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Yoga and Vegetarianism
Posted on
Thursday, October 18, 2007
by DSLR MASTER
Yoga and Vegetarianism
It may be observed that many Yogis in India staunchly advocate that practitioners take only vegetarian food. Yogis consider wilful adoption of a vegetarian diet implies a moral act that strengthens control over oneself in the first instance and then over one's environment. This need for exercising self-control arises only in the case of born non-vegetarians and not for born vegetarians. Hence it facilitates vegetarians practising Yoga
without exercising any self-control, whereas many non-vegetarians feel hesitant to practise Yoga as long as they continue to eat non-vegetarian food.
In the past, vegetarianism evolved as an Indian philosophy based purely on the principle of Ahimsa, which is one of the tenets of Raja Yoga. Thus, vegetarianism becomes not a mere dietetic principle but a religious doctrine.
Here, the words of Swami Vivekananda, a noted exponent of Yoga, are worth quoting:
"The test of Ahimsa is absence of jealousy. Any man may do a good deed or make a good gift on the spur of the moment, or under the pressure of some superstition or priest craft, but the real lover of mankind is he who is jealous of none. The so-called great man of the world may all be seen to become jealous of each other for a small name, for a little fame and for a few bits of gold. So long as this jealousy exists in a heart, it is far away from the perfection of Ahimsa. The cow does not eat meat nor does the sheep. Are they great Yogis, great non-injurers (Ahimsakas)? Any fool may abstain from eating this or that; surely that gives him no more distinction than to herbivorous animals. The man who will mercilessly cheat widows and orphans, and do the vilest deeds for money is worse than any brute even if he lives entirely on grass. The man whose heart never cherishes even the thought of injury to anyone, who rejoices at the prosperity of even his greatest enemy, thai man is the Bhakta, he is the Yogi, he is the Guru of all, even though he lives every day of his life on the flesh of swine. Therefore, we must always remember that external practices have value only as it helps to develop internal purity. It is better to have internal purity alone, when attention to external observances is not practicable. But woe unto the man and woe unto the nation that forgets the real, internal, spiritual essentials of religion and mechanically clutches with death-like grasp at all external forms and never lets them go. The forms have value only so far as they are expressions of the life, within. If they have ceased to express life, crush them out without mercy."
From the above words of Swami Vivekananda, we may now understand that vegetarianism is only an external practice, which does not have much relevance to the real practise of Yoga.
Many non-vegetarians are hesitant to practise Yoga believing that non-vegetarian diet coupled with the practise of Yoga would harm their health. There is no scientific evidence to prove this. The practitioner of Yoga is always advised to be moderate in everything. The Bhagavad Gita states:
"Yoga is not possible for him who eats too much or for him who abstains too much from eating; it is not for him who sleeps too much or too little. For him who is moderate in eating and recreation, temperate in his actions, who is regulated in sleep and wakefulness."
Therefore, it is not the type of food that one takes but the manner and attitude with which it is taken that is of paramount importance. However, it may be stressed that the practitioner of Yoga should always have proper control over food habits. Do also remember that we eat to live and not live to eat.
posted by DSLR MASTER @ 12:44 AM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
Vivekananda's views seem to be onesided. He had a bias against vegetarian food. Consequently, he himself suffered from dyspepsia.
Controlling the tongue (jihva) (both tastes and speech) is an inseparable part of patanjali yoga eight fold path. These come under both "samam" and "damam".
To have a look of the second side of Vivekananda:
vivekanandayb.blogspot.com
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