wants very little
food. One or one and a half seers of milk and some fruits per day will quite
suffice. But a Yogi who ascends the platform for vigorous active work wants
abundant nutritious food.
Vegetarian diet has been acclaimed to be most conducive to spiritual and psychic
advancement. It has been found that meat augments animal passion and
decreases intellectual capacity. While it is true that meat-eating countries are
physically active and strong, the same cannot be said of their spiritual
attainments. Meat is not at all necessary for the keeping up of perfect health,
rigor and vitality.
On the contrary, it is highly deleterious to health. It brings in its train a host of
ailments such as tape-worm, albuminuria and other diseases of the kidneys.
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 pretext of
sacrifice to goddess, but in reality it is meant to please their own tongue or
palate.
What inhuman horrible crimes are being committed in the name of God and
Religion! Ahimsa (non-injuring) is the first virtue that a spiritual aspirant should
try to possess. You should have reverence for life. Lord Jesus says: “Blessed are
the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Mahavira shouted in a trumpet-like
voice: “Regard every living being as thyself and harm no one.” The Law of Karma
is inexorable, unrelenting, immutable. The pain you inflict upon another will
surely rebound upon you and the happiness you radiate will come back to you
adding to your happiness. He who knows this Law will not hurt anybody.
Meat-eating and alcoholism are closely allied. The craving for liquor dies a
natural death, when the meat is withdrawn. The question of birth-control
becomes very difficult in the case of those who take meat. To them mind-control
is next to impossible. Mark how the meat-eating tiger and the cow or elephant
living on green grass are poles asunder! The one is wild and ferocious, the other
is mild and peaceful. Meat has direct influence on the different compartments of
the brain.
The first and foremost step in the spiritual advancement of an aspirant is the
giving up of meat. The Divine Light will not descend, if the stomach is loaded
with meat. In large meat-eating countries cancer mortality is very high.
Vegetarians keep up sound health till old age. Even in the West doctors in
hospitals put patients on a regimen of vegetable diet. They convalesce quickly. It
is welcome sign to see that at least in some of the countries of Europe vegetarian
hotels are springing up in amazing numbers, and it is not too much to expect
that in the course of a decade or two the Westerners will become quite a
different race of people altogether in their food, dress, manners, habits and
social customs.
Pythagoras seems to bewail when he says: “Beware, Omortals, of defiling your
bodies with sinful food. There are cereals, there are fruits bending their branches
down by their weight, and luxurious grapes on the vines. There are sweet
vegetables and herbs which the fire can render palatable and mellow. Nor are
you denied milk, nor honey, fragrance of the aroma of the thyme flower. The
bountiful earth offers you an abundance of pure food and provides for meals
obtainable without slaughter and bloodshed.”
Fasting is interdicted for practitioners of Yoga as it produces weakness. But
occasional mild fasts are highly beneficial. They will overhaul the system
thoroughly, give rest to the stomach and the intestines and eliminate uric acid.
Yogic students may take one full meal at 11 o’clock, a cup of warm milk in the
morning and half a seer of milk and some plantains (or oranges or apples) at
night with much advantage. The night meal should be very light. If the stomach
is overloaded, sleep will supervene and as too much sleep is injurious to Yogic
practices, one cannot make any real headway in the path of Yoga. Therefore a
diet consisting of milk and fruits alone is a splendid menu for all practitioners.
Aspirants should avoid all narcotics, coffee, tea, alcohol and smoke that
stimulate the senses. Our senses are compared to restive horses, and they
become uncontrollable by taking narcotics. You should control them by
refraining from taking narcotics. We are all slaves of our senses more or less and
the senses in turn are the slaves of narcotics. If you really crave for perfection,
control of mind and success in Yoga, avoid these narcotics by all possible means.
Boil half a seer of milk along with some boiled rice, ghee and sugar. This is called
Charu. This is an excellent food for Yogic practitioners. This is for dinner. Half a
seer of milk and some fruits will do for the night. Try this prescription and tell
me the benefits you have derived in your Sadhana.
Milk should not be boiled too much. It should be removed from fire the moment
the boiling point is reached. Excessive boiling destroys all nutritious principles
and vitamins and renders milk unfit for consumption. Milk is an ideal food for
aspirants. It is a perfect food by itself.
Fruit-diet exercises a marvelous influence upon the constitution. This is a
natural diet. Fruits are tremendous energy-producers. Fruits and milk help
concentration and meditation. Barley, wheat, milk, ghee and honey promote
longevity of life and increase power and stamina. Fruit-juice and the water
wherein sugar-candy is dissolved are very good drinks. Butter mixed with sugar-
candy and almonds soaked in water overnight will cool the system.
Above all do not make much fuss about your diet. You need not advertise to
everyone that you are able to live on a particular form of diet. The observance of
such Niyama (rules) is for your own advancement in the spiritual path and you
will not be spiritually benefited by giving publicity to your practices. There are
many nowadays who make it their profession to make money and their
livelihood by performing some Yoga-Asanas, Pranayama or by having some diet
regulation as eating only raw articles or leaves or roots. These people cannot
have any real spiritual growth. The goal of life is Self-realization, and aspirants
should always keep this in view and do intense Sadhana with zeal and patience.
Live a natural simple life. Take simple food that is wholly agreeable to your
system. You should have your own menu to suit your constitution. You are
yourself the best judge to select a Sattvic diet. In the matter of food and drink
you will do well to eat and drink as a master. You should not have the least
craving for any particular diet. You should not become a slave to this food or that
food. Simple, natural, non-stimulating, tissue-building, energy-producing, non-
alcoholic food and drink will keep the mind calm and pure and will help the
student of Yoga in his practices and in the attainment of the goal of life.
SATTVIC- RAJASIC- TAMASIC ARTICLES OF DIET
SATTVIC RAJAS TAMASIC
Cow’s milk. Fish Beef
Cream. Eggs Pork
Cheese Meat Wine
Butter. Salt Onions Curd. Chillies Garlic
Ghee. Chutney Tobacco
Sweet fruits. Asafoetida Rotten Things
Apples. Pickles Stale Things Bananas. Tamarind Unclean
Grapes. Mustard Twice Cooked
Papaya. Sour Things Intoxicants
Pomegranates. Hot Things Liquor
Mangoes. Tea Drugs
Oranges. Coffee
Pears. Cocoa
Pineapples. Ovaltine
Guavas. White Sugar
Figs. Carrots
Vegetables. Turnips
Coconut. Spices
Brinjals.
Potatoes.
Cabbages.
Spinach.