Food and Character

All men everywhere are of one species. Yet, man hates man; one religion is opposed to another; one race feels superior to another; one country avoids contact with another. How does this conflict arise? When one delves deep into this question, the answer becomes clear.

Everything in creation has five properties. The first three are Sat-chit-ananda (Being, Awareness, Bliss) and the last two are Rupa and Nama (Form and Name), which are lent to the thing only temporarily. They are subject to modification but the first three, Being, Awareness, Bliss are inherent, unchanging characteristics. In the language of Vedanta, the three are named Asti, Bhati, and Priyam (existence, shining or expressing, and loving). They are the innate qualities of every manifestation of the Divine. The last of the three is ananda (Divine Bliss). Every human being is an embodiment, repository, and vehicle of ananda.

The awareness of this ananda (Bliss) is the goal of man, the consummation of human life. But, man seeks pleasure and happiness from objects through the senses and attains the low material ananda, not the supreme ananda he ought to win. It must be said that the ananda attained through the objective world or through subjective means is only a fractional expression of the ananda which mergence in Brahman (Supreme Reality) grants. We speak of hot water, though heat is not a quality of water; fire has given it the heat. So, too, objective ananda or subjective ananda is rendered so, through the grace of Brahmanandam (Supreme Divine Bliss).

Food Prevents or Promotes Emotions and Passions

Man prides himself that he has earned ananda himself by his effort. It is sugar that makes the bland globules of flour into sweet Laddus. The grace of the Ground of all Being can alone confer sweetness or ananda. The stars are proud that they shed light on a darkened world but the bright moonlight renders starlight too faint to be noticed. The moon’s pride, too, is humbled when the sun illumines the sky. Brahmaananda is the Sun. This does not mean that one should ignore starlight and moonlight or Vishaya ananda and Vidya ananda—ananda derived from nature and from spiritual experiential knowledge. They are steps, stages, samples. While valuing them as such, the goal of Brahmaananda has to be relentlessly pursued.

How, then, can man earn that Awareness, that ananda? What sadhana (spiritual discipline) has he to adopt? Though men are all equally subject to birth, life, and death, though all are of one kind, why do they allow the ananda which is the right of each to slip away through hatred and conflict? Why is the demon prevailing over the Divine in man? The answer has been deluding man for ages.

Well! Aham (ego) is the cause. The narrow limited self, the ego, is at the root of the evil. Probing the problem a little deeper, I would say that the nature of the food relished is primarily responsible. Food is of three qualities: sattvika, rajasika, and tamasika (leading to purity, passion, and inertia). Some consume sattvika-rajasika or tamasika-rajasika food, or they change from one type to another, for better or worse. Since food alleviates or arouses, prevents or promotes emotions and passions, it molds the behavior, conduct, and attitudes of men.

Sadhakas Have to Be Careful About Food Consumed

Ravana and Vibhishana, two brothers born of the same parents, had diametrically opposite natures because of the food they grew upon. Ravana relished rajasika food while Vibhishana stuck to sattvika. Fellow-feeling is difficult when the same quality of food is not preferred. When both live on rajasika food, though they may have the same nature, friendship cannot last. Envy and hatred will soon break the bond. The sattvika nature will free man from these evils and purify his mind, preparing him for the journey to God. For, God is Sattva (pure).

Many slide from the sattvika nature into the rajasika where the ego predominates. They slide away from God too, for where the ego swells in pomp and pride, God cannot reside. They may parade other reasons for their losing hold of God but the fault lies in their own self.

What exactly is sattvika food? Food that confers ananda to the body, mind, and heart is sattvika, that which sustains holy living; that which keeps one light, even at the end of the meal. The Sattvikas are satisfied with one meal a day. Rajasika nature demands continuous feeding on hot stuff tasting sour, salty, or pungent. Tamasikas appreciate cold, stale, acrid tastes. The grosser parts of the food consumed are eliminated. The less gross parts build up muscles and bones. The subtle parts make up the nerves and the mind. Therefore, sadhakas have to be extra-careful about the quality of food they consume.

Be Clothed in Divine Qualities to Approach God

Pungency in food heightens feelings of pugnacity, aggression, and vindictiveness in men, against those who oppose, disagree with, or disappoint them. Such men are worse than scorpions and snakes, sharp swords, or serrated saws. It is tragic that factional conflicts arise even among persons claiming to be devotees of God. Often, such men behave as if they are desecrating God by deserting Him. When their desires do not fructify as and when they arise, when their faults and failings are laid down before them in order to warn them, or when they are directed to give up the wrongs they are fascinated by, they turn away from God in a fit of fury!

There are two types of men—the Amaras (the Godly) and the Asuras (the demonic). The rajasika persons are asuras. The Gita directs us to adopt, as the very first sadhana, the rule: ‘Adveshta Sarva Bhutanam’ (Do not hate any single being). To approach God, one must be clothed in divine qualities. When it is sinful to hate a fellow-being, what shall we say about hating God? Live in the love of God—Sthiti—Mati—Bhakti (stability, awareness-communion). Devotion arises in the constant mind, not in the agitated, kaleidoscopic mind. Allah showers Grace only on those who surrender wholly.

The purification of the senses of perception and the senses of action, the mind and the intellect and the sublimation of the ego-consciousness will happen spontaneously, once the attitude of total surrender is strengthened. That which we consume through the mouth is food. We consume also through the eye, the ear, the nose and the skin. That food too has to be sattvika, purifying and not pungent, stale or corrupt.

Prasanthi Nilayam, 25-7-1983