Yoga of the Heart
Ten Ethical Guidelines for Gaining Limitless Growth, Confidence, and Achievement
by Alice Christensen
From Chapter 4: Nonviolence: Don't Harm Yourself
NONVIOLENCE AND FOOD
The Shaivite philosophy believes that it is not only the food itself but your desire for food that supports your body. This idea addresses a very primitive feeling that arises in all living things when encountering another being: Am I going to eat it or is it going to eat me? This is obviously a feeling loaded with fear, because no living thing wants to be killed and eaten. In this section I will discuss the relationship between food and violence in a way that might be new to you, and show you how you can learn to make more nonviolent choices.
I have already talked about how self-destructive behavior manifests in overindulgence or in ingesting too much of substances that can harm you, such as alcohol or drugs. Moderation in food and drink is a way to practice Nonviolence, because the body is then able to use what it needs without becoming stressed having to defend itself against the onslaught of overindulgence. Because of the practice of Nonviolence, you learn to choose to eat what is protective and helpful, protecting yourself from the self-destructive behaviors concerning food that we have discussed previously.
Yoga says that different foods have different qualities inherent in them. You are probably already aware of how certain substances, such as sugar and caffeine, affect your moods. In the Bhagavad Gita there is a clear division of food into three main types according to how they affect a person. These three categories correspond to the three gunas, tendencies or qualities of nature, which are found in everything in the world in varying amounts.
1. Sattwa guna describes attributes of calmness, purity, and balance. Sattwic food, according to the Gita, promotes longevity, intelligence, strength, health, happiness, and delight; it is sweet, not too spicy, nourishing, and good-tasting. In other words, sattwic food promotes both physical and emotional health. Some examples of sattwic food would be fruit, vegetables, milk, and whole grains.
2. The attributes of the second category, rajas guna, are activity, passion, and restlessness. Rajasic food is bitter, acidic, salty, spicy, dry, and pungent; it excites the body’s systems. Some examples of rajasic food are hot spices and extremely salty foods.
3. The third quality of nature is the tamas guna, whose attributes are sleep, ignorance, dullness, and inertia. Tamasic food is that which is nonnutritive, rotten, leftover, or stale; it contributes to listlessness, dullness of mind, and depression. Some examples are "empty calorie" foods such as diet colas, artificial foods — and probably anything that has been sitting in your refrigerator for more than a week. Meat is considered a tamasic food because it is dead and, therefore, inert.
All the qualities described in the gunas about food describe attributes of the physical body, which is constantly changing; the spiritual body is the resting place of the feelings that the food inspires in you.
These three gunas actually reside in every food, though each food carries a predominance of one of the three qualities. Yoga says that the qualities of food of the types I outlined above, such as sweetness, passion, or dullness, actually reside in the food and are then expressed in your body; food is used as the vehicle for expression of feeling which comes from the spiritual body. For instance, a Yogi would say that the quality of sweetness "lives" in fruit and is transferred to your body when you eat it, expressing itself in you as a feeling of sweetness. The quality of excitement "lives" in spices, so when you eat spicy foods, the quality of excitement expresses itself in you.
In the same way, it is felt that violence lives in meat. This concept is discussed in ancient Yogic texts, where the eating of meat is compared to eating the quality of violence itself. By killing in order to eat, you have moved into that primitive feeling of fear and aggression I mentioned at the beginning of this section — Am I going to eat it or is it going to eat me? — and the violence that lives in the meat expresses itself through you. This is why a vegetarian diet is usually associated with Yoga and the practice of Nonviolence.
From Yoga of the Heart: Ten Ethical Guidelines for Gaining Limitless Confidence, Growth, and Achievement, by Alice Christensen (Daybreak/Rodale Books, 1998).
Copyright 2002 by The American Yoga Association. All Rights Reserved.
