Three kinds of food – II

Rajasik food, that is food liked by people having predominantly rajas guna,  is:

• bitter like neem, karela, etc.
• sour like tamarind
• salty like namkeen
• too hot
• spicy like red chilli
• dry like pop corn or anything roasted in the furnace
• daahkarak (sorry don’t know the translation, if you do please let me know) like mustard seeds

Such food causes pain, regret and diseases. For example, after having something too hot you may burn your tongue; on tasting something very spicy you may have water running from your eyes/nose; on easting something dry you may get something stuck in your throat.

Tamasik food, that is food liked by people with a dominating tamas guna, is:

• unripe or half-cooked: produce that is not ripened, food that is not cooked properly.
• devoid of any juices: food that has lost its juices because of various reasons like air, fire, etc.
• possesses a smell: like onion and garlic
• stale: which was cooked the night before or produce that was picked from the farms long back.
• uchistha – ok this is hard to explain in english. It is leftover food that has been bitten into by somebody else.

Get rid of your bad luck

My research revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four basic principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

[source: Be lucky, it’s an easy skill to learn]

How true!

The three kinds of food

I’d always been curious about how is sattvika, rajsika and tamsik food defined. How would I ever decide whether something is sattvik? And this curiosity was fueled by the food items allowed during a fast or pooja. Onions and garlic were always a no-no and I wanted to know why. My mother told me that maybe they left a bad smell in the mouth that’s why; but I wasn’t satisfied. This was one of the questions which motivated me to read the scriptures in the very beginning – I wanted to find the answer in them. So you can well imagine the smile on my face when I came to this chapter in Gita :).

The kind of food you like is also influenced by your nature.

A sattvik man likes food that has the following characteristics:

• Increases longevity.
• Cleanses and sharpens mind.
• Improves physical as well as mental strength.
• Brings satisfaction and happiness to the heart.
• Increases the feeling of love.

Some of the food items that have the above qualities:

• Those that have pith like milk, sugar, etc.
• Oils extracted from sattvik sources and butter, ghee.
• Those that stay in the stomach for long. There are no specific recommendations but my mother always used to say that whole-wheat roti stays in your stomach. So I’m guessing whole wheat would be one such example. And one could extrapolate this to other whole grains too.
• Those that bring a pure thoughts in the mind and not dirty or impure.

Faith, Conscience and Devotion

You actions build your inherent nature and your inherent nature resides inside your conscience. Hence, your nature determines your conscience. Your conscience influences your faith and your faith, your devotion. Ultimately, its your actions which decide your faith and devotion.

I’m a little confused about this – I would’ve thought that your character determines your actions but Gita says the other way around; and it uses the verb “builds” your character. So the more I think of it the more it makes sense, one may be born with a character but one can always build it through his actions all through his life. That is what is being stressed here – your character develops based on the actions you do and your character influences your decisions on what is right and what is wrong. And this ability leads to faith in something. So the most important thing to do is to do good deeds.

Faith

Depending on his faith and following of religious teachings a man’s destiny can change.

• If a man has faith in religious teachings and follows them, then he can either do it without any desire for the fruits of his labor or otherwise. In case of former, he achieves moksha while in case of latter heaven is his destiny as he is a sattvik person.
• If he follows some religious teachings but doesn’t have faith in them then he will not get any fruits for his labor.
• If he has faith but does not follow any religious teachings for lack of any knowledge of them then he has sattva because of his faith as well as rajas and tamas guna and he will be rewarded according to his karmas.
• If he neither has faith nor follows the religious teachings then he’s a tamasik person and he will go to hell.
• If he sneers at the religious teachings then he will not get any fruits of his good deeds but he will have to bear the consequences of his bad deeds.