Gulf News, 02-07-10: Going bananas: Reaping the fruits of life. Video Editor Jaye Lentin and his wife have been on a raw food vegan diet for more than a year. Do their lifestyle and large intake of sugary fruits have any adverse effects on their bodies?
By the article itself, GN relates 'effects on their bodies' to effect on health. According to WHO, Health is a state of complete, physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease. This forms the premise of, probably the most important blog I have written so far.
I lived in the US for three years, starting Fall 2000. I led an incredibly solitary life there, shuttling between Salt Lake City and Seattle. By solitary I do not mean abandoned or ostracised, but rather, insulated from what I wanted to be insulated from, and isolated from what I wanted to isolate myself from. This was also the period of my spiritual rebirth.
During this period, I have had the strongest connection with the Cosmic Spirit that subsumes and consumes us all. Here, time and space are as relative as anything else you find relative. Clairvoyance and clairsentience become part of your sensory armour without you knowing they even existed. I dreamt of the 9/11 attack the morning it happened. I dreamt of the New York plane crash two months later. These are major incidents. Many minor incidents would flash to the mind's eye before they happened. I dreamt of my grandmother's passing on a week before it took place. I would have the Avatar's Dream almost every week. I dreamt of Jesus twice. And as the greatest spiritual celebration of my life, I had a vision of Krishna one night in my bedroom, when I was far from asleep. Although it lasted for maybe 2 seconds, these seconds constitute the greatest temporal embellishment of my life.
Now, how does all this relate to Going Bananas? You are what you eat. What you eat is not just from the mouth alone. During these years, I ate bland, tasteless food. I was vegan. Vegetables were half-cooked. I abjured salt, spice, sugar, chilli and anything that would even marginally titillate the tongue. Not just that. I lived on a very spiritual diet. TV was minimal or non-existent. I meditated twice a day. I read spiritual books. I detached myself from everything else. And so, what all happened then, happened then.
When the food that you take in through the five senses is sathwic, your antennas get detoxed, and therefore, you can connect. But everything has to start from the 10% of the tongue where the taste-buds of delusion lie. Once everything reaches the stomach, it's one mass of mashed everything. But how many of us would like to think so? My personal experience is testament to the eternal truth that you are what you eat.
Disclaimer: To distress you no further, I am no longer an Aumnivore and back to my herbivorous ways now. I am not single any more, and we live as one big mingling family now. It is difficult for my to emphasise my vegan point of view to a vegetarian home. Besides, I am no longer insulated and isolated, and back to the sewer of the material morass. So, no more visions and other esoteric situations.
Then again, head in the forest and hands in sick society. One should do what one can, in spite of one's situation. And go bananas when no one is watching! P.
Gulf News, 02-07-10: Going bananas: Reaping the fruits of life. Video Editor Jaye Lentin and his wife have been on a raw food vegan diet for more than a year. Do their lifestyle and large intake of sugary fruits have any adverse effects on their bodies?
By the article itself, GN relates 'effects on their bodies' to effect on health. According to WHO, Health is a state of complete, physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease. This forms the premise of, probably the most important blog I have written so far.
I lived in the US for three years, starting Fall 2000. I led an incredibly solitary life there, shuttling between Salt Lake City and Seattle. By solitary I do not mean abandoned or ostracised, but rather, insulated from what I wanted to be insulated from, and isolated from what I wanted to isolate myself from. This was also the period of my spiritual rebirth.
During this period, I have had the strongest connection with the Cosmic Spirit that subsumes and consumes us all. Here, time and space are as relative as anything else you find relative. Clairvoyance and clairsentience become part of your sensory armour without you knowing they even existed. I dreamt of the 9/11 attack the morning it happened. I dreamt of the New York plane crash two months later. These are major incidents. Many minor incidents would flash to the mind's eye before they happened. I dreamt of my grandmother's passing on a week before it took place. I would have the Avatar's Dream almost every week. I dreamt of Jesus twice. And as the greatest spiritual celebration of my life, I had a vision of Krishna one night in my bedroom, when I was far from asleep. Although it lasted for maybe 2 seconds, these seconds constitute the greatest temporal embellishment of my life.
Now, how does all this relate to Going Bananas? You are what you eat. What you eat is not just from the mouth alone. During these years, I ate bland, tasteless food. I was vegan. Vegetables were half-cooked. I abjured salt, spice, sugar, chilli and anything that would even marginally titillate the tongue. Not just that. I lived on a very spiritual diet. TV was minimal or non-existent. I meditated twice a day. I read spiritual books. I detached myself from everything else. And so, what all happened then, happened then.
When the food that you take in through the five senses is sathwic, your antennas get detoxed, and therefore, you can connect. But everything has to start from the 10% of the tongue where the taste-buds of delusion lie. Once everything reaches the stomach, it's one mass of mashed everything. But how many of us would like to think so? My personal experience is testament to the eternal truth that you are what you eat.
Disclaimer: To distress you no further, I am no longer an Aumnivore and back to my herbivorous ways now. I am not single any more, and we live as one big mingling family now. It is difficult for my to emphasise my vegan point of view to a vegetarian home. Besides, I am no longer insulated and isolated, and back to the sewer of the material morass. So, no more visions and other esoteric situations.
Then again, head in the forest and hands in sick society. One should do what one can, in spite of one's situation. And go bananas when no one is watching! P.
Praveen, it is very interesting to read the extent of your spiritual blessedness whilst you were in the US.You are no ordinary soul. Which makes me wonder- what are you doing here? Here meaning ..our fraternity of humble immortals!
ReplyDeleteAgree with you- we are what we eat. And spiritual beatitude is not only contingent upon discipline and control over tongue (and diet) but also over mind, sleep, breath and body. However, the Lord’s grace, in the form of any these clairvoyant and telepathic trinkets, even though one would expect to deserve after the exercise of any or all of the above discipline and control, can surprisingly occur despite it.
I am now leading a life which appears, for good measure, as having been abandoned, ostracized and isolated from the company of humble immortals and I can vouch for one thing- There cannot be anyone more selfish in love than Him. It is not by accident that I have begun to realize that in the network of connections that one wanted to establish with Him through many of his creations (including the immortals), He is interested in just one subscriber! And surprisingly the isolation has slowly restored shades of erstwhile telephonic and telepathic network connections, that I too enjoyed with Him, the Sole service provider, in my younger days!
I am not recommending Isolation and Abandonment but restatement and reiteration of priorities-"...Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you…"
Sir, in all candour, I am worse off than many of you.
ReplyDeleteIn the mode of Sanyasam, all paranormal experiences seem ordinary solely because there is no other focus to life. However, Sanyasam is the easy way out.
In this life of personal and professional Grihastam, where one fires employees, buys roses, watches movies, and generally substitutes worship for work, will there be sufficient spiritual bandwidth for the Connection? It has not happened for me with such intensity post US, but then, I cannot expect to have dessert for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I guess the easy path out was not for me, if not out of choice.
Praveen, Spirituality behoves us not to belittle ourselves and undermine our divine potential. You are not worse off than anybody. A blade of grace has an important role in this mayic spectacle- souls like you are crucial and indispensible for the divine soap opera.
ReplyDeleteThe pinnacle of human experience is not in paranormal experiences but in Divine Love
Paranormal experiences only satify the ego- the wave- Divine Love satifies the Lord - the ocean
Divine Love is only giving. Our true human purpose is achieved when we learn the art of giving- give everthing- to our family, to our community, to our nation, to this universe, to the Divine.
When we have nothing to give we can give ourselves to the divine! We can watch movies, we can fire employees and engage in all the humdrum and monotony of life but we should offer them to the lord! When we offer ourselves to the Divine, the offering will become perfect, every act of ours becomes perfect. The Lord does not accept stale flowers from us - He wants the best and the most fresh and fragrant flowers from us. Similarily, when we offer all our actions to him, the Lord will ensure we blossom as fresh flowers worthy enough of the offering to Him!
In Hinduism, we are expected to end our prayers with- Kayena vacha manasendriyairva Buddhyatmana va prakrite swabhavath Karoomi yadyad sakalam parasmai Narayanayeti samarpayami
Whatever I do with my mind, body, speech or with other senses of my body, Or with my intellect or with my innate natural tendencies(the Gunas!) I offer everything to Narayana