“Yes, that is a separate thing, but it is still the same principle: the food acts as a carrier, a via media, for whatever vibrations are added to it. Remember that Shaktipat Diksha can be given with water, or with some other substance that the disciple ingests. Every time you eat something, you are imbibing unaware all sorts of vibrations, all sorts of shaktis, some of which may be very unbalancing to your system.
“Old-timers in India complain about the quality of the food being pro duced in the country today, and there is a lot of truth in these complaints. In the past the grains of wheat, for example, were small but heavy, and one roti (whole-grain tortilla) would satisfy you more than three rotis made from today’s over-fertilized large, light grains. Back then there was less food, true, but people are better.
“There are at least six faults in the food we eat today. The first fault comes from the farmer who is greedy for a better price for his crop and so adds plenty of fertilizer, with results as we have noted. The grain acts as a vehicle to transmit his greed to us.
“This greed is compounded by the middleman who buys from the farmer. He cheats the farmer with adulterated weights–the second fault-and then adds chaff or filth to the product to increase his profit when he sells it to a merchant, which is the third fault. The shopkeeper himself is the cause of the fourth fault, because he cheats on his measures when he sells to the public.
“The fifth fault comes from the cook, who is in a hurry to go do some thing else and so does not approach the food with the proper reverence.
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Eating home-cooked food is still better than eating in a restaurant, though; a restaurant cook is a paid hireling who cares nothing whatever about your health. If he is angry with his boss for low wages no one knows what he may add to your food!
“The sixth fault occurs when the eater of the food forgets to offer thanks giving to the Creator of the food before it is eaten. With all these faults is it any wonder that food is no longer as nourishing as it once was? This is the effect of Kali Yuga.”
This was a new idea to me, this idea that one’s thoughts and desires project onto and “stick to one’s possessions, or the things one wants to possess. I did not quite understand why this should be so characteristic of Kali Yuga, but I knew Vimalananda would tell me about it eventually if I simply expressed the thought, so I did not interrupt his soliloquy.
“I always prefer simple food,” he went on, “because you can taste it, or even look at it, and very easily know exactly what the cook was thinking about it when he or she was cooking it. So you immediately have some idea of what is going on in the household, because those thoughts are carried to you through the vehicle of the food. This is why it is so important to be choosy about whose food you are willing to share. You don’t want nasty thoughts ruining your own consciousness, do you? Definitely not, if you are trying to perform some sadhana.
“This is one reason why it is generally best to be vegetarian if you want to do any serious sadhana; it makes your mind much clearer. The violence involved in killing animals gets transmitted to your consciousness when you eat their flesh. People who want to justify the murder of animals say, ‘But plants are alive too. Don’t you kill and eat them?’ To which I answer, ‘Yes, they are alive, and they feel pain when they are chopped for the pot.’ When ever I hold a cabbage in my hand I think, ‘Oh, Ma, now I am going to cut you. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt for long, and I will take care of you.”
I had to smile, for I had seen him do this so many times that I had also taken up the habit. Vimalananda’s ready love and compassion for all things, even empty matchboxes and flaking paint, was so natural, so real and so sin cere, that it was difficult not to follow his example.
“The point is that plants have less power of expression than animals, so less karma is involved in eating them. The curse that they give you for eating them is milder than the curse an animal gives you for killing it.
“Another problem with meat eating is that meat is flesh, after all, and when you make your Jathara Agni identify with flesh in order to digest it you encourage your ahamkara to self-identify more strongly with your own flesh,
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which will not help you in disentangling Kundalini from Her bindings. Plants at least provide less for ahamkara to self-identify with. Yes, meat is sometimes used in the Tantric ritual known as the Panchamakara Sadhana, but that is something different altogether.”
“What is it?”
“It’s something else entirely, which I will tell you about later. For now, think about food. The best way to avoid all the negative influences in our food is to do without it altogether. To do this you must proceed stepwise: first you become a vegetarian, then you limit yourself to roots and fruits, then to milk alone. Milk is freely offered by the cow, and it transmits some of her maternal love to the drinker; this is the real reason yogis like to drink milk. Eventually you move on to water alone, and finally to air. Those who live on air alone get their prana directly from the atmosphere. They do not use their mouths to eat; they eat with every pore of their bodies. But it is essential for them to get sunlight, just as it is for plants.”
“Oh. Another reason why the Rishis worship the sun,” I hazarded.
“Yes. A Rishi does Gayatri and exists on the energy of the sun alone. But that is too far ahead. Ordinary people like you and me must eat. And now I’m hungry, so let’s eat!”
.
.
Vimalananda always preferred to cook his own food, to protect the purity of his consciousness. His food was always cooked to perfection, light and easy to digest, and a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. Before long I was spending quite a lot of time in the kitchen. Soon he began to teach me to cook in his own unique style, although because of my dietary restric tions, only rarely did I eat anything that he or I cooked. Several of his offi cious friends made wailing noises about “how hungry poor Robby must be,” but I like dairy products and did not miss eating ordinary food very much. Vimalananda would sometimes tell me, after such a busybody had left, “Such people go out of their way to show how much they care for you, but they don’t really care; this is just a ploy to make you think more highly of them. It’s all superficial, just a sophisticated frothy bubble.” I knew he was right, so I ignored them and continued to relish my culinary duties.
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One afternoon after tea, when the topic turned again to food and its faults, and I asked again how to prevent them from affecting me, hoping for a new angle on the subject, Vimalananda launched into an explanation of how to purify the Five Great Elements that make up the body. Characteristi cally he began by considering the most extreme of the purification methods: Panchamakara. As soon as he mentioned Panchamakara my ears awakened, for he had referred to it obliquely on more than one occasion without elab orating, knowing that I would be especially attentive when he did finally explain it to me.