VEDAS ABOUT NUTRITION
Vedas do not evaluate food in the same way as modern nutritionists who calculate the nutrients, value, and calories of various products. The Vedas say that people’s preferences in food depend on their level of consciousness – gunas.
Obviously, people eat very differently: some people can’t go a day without meat, others like sweets, and still others – dairy products or cereal porridge. Some eat a lot, others are content with little.
A person with a level of moral consciousness, deeply understands that health is the balance and harmony of body, spirit and soul, so a person is able to maintain it, live, and eat healthily. He chooses grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, nuts, and honey. He eats moderately, the food is light, and there is no meat in his diet. The higher the awareness, the simpler, more natural the food. Such a person consciously adheres to the principle “Do no harm”.
A person at the level of passion consciousness, or – rajoguna, can choose the same foods as a satvaguna person, but his diet includes meat and fish, a lot of fried and boiled, spicy and salty, sweet food. Consciousness at the level of passion requires strong tastes, sensations, and impressions, which is why food is exotic, sophisticated, gourmet, and often mixed incongruously. A person eats a lot, likes to snack, often follows various diets and reads that health depends on medicine. The Rajoguna level of consciousness is transitional to Satvaguna, so a person easily gives up heavy food and chooses a healthy, natural diet.
Ignorance level, or – for a tamoguna person, grain and dairy products or fruits – not food at all. He needs meat. He eats it all kinds: fried, boiled, dried, stewed, smoked, salted, raw – it is his main food, and everything else is just an accessory. A person eats a lot and often, he tends to overeat, has bad habits, so he often experiences digestive system and other ailments. He does not associate them with lifestyle, diet, bad habits, he thinks that a person gets sick “accidentally”. Such a person does not understand the principle “Do no harm”.
Why do different levels of consciousness “require” different food? Because the higher a person’s awareness is, the purer and more subtle his feelings, sensations, state, and his interaction with the environment and the world, the lighter food he needs. Meanwhile, a person of low or sleeping consciousness is ruled by gross, egoistic feelings and emotions, so his state of consciousness requires heavy food.
The essential features of a person of satvaguna, moral consciousness are spirituality, love, unity, harmony, balance, justice, honesty, cooperation, creativity, respect, and virtue. Naturally, such a person is alien to any kind of coercion, and to maintain his pure state, vegetables, fruits, grains, honey or dairy products are fully sufficient.
The main features of a person of Rajoguna, passion consciousness are greed, selfishness, pride, competition, hostility. To support them, they need heavier, long-digested food – meat, something stewed, fried, boiled, spicy – so that all the feelings, sensations and emotions of such a person gain strength.
Tamoguna, the main features of a person of ignorance consciousness are inertness, egoism, laziness, self-indulgence, addictions, aggression, and cruelty. Obviously, these are difficult, negative traits. Therefore, their main food is meat. Such people cannot imagine life without meat, but when they eat meat, they accumulate the energy of violence and aggression. And the mind contaminated by the energy of cruelty is unable to understand what purity and spirituality are.
Thus – talking about healthy nutrition, about the ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the body, about the balance of alkalis and acids, bad habits, the necessary amount of vitamins and minerals or about the benefits of vegetarianism are meaningless if a person has low awareness. If he is interested in it, it is only as a “fashionable” trend and for a very short time.
However, as soon as a person’s awareness begins to grow – he himself begins to actively search for information about a healthy lifestyle, and spirituality and easily gives up everything that supports low awareness. He naturally, without much effort, begins to live righteously and spiritually.
Everything on this Earth evolves from a lower state to a higher one, therefore both individual people and the whole of humanity gradually evolve from lower gunas to higher ones. And the growing interest of people in spirituality, a healthy lifestyle, and vegetarianism is a clear sign that humanity’s awareness is growing rapidly.
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