Amongst the 5
fundamentals of yoga, one of the important is yogic diet. Yoga and
Ayurveda, both advice to have sattvic or pure vegetarian diet. The
word Sattvic explains the quality of goodness. Thus sattvic (pure) diet
refers to purely vegetarian diet which comprises of food that grows with
natures harmony, and which is cooked with love in a right way and with
right kind of attitude.
It
is believed that a person's thoughts and activities are somewhere related
to the kind of food he consumes. Thus if a person opts for non vegetarian
diet, it is believed that his acts would somewhere support Hinsa
(violence). While the basis of yoga is related to ahimsa that is non
violence, it is said that yoga cannot be fruitful if it is not accompanied
by Sattvic diet. Yogic diet makes us feel fresh and is believed to help in
enhancing the mind and body in a right way. But sometimes we intake a diet
which makes us feel lazy and avoid our body from being accurate. Such diet
is also termed as Tamsic diet that leaves our body sluggish many
times. Thus such food must be avoided from our daily intake.
Sattvic
(pure) diet is light, refreshing, and easy to digest and does not leave a
disturbing effect on our mindset. But it should be noticed that our
emotions and thoughts also play a vital role in our diet. Even if we are
having a perfect diet but while consuming it we are filled with negative
emotions such as anger and terror, then they might have a negative effect
on our life. Moreover while having sattvic diet one must consume it in a
decent manner that is the food should be chewed properly and the intake
should be in modest quantity.
It is a point to
observe that our selection of food gives a glimpse of the type of
activities we might be involved in and also states our mind set.
Thus when Pranayama,
yoga and a proper yogic diet come under one roof, we have the feel of
being pure and get a feel of having a clean and divine body with us.
And so once if we
get used to Sattvic diet, we can feel our body becoming like a clean water
pool and all our sins are abolished by the purity residing within us.
November 17, 2007
