[Advaita-l] Advaitic Foods

[Gopal]

> Medical studies says fish is bad for health because it has mercury.

This is not true. Fish is susceptible to have mercury as sea bed etc. has
mercury.  Mercury contamination because of human activity occurs may result
in increased level of  mercury.   This needs to be monitored and is being
done.

This does not mean fish is bad becaues of mercury. Dogs get rabbies. People
have pet dogs and as far as I know, they end up more saner than non-pet
owners ;-)
in many cases.

>Kindly analyse Geeta 15.14 Aham Vaishvanaro Bhutva and other Slokas
description of Sattvika, Rajasika and Tamasika foods in Geeta.  What
is your opinion of them?

is it for the householder, regular bhakta or a serious devotee striving for
salvation?
Is the norms for a soldier applied for a merchant or a teacher?

>Aham Vaishvanaro Bhutva Sloka we say every time we have meals. The
Agni in the stomach is Jatharagni the Vaishvanara. To that Agni we
offer Havis the food we eat. He digests the food we eat. The food
eating is a Yajna. In this Yajna we should offer Sattvika items. How
can we put Rajasika and Tamasika items like fish?

Sorry I dont have the reference, but Agni is said to consume everything. He
and Yama
are blind and impartial. What is Jatharagni? Agni with a face, mouth,brain,
all the makeups we see in the movies
sitting in our stomach? If he is digesting food, why do we worry about S,R
or T? If Agni is going to do the digestion
and give you the strength in terms of glucose and ATP to burn, why do you
worry about the source of food?

If I eat meat and have indigestion, is it because Agni is not doing his job
right? does he eat the digestion medicine too?

What happens if nutrients are pumped thru the blood vessels? How does agni
eat it?

Agni is pervasive. omnipresent. Before attributing anthropomorphic functions
and status to Gods,
and interpret them to day to day living, one has to think deeper.  Is Agni
just the physical fire?
god of fire? Lord of fire? Or is He something beyond and inclusive of this,
a faculty in the jeevas that
has a function and purpose?


What is anna? what is yagna? You are quoting BGita on one hand, advaitic
sadhana on the other, food affecting the prakriti thirdly,
and then call a puranic interpretation of vaishvanara. What is the origin of
Vaishvanara? Is your vaishvanara the same Chandogyo and B. Upanishads speak
of?


Apologies if I sound rude. But on one hand we talk about advaita and what
not, on the other hand we refer to puraanaa-s to justify
our views; someone will quote brahmasutras to counter someone else counting
some other part of Brahmasutras. Before arguing and
conferring our shallow human mind-derived opinions, isn't it better to find
what is the meaning of these?

-gopal







On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 10:44 PM, Venkatesh Murthy <vmurthy36 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Fish cannot be Sattvika even if Easterners eat it.  Medical studies
> says fish is bad for health because it has mercury.  Sattvika cannot
> be nonveg items.  If Ramakrishna said this it is not correct.
>
> Kindly analyse Geeta 15.14 Aham Vaishvanaro Bhutva and other Slokas
> description of Sattvika, Rajasika and Tamasika foods in Geeta.  What
> is your opinion of them?
>
> Aham Vaishvanaro Bhutva Sloka we say every time we have meals. The
> Agni in the stomach is Jatharagni the Vaishvanara. To that Agni we
> offer Havis the food we eat. He digests the food we eat. The food
> eating is a Yajna. In this Yajna we should offer Sattvika items. How
> can we put Rajasika and Tamasika items like fish?
>
> Regards
>
> -Venkatesh
>
> On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 11:41 PM, V Subrahmanian
> <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> ----------------------------------------
> >> > Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:27:11 +0530
> >> > From: vmurthy36 at gmail.com
> >> > To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> >> > Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Advaitic Foods
> >> >
> >> > The reference to stale food is directly found in Baudhayana Dharma
> >> > Sutra 1 1.2 3 about peculiar customs in South India.
> >> >
> >> > http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe14/sbe1435.htm
> >> >
> >>
> >> "... to eat in the company of an uninitiated person, to eat in the
> >> company of one's wife, to eat stale food, to marry the daughter of
> >> a maternal uncle or of a paternal aunt."
> >>
> >> These are described as customs unique to the southern part of India.
> >>
> >
> > I have heard an accomplished Vedic Pandit (GhanapAThi) say that in his
> days
> > of adhyayanam at the Gurukulam, the norm was the breakfast is
> 'pazhayadhu'
> > (previous night's cooked rice combined with buttermilk, with perhaps some
> > ginger and salt mixed).
> >
> > There is one occasion that I have observed when on the 'kanu pongal'
> (said
> > to be actually kANum pongal)(the day after the main pongal festival) in
> the
> > early morning women offer certain food stuff to God.  The items offered
> > include: rice cooked the previous day, mixed with curds and kept
> overnight,
> > left-over sweet pongal, vaDai, sugarcane piece and ground raw turmeric.
>  All
> > these will be offered in the open, in a small banana leaf by the women
> > before they bathe.
> >
> > Local customs being the topic of derisive comment is a typical subject
> for
> > Swami Vidyaranya's categorisation as ' loka vAsanA'.  In the
> > 'वासनाक्षयप्रकरणम्’ of the जीवन्मुक्तिविवेकः’, he says:
> >
> > Quote // The attachment that the races of mankind develop, each in its
> own
> > sphere, towards traditional customs and manners of their respective
> > countries and communities, as well as towards their mother-tongue,
> > irrespective of the correct or incorrect form of words used and such
> other
> > kind of attachment may be broadly cited as examples of this.
> >
> > ......Similarly there is slandering prevalent on a large scale, with
> > reference to local peculiarities.  The southern BrahmaNa-s upbraid their
> > northern fellows, well-versed in Vedic lore, as flesh-eaters; the
> northern
> > BrahmaNa-s retaliate by finding fault with the southern custom of
> marrying
> > the daughter of a maternal uncle and of carrying earthenware in their
> > travels.
> >
> > The bahvRcha-s, Rgvedi-s, of the AshvalAyana shAkha look upon the
> > KANvashAkhaa, yajurvedi-s, as inferior to theirs; while the
> Vajasaneyin-s,
> > yajurvedi-s, think otherwise.  Thus, from the learned down to women and
> > ignorant herdsmen, is found this general tendency to glorify one's own
> > family, section, relatives, gods and so on, and to belittle those of
> > others.  It has been said with this in mind:
> >
> > // 'The pure man is looked upon as a devil, the clever man as
> presumptuous,
> > the man of forbearance as weak, the strong man as cruel, the
> absent-minded
> > man as a thief, and the handsome man as lewd.  Who can please the
> world!!'
> > Also 'there is no expedient within knowledge wherewith one can satisfy
> all
> > people.  One's own good should, by all possible means, be looked to.
>  What
> > can the myriad-tongued world do?' //
> > Looking, therefore, upon the vAsanA of public opinion, लोकवासना’ as
> entirely
> > impure, books treating of liberation, मोक्षशास्त्रम्, advise the foremost
> of
> > yogin-s to treat censure and praise alike.  // Unquote.
> >
> > The gist of the above is: //One's own good should, by all possible means,
> be
> > looked to.  What can the myriad-tongued world do?'//
> >
> > The observation by Sri Venkatesh Murthy //But my original request was if
> any
> > member experience proper concentration on Advaitic thoughts after eating
> > Sattvika food.// cannot be answered unless one decides what constitutes
> > saattvika food. The definition of sattvik food can vary from place to
> place,
> > customs, etc.  For example, the Bengali-Brahmin custom of eating fish was
> > prevalent in Sri Ramakrishna's family.  Yet, his attaining nirvikalpa
> > samadhi and attaining Advaitic sAkShAtkAra through the initiation of
> > Totapuri is there in recorded history. Here is a couple of sayings of Sri
> > Ramakrishna (from The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna) :
> >
> > //"Hindus, Mussalmans, Christians, Saktas, Saivas, Vaishnavas, the
> > Brahmajnanis of the time of the rishis, and you, the Brahmajnanis of
> modern
> > times, all seek the same object. A mother prepares dishes to suit the
> > stomachs of her children. Suppose a mother has five children and a *fish*
> is
> > bought for the family. She doesn't cook pilau or kalia for all of them.
> All
> > have not the same power of digestion; so she prepares a simple stew for
> > some. But she loves all her children equally.
> >
> > "Do you know my attitude? I love all the preparations of *fish*. I have a
> > womanly nature. (*All laugh*.) I feel myself at home with every dish —
> fried
> > *fish*, *fish* cooked with turmeric powder, pickled *fish*. And further,
> I
> > equally relish rich preparations like *fish*-head, kalia, and pilau.
> (*All
> > laugh*.)
> >
> > "Do you know what the truth is? God has made different religions to suit
> > different aspirants, times, and countries.//
> >
> >
> > //MASTER (*to Vijay and the others*): "Four desires have come into my
> mind.
> > I shall *eat* *fish* curry cooked with egg-plant. I shall visit
> Shivanath.
> > The devotees will repeat the name of Hari over their beads, and I shall
> > watch them. And the Tantrik devotees will drink consecrated wine, eight
> > annas' worth, on the
> > ashtami*<
> http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/gospel/volume_2/29_durga_puja.htm#blank
> >day,
> > and I shall watch them and salute them."//
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> > subrahmanian.v
> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
> --
> Regards
>
> -Venkatesh
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