How is it that food affects our consciousness?
Harish
Johari:
Food is the first essential part of our life,
annamayi
kosha. The first stage of realization of the nature of
reality involves understanding our relationship with food.
Without food, prana (breath) will not work,
nor manas
(mind), nor jnana (intelligence). Psychic make-up depends
upon body chemistry and body chemistry is directly influenced
by food input. Food is not just fuel for our bodies - it is
as much alive as we are.
Food is also a medium through which one person's
feelings can be transferred to another. In our country we
say that food prepared by one's mother can satisfy the child
more than the same food prepared by another. Certain foods
will create a particular consciousness and another's consciousness
can be transferred through prepared food. The body has both
the physiological side and the emotional side and food affects
both.
If you eat saffron
yoghurt for a few days you will feel happy. Whenever I
have groups of 20 or 30 people in a workshop, I use fenugreek
because it is a regenerator. It also gives inspiration and
joy. I can prepare food of such type that upon taking it a
man will run like a horse for sex. Or I can cook food such
that upon eating it one will feel calm and become quiet.
This is all a question of knowing the art of
spicing. Some spices are hot, while some have a cooling effect
upon the body. One must know how to mix them properly to cause
different effects. Spices are very important. After all, if
it weren't for spices, America might never have been discovered.
