VEGETARIANISM - TO KEEP BODY, MIND AND SOUL INTACT
'What you eat is what you become' is an evergreen saying. Ayurveda strongly recommends having food with all the tastes. sweet, salt, sour, bitter and astringent. This helps to balance three Doshas, helping to lead a healthy life. In Yoga, we don't look at food in terms of proteins, vitamins and minerals. Instead, it is categorized in terms of Positive Pranic, Negative Pranic and Zero Pranic. Positive pranic food are those substances which, when consumed, add prana (life energy) to the system. Negative pranic foods take away prana from the system. Zero Pranic foods neither take nor add prana (They are just eaten for taste).
According to Ayurveda Vegetarian diet have immense of health benefits, but having said that Non-vegetarian diet is not a banned entity. Vegetarian and non-vegetarian food habits have their own advantages and disadvantages. Allopathic opinion is mostly in favour of a mixed diet, all though there is a growing school, which is strongly of the opinion that anatomical and physiological evidence is in favour of man being a Vegetarian. His teeth, stomach, intestines etc seem to prove that nature has meant man to be Vegetarian.
As per Ayurvedic belief, non-vegetarian food is Rajasic and Tamasic in nature. Non vegetarian food harms concentration levels. It also increases anger and lust. Chances of occurrence of constipation, high BP, Obesity, high Cholesterol levels, heart diseases are more in Non-Vegetarian food.
HEALTH BENEFITS OF VEGETARIAN DIET:
- Lower risk of heart diseases
- Feels lightness of both body and mind
- Lessons risk of high cholesterol food intake
- Helps to lose weight
- Positive, focused and active mind
- Improves skin health
- Increases life span
- Decreases load on organs related to digestion.
In my opinion one should eat not in order to please the palate but just to keep the body going. When each organ of sense sub serves the body and through the body the soul, its special relish disappears, and then alone does it begin to function in the way nature intended it to do. There is a great deal of truth in the saying that man becomes what he eats. The grosser the food the grosser the body.
TO EXPERIENCE THE BLISSFULLNESS AND ATTAIN THE SALVATION IN LIFE WE NEED SPIRITUAL PROGRESS, THAT WE SHOULD CEASE TO KILL OUR FELLOW CREATURES FOR THE SATISFACTION OF OUR BODILY WANTS. A VEGETARIAN DIET IS FOR THE BUILDING OF THE SPIRIT AND NOT OF THE BODY. MAN IS MORE THAN MEAT. IT IS THE SPIRIT IN MAN FOR WHICH WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED.