Questioner: Sadhguru, can you
tell us what kind of food we are supposed to eat? Why are meat and meat
products not considered the right kind of food for people on the spiritual
path, and how is
seafood different? If this is
just about killing or violence – isn’t a plant also life?
Sadhguru: This is not just
about violence. We know life is violent. The question
is just, will you conduct violence only to the extent
that is necessary or will you overdo it? No one can
live here without violence. Every breath is
violence. Whether you cut a carrot, an apple, a
chicken, or a goat – it is violence. Whether it is an ant,
a cockroach, or a goat – for every life form, its
life is the most precious thing on the planet. You may
think, “Just a goat’s life.” A goat never thinks so.
See with how much pride it walks. It thinks it is
the most important life on the planet. Just like you.
In the yogic culture, we call
the different life
forms jeevarasi. One heap of
life – different levels
of evolution. Different levels
of sensitivity. What
we are concerned about is that
whatever you eat
should be as far away from you
as possible in the
evolutionary scheme of things.
Plants are furthest
away. If you have to eat an
animal, we say it must
be in the water, because that
is the first form of
animal life. If you want to
look at it in terms of
stationary life and moving
life, among the moving
life, fish are the furthest
away from us, so we say
it is okay. You don’t eat a
mammal because it is
very close to you.
If you think that if you eat a
goat, you will
become healthier, why don’t you
eat a human
being? Maybe you will become
even healthier.
What is the problem in eating
another human
being? It is that they are so
much like us. A
certain life form is more complex only because of a certain volume of memory. Suppose we bring back your ancestors. If we
raise the previous 10 generations, out of these
maybe 150 to 500 people, at least 25 people may
look startlingly alike, because the memory
continues.
In the human system, the memory
is more intricate
than in any other life form. As
life evolved, the
memory became more complex, and
the structure
of the system became more
sophisticated. If you
eat an animal or any creature
that is closer to you,
which has its own very complex
memory, do what
you want – you cannot digest
it. If you eat a plant,
you can digest almost 100% of
it – you eliminate
its memory and impose it with
your memory.
Your body started with two
cells. Two cells of
memory multiplied into all this
– still maintaining the same characteristics. But
if you go on eating food that has more complex
memory, your ability to superimpose your memory on
it becomes less and less, the closer it is to
you. You may think a goat’s life is nothing, but
that is not true in terms of life. It is so much like
you. If you cut open a goat, you will see its
digestive system, its liver, and its kidneys are very
similar to yours.
Your body is just an
accumulation of the food
that you have eaten. If you
want to impress your
samskara on the food that you
have eaten and
make it yours, the complexity
of the memory in
the food should be minimal. The
more complex it
gets, the more you lose your
characteristics. The
inherent qualities that have
flown through you,
25,000 years of culture will go
waste on you if you
eat food that has a complex
memory structure.
The idea of creating a culture
and a civilization is
so that it can be transmitted
from one generation
to the next. Transmission is
not only in the
school room. It happens in the
genes. There are
substantial studies to prove
this today. We
have always been saying this is
your samskara.
Samskara means a distilled
essence of civilization
flowing through you without
being taught. You
can see this from one person to
another person.
Even if you expose two people
to the same kind
of external influences, still
one person is different
to the other. This is because
of samskara. Your
ability to let this inherent
quality flow through
you will become minimal if you
eat food with
complex memory structure.
Mahavir said this 2600 years
ago – if you eat the
flesh of an animal, you will
slowly become like
an animal. This does not mean
if you eat goat
today, tomorrow you will look
like a goat. Over a period of time, the kind of
food that you consume will create a kind of memory
distraction in your system. If you eat food with
minimal memory, your body, your memory
structure, and your genes easily imprint themselves
on that and make it “you.” If you eat complex
memory and you reproduce, the next generation
will be confused, because the imprint of memory
on them will not happen as clearly as it would
have happened if you ate food with less
complexity of memory.
If you consume animals that
have emotions
and thoughts like human beings,
it is close to
cannibalism. This is not a
religious or moral issue.
It is an existential and
scientific issue, a profound
understanding of how the system
works. If you
consume meat or any food with
complex memory
and strong emotions, you will
slowly lose your
fundamental characteristics of being human.
thank u gurudev
ReplyDeleteWhat a brilliant way of unwinding between veg and non-veg
ReplyDeleteI am deeply humbled Guruji.
I am looking forward to meet you but I don't know when it will happen.
Thank you.
I feel liberated by this brilliant fundamental explanation by Guruji
ReplyDeleteI am deeply humbled. I am looking forward to meet you and I don't know when it will happen.
Thank you.
In this case if a tiger hunts and eats a deer the tiger should have got the characteristics of deer over several thousands of years. But that doesn't happened. Does it mean the tiger memory is more complex than deer so imprint of memory of deer will not happen on tiger or lion?
ReplyDeleteJagadish aka Jaggi aka SadGuru says that eating fish is okay as it is in water. CRAP !!!
ReplyDeleteMy Dear Anonymous, he very clearly uses a big "If", when it comes to eating fish. It is for those people, who cannot live without eating non-veg. Otherwise for practitioners of yoga, will not even eat fish because the alimentary canal has to stay empty for the beneficial effect to take place in yoga.
DeleteDon't be on a hurry to pass on judgement, before understanding. Use your brains a little.
Jaggi "sadhguru" eats fish.
DeleteAs you see here http://wap.business-standard.com/article/opinion/lunch-with-bs-sadhguru-jaggi-vasudev-114121201397_1.html he eats Fish which means he isn't driven by the concerns of yours...
Delete