Bhagwad Gita - Post 208

Now, the Lord goes on to describe the nature of food preferred by Sattwic, Rajasic and Tamasic beings in the following verses.

Verse 8

Foods which increase life, purity, strength, health, joy and cheerfulness, which are oleaginous and savoury, substantial and agreeable, are dear to the Sattwic people.

Verse 9

The foods that are bitter, sour, saline, excessively hot, dry, pungent and burning, are liked by the Rajasic and are productive of pain, grief and disease.

Verse 10

That which is stale, tasteless, putrid, rotten and impure refuse, is the food liked by the Tamasic.

Sattvic Food

That kind of food which energizes the system, which contributes to the enhancement of life, which increases strength in the body, which ensures health, which is delighting to the taste and enjoyable at all times, which is full of delicacy and the heart opens up, as it were, when we eat such food—that food is sattvic. 

Hence, a vegetarian diet is beneficial for cultivating the qualities of the mode of goodness that are conducive for spiritual life. 

Rajasic Food

A rajasic diet is irritating, biting, burning, and very harsh in its action on the system. It causes a burning sensation at the time of eating it, and it affects the stomach, and it may even create a stomach ulcer. These diets are very much desired by people who are rajasic in their nature. 

Persons in the mode of passion find such foods attractive, but those in the mode of goodness find them disgusting. The purpose of eating is not to relish bliss through the palate, but to keep the body healthy and strong. As the old adage states: “Eat to live; do not live to eat.”

Thus, the wise partake of foods that are conducive to good health, and have a peaceable impact upon the mind i.e., sāttvic foods.

Tamasic Food

Tamasic people do not want freshly cooked food; they only want yesterday’s food. They would rather have leftovers from yesterday than freshly cooked food. 

Gatarasaṁ is food whose taste has gone because it has been kept too long. 

Pūti is food that is not pleasant to the taste and is almost stinking. 

Paryuṣitaṁ is food which was cooked yesterday. 

Ucchiṣṭam is the leftovers from somebody’s meal. That should not be eaten. 

Amedhyaṁ is very impure food, kept in a dirty place, cooked in a dirty manner, with an impure mind, with emotions of unhappiness, tension, anger, and dislike. 

Impure foods also include all kinds of meat products.

Nature has designed the human body to be vegetarian. All these physical characteristics of the human body reveal that God has not created us as carnivorous creatures, and consequently, meat is considered impure food for humans.

Meat-eating also creates bad karma. The Manu Smṛiti states:

māṁ sa bhakṣhayitāmutra yasya māṁsam ihādmy aham

etan māṁsasya māṁsatvaṁ pravadanti manīṣhiṇaḥ 

(“The word mānsa (meat) means “that whom I am eating here will eat me in my next life.” The learned say that meat is called mānsa (a repeated act: I eat him, he eats me).”

Dear All,

Videos are available showing Swami (Sri Sathya Sai Baba) partaking food during His visit to Hostel/Hospital etc. It is height of Sattvic and just few teaspoonful of food.

https://youtu.be/Td_TYdRYOJk 

If we take inspiration from that, at least we can hope to reach the Sattvic food level at some point of time.

The author often tells to few sadhakas, “Food is eaten by him as a charity, for, the internal system of his body need some food and hence, he has to grant them some food. That is all and there is no other purpose of eating food. “

When we visit Banaras and we are told that we should leave some food as an offering, never to take it again, we seldom make a promise to give up some food that we love, we give up only that food which we never like or which we have once in a blue moon. 

Dietary control is very much part of ceiling of desires also for all human beings, especially those who are in Sai fold.

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 207

THE YOGA OF THE DIVISION OF THE THREE FOLD PATH

For the question put up by Arjuna, “What about those who, even though setting aside scriptural injunctions yet perform worship with faith?”,

The Lord replies and states that the faith of such men who ignore the injunctions of the scriptures could be either Sattwic, Rajasic or Tamasic.

And then, the Lord goes on to explain how the three types of men - Sattwic, Rajasic and Tamasic, pursue their faith / worship.

Verse 4

The Sattwic or pure men worship the gods; the Rajasic or the passionate worship the Yakshas and the Rakshasas; the others (the Tamasic or the deluded) worship the ghosts and the hosts of nature-spirits.

Sattvic people adore the gods in heaven. Ganesha, Devi, Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Lord Siva, Vishnu, Narayana, Siva, Skanda are the gods whom they worship if their mind is sattvic. Nara-Narayana, Vyasa, Vasishtha—these are their adored beings.  Lofty transcendent realities are the objects of people who are sattvic in their nature. 

Rajasic people worship demoniacal, lower spirits which are likely to bless them with immediate results and then possess them and keep them under subjection. Yakshas, rakshasas and demigods are the objects of worship of people who are entirely rajasic, because they cannot wait for the blessings of a god in heaven. They want immediate results to follow, so they go to lesser divinities. 

But people with tamasic qualities worship actual demons—bhutas, pretas and spirits who hang in the air, summoning dead people who speak through those who make this their profession. This is the tamasic way of living, where the lower spirits are considered as objects of adoration. Bhutas and pretas are their objects of worship.

Verse 5

Those men who practice terrific austerities not enjoined by the scriptures, given to hypocrisy and egoism, impelled by the force of lust and attachment

Verse 6

Senseless, torturing all the elements in the body and Me also, who dwells in the body—know thou these to be of demoniacal resolves.

In the name of spirituality, people perform senseless austerities. 

Over-enthusiasm can produce only a physical exhaustion, and an inward fatigue. No spiritual unfoldment can be expected from unintelligent expenditure of energy in wrong channels merely because it is undertaken in the name of religion. The majority of seekers mis-apply their energies and come to suffer. 

Physical restraints and self-denials are, no doubt, sometimes prescribed for some strong men, for some limited period. At the same time it is not proper or correct to believe that any kind of self-denial would constitute an austerity, and that by following it, creative unfoldment of the inner personality-structure could be successfully brought about. 

Sri Krishna says: “O Arjuna, you asked me about the status of those who disregard the injunctions of the scriptures and yet worship with faith. I am telling you that faith is visible even in people who perform severe austerities, but it is bereft of a proper basis of knowledge. 

Such people do possess deep conviction in the efficacy of their practices, but their faith is in the mode of ignorance. Those who abuse and torture their own physical body disrespect the Supreme Soul who resides within. All these are contrary to the recommended path of the scriptures.”

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 206

Chapter 17

THE YOGA OF THE DIVISION OF THE THREE FOLD PATH

(…Continued)

Verse 15

Speech which causes no excitement and is truthful, pleasant and beneficial, the practice of the study of the Vedas, are called austerity of speech.

Verse 16

Serenity of mind, good-heartedness, purity of nature, self-control—this is called mental austerity.

Verse 17

This threefold austerity practised by steadfast men with the utmost faith, desiring no reward, they call Sattwic.

Verse 18

The austerity which is practised with the object of gaining good reception, honor and worship and with hypocrisy, is here said to be Rajasic, unstable and transitory.

Verse 19

The austerity which is practised out of a foolish notion, with self-torture, or for the purpose of destroying another, is declared to be Tamasic.

Verse 20

That gift which is given to one who does nothing in return, knowing it to be a duty to give in a fit place and time to a worthy person, that gift is held to be Sattwic.

Verse 21

And, that gift which is made with a view to receive something in return, or looking for a reward, or given reluctantly, is said to be Rajasic.

Verse 22

The gift which is given at the wrong place and time to unworthy persons, without respect or with insult, is declared to be Tamasic.

Verse 23

“Om Tat Sat”: this has been declared to be the triple designation of Brahman. By that were created formerly the Brahmanas, the Vedas and the sacrifices.

Verse 24

Therefore, with the utterance of “Om” are the acts of gift, sacrifice and austerity as enjoined in the scriptures always begun by the students of Brahman.

Verse 25

Uttering Tat, without aiming at the fruits, are the acts of sacrifice and austerity and the various acts of gift performed by the seekers of liberation.

Verse 26

The word Sat is used in the sense of reality and of goodness; and so also, O Arjuna, it is used in the sense of an auspicious act!

Verse 27

Steadfastness in sacrifice, austerity and gift, is also called Sat, and also action in connection with these (or for the sake of the Supreme) is called Sat.

Verse 28

Whatever is sacrificed, given or performed, and whatever austerity is practised without faith, it is called Asat, O Arjuna! It is naught here or hereafter (after death).

Hari Om Tat Sat

Iti Srimad Bhagavadgeetaasoopanishatsu Brahmavidyaayaam Yogashaastre Sri Krishnaarjunasamvaade Shraddhaatrayavibhaagayogo Naama Saptadasho’dhyaayah

Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the seventeenth discourse entitled:

“The Yoga of the Division of the Three Fold Path”.

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 205

Chapter 17

THE YOGA OF THE DIVISION OF THE THREE FOLD PATH


Verse 1

Arjuna said:

Those who, setting aside the ordinances of the scriptures, perform sacrifice with faith, what is their condition, O Krishna? Is it that of Sattwa, Rajas or Tamas?

Verse 2

The Blessed Lord said:

Threefold is the faith of the embodied, which is inherent in their nature—the Sattwic (pure), the Rajasic (passionate), and the Tamasic (dark). Do thou hear of it.

Verse 3

The faith of each is in accordance with his nature, O Arjuna! The man consists of his faith; as a man’s faith is, so is he.

Verse 4

The Sattwic or pure men worship the gods; the Rajasic or the passionate worship the Yakshas and the Rakshasas; the others (the Tamasic or the deluded) worship the ghosts and the hosts of nature-spirits.

Verse 5

Those men who practise terrific austerities not enjoined by the scriptures, given to hypocrisy and egoism, impelled by the force of lust and attachment,

Verse 6

Senseless, torturing all the elements in the body and Me also, who dwells in the body—know thou these to be of demoniacal resolves.

Verse 7

  

The food also which is dear to each is threefold, as also sacrifice, austerity and alms-giving. Hear thou the distinction of these.

Verse 8

Foods which increase life, purity, strength, health, joy and cheerfulness, which are oleaginous and savoury, substantial and agreeable, are dear to the Sattwic people.

Verse 9

The foods that are bitter, sour, saline, excessively hot, dry, pungent and burning, are liked by the Rajasic and are productive of pain, grief and disease.

Verse 10

That which is stale, tasteless, putrid, rotten and impure refuse, is the food liked by the Tamasic.

Verse 11

That sacrifice which is offered by men without desire for reward as enjoined by the ordinance (scripture), with a firm faith that to do so is a duty, is Sattwic (or pure).

Verse 12

The sacrifice which is offered, O Arjuna, seeking a reward and for ostentation, know thou that to be a Rajasic Yajna!

Verse 13

They declare that sacrifice to be Tamasic which is contrary to the ordinances of the scriptures, in which no food is distributed, which is devoid of Mantras and gifts, and which is devoid of faith.

Verse 14

Worship of the gods, the twice-born, the teachers and the wise, purity, straightforwardness, celibacy and non-injury—these are called the austerities of the body.

Continued… 


Love.