Attitude towards Food
Sri Aurobindo:
Too much eating makes the body material and heavy, eat ing too little makes it weak and nervous
— one has to find the true harmony and balance between the body's need and the food taken.*
It is the attachment to food, the greed and eagerness for it, making it an unduly important thing in the life, that is con trary to the spirit of yoga. To be aware that something is pleas ant to the palate is not wrong; only one must have no desire nor hankering for it, no exultation in getting it, no displea sure or regret at not getting it. One must be calm and equal, not getting upset or dissatisfied when the food is not tasty or not in abundance — eating the fixed amount that is necessary, not less or more. There should be neither eagerness nor re pugnance.
To be always thinking about food and troubling the mind is quite the wrong way of getting rid of the food-desire. Put the food element in the right place in the life, in a small cor ner, and don't concentrate on it but on other things.
*
The Mother:
The body in its normal state, that is to say, when there is no intervention of mental notions or vital impulses, also knows very well what is good and necessary for it; but for
this to be effective in practice, one must educate the child with care and teach him to distinguish his desires from his needs. He should be helped to develop a taste for food that is simple and healthy, substantial and appetising, but free from any useless complications. In his daily food, all that merely stuffs and causes heaviness shuld be avoided; and above all, he must be taught to eat according to his hunger, neither more nor less, and not to make his meals an occasion to satisfy his greed or gluttony. From one's very childhood, one should know that one eats in order to give strength and health to the body and not to enjoy the pleasures of the palate. Children should be given food that suits their temperament, prepared in a way that ensures hygiene and cleanliness, that is pleas ant to the taste and yet very simple. This food should be cho sen and apportioned according to the age of the child and his regular activities. It should contain all the chemical and dy namic elements that are necessary for his development and the balanced growth of every part of his body.
*
...one must strictly shun all excess and every vice, great or small; one must deny oneself the use of such slow poisons as tobacco, alcohol, etc., which men have a habit of developing into indispensable needs that gradually destroy the will and the memory. The all-absorbing interest which nearly all hu man beings, even the most intellectual, have in food, its prepa ration and its consumption, should be replaced by an almost chemical knowledge of the needs of the body and a very sci entific austerity in satisfying them.
*
Physically, we depend upon food to live — unfortunately. For with food, we daily and constantly take in a formidable amount of inconscience, of tamas, heaviness, stupidity. One can't do otherwise — unless constantly, without a break, we remain completely aware and, as soon as an element is intro duced into our body, we immediately work upon it to extract from it only the light and reject all that may darken our con sciousness. This is the origin and rational explanation of the religious practice of consecrating one's food to God before taking it. When eating one aspires that this food may not be taken for the little human ego but as an offering to the divine consciousness within oneself. In all yogas, all religions, this is encouraged. This is the origin of that practice, of contact ing the consciousness behind, precisely to diminish as much as possible the absorption of an inconscience which increases daily, constantly, without one's being aware of it.
One piece of advice given here is that one should always be kind. It should not be mistaken for the sort of advice people normally give. It says something interesting, even very inter esting. My comment is: Always be kind and you will be free from suffering, always be contented and happy, and you will radiate your quiet happiness.
It is particularly noticeable that all the digestive functions are extremely sensitive to an attitude that is critical, bitter, full of ill-will, to a sour judgment. Nothing disturbs the func tioning of the digestion more than that. And it is a vicious circle: the more the digestive function is disturbed, the more unkind you become, critical, dissatisfied with life and things
and people. So you can't find any way out. And there is only one cure: to deliberately drop this attitude, to absolutely for bid yourself to have it and to impose upon yourself, by con stant self-control, a deliberate attitude of all-comprehending kindness. Just try and you will see that you feel much better.
In Tokyo I had a garden and in this garden I was growing vegetables myself. I had a fairly big garden and many vege tables. And so, every morning I used to go for a walk, after having watered them and all the rest; I used to walk around to choose which vegetables I could take for eating. Well, just imagine! there were some which said to me, "No, no, no, no, no."... And then there were others which called, and I saw them from a distance, and they were saying, "Take me, take me, take me!" So it was very simple, I looked for those which wanted to be taken and never did I touch those which did not. I used to think it was something exceptional. I loved my plants very much, I used to look after them, I had put a lot of consciousness into them while watering them, cleaning them, so I thought they had a special capacity, perhaps.
But in France it was the same thing. I had a garden also in the south of France where I used to grow peas, radishes, car rots. Well, there were some which were happy, which asked to be taken and eaten, and there were those which said, "No, no, no, don't touch me, don't touch me!"