Following the verse about Satvik food in the Bhagwat Geeta (that I talked of in the last post) is the following verse about Rajasik food:
kaṭv-amla-lavaṇātyuṣṇa
-tīkṣṇa-rūkṣa-vidāhinaḥ |
āhārā rājasasyeṣṭā
duḥkha-śokāmaya-pradāḥ
Bitter-Sour-Salty Hot excessively so
-Spicy-Dry-Sharp to the tongue
are foods palatable to (those living in the mode of) passion
and they yield sorrow, distress & disillusionment.
Its interesting how easily this verse can be interpreted differently by different translators. The purport of this line is obviously that our preference for foods is a reflection of our state of mind and not the other way around. While it is true that the food we eat makes up and fuels our mind and body, the food we eat need not be directly responsible for the state of our mind, unless we have decided to starve ourself or overeat by choice or misinterpret the truth about healthy eating.
Rajasik foods surely satisfy our tastebuds and other senses more than foods which lack the rajo guna but at the end of the day, the main purpose of food is only to nourish the body. We live in an age where food is big business and we associate tastes with pleasure or pain. We have learnt to feed all our mundane desires with a something that can be chewed or swallowed. Yup everytime your mind creates a desire, your jathar agni is fired. If we feed it, those desires will go away for a while only to return back later, if you do not feed them, they die.
Nowhere does the Bhagwat Geeta mention that we must avoid rajasik food and eat only specific foods inorder to remain sane or healthy. Infact the entire Bhagwat Geeta is spoken in a very factual language without any judgements. The judgements come from the translators or consumers of information.
Rajas is as important as Sattva and Tamas. The key is to acknowledge and accept the truth. It is not Rajasik foods that are the direct cause of our sorrows and miseries. And the remorse and dissapointment talked about here are the natural outcomes of more rajas than one requires (if that is an appropriate way to describe the verse).
So here is another recipe of that what I call a balanced meal. Pahadi Channa Madra.
This Channa madra is prepared in a very simple way without using onion garlic and ginger as I feel there is enough flavor and palatibility without them too.
Its a very simple and easy to put togeather dish with minimal ingredients and yet so hearty and pleasant.
I decided to use sprouted channa but just soaked will work too. Different people, different preferences.
Here's what you need:
1/2 Cup Chickpeas, soaked overnight (sprouted if prefered) and pressure cooked untill soft.
1 Cup Yogurt
1 tsp Pahadi Spice Mix
Sendha namak
3-4 pcs of Star aniseed
2-3 tsp of mustard oil
And heres what you do:
In a bowl, add the yogurt and spice mixture. Mix and set it aside for some time.
Add salt to the pressure cooked chickpeas and allow it to boil for a few minutes.
Meanwhile heat mustard oil in a kadai till it smokes. Switch off the flame and allow it to cool, repeat if required (I do this so the pungent smell of the oil is reduced.
Now heat the oil and add the star aniseed. Mix as it sizzles. Quickly add the yogurt mixture and stir continuously to avoid curdling. When the gravy seems to have come togeather well, switch off the flame of the boiling chickpeas and add it to the curd mixture with the water. Mix again and allow it to cook for some more time covered.
Once the gravy seems to have thickened a little, switch off the flame and cover. The gravy thickens as it rests.
Serve hot!
Now heres why you do what you do:
The same dish can be prepared using ghee instead of mustard oil if one prefers it that way. They say ghee is more sattvik and cooling in potency while mustard oil is Rajasik and heating in potency.
But the attributes of Sattva Rajas and Tamas can not be understood as qualities of specific ingredients. Fresh and healthy ingredients have sattva guna with a little bit of rajas. And as it grows old, the tamasic qualities within it increases. The best way to understand it is that foods that are alive are sattvik while foods that are capable of changing or decaying are rajasik while foods that are dead are tamasik. And we can train our tastebuds to accept what life demands of us or become a slave to the ways of the world and live in ignorance of the science or truth. In that context, consumption of Rajasik foods help us keep our bodies flexible and adaptable to change. A change that can either help us maintain our basic nature and instincts or let go of what is not required. The change can also make us cling too long to what is not required or let go of what we need the most. We are a product of the choices we make for ourselves. The food we choose to eat is only one aspect of the choices we have to make.
kaṭv-amla-lavaṇātyuṣṇa
-tīkṣṇa-rūkṣa-vidāhinaḥ |
āhārā rājasasyeṣṭā
duḥkha-śokāmaya-pradāḥ
Bitter-Sour-Salty Hot excessively so
-Spicy-Dry-Sharp to the tongue
are foods palatable to (those living in the mode of) passion
and they yield sorrow, distress & disillusionment.
Its interesting how easily this verse can be interpreted differently by different translators. The purport of this line is obviously that our preference for foods is a reflection of our state of mind and not the other way around. While it is true that the food we eat makes up and fuels our mind and body, the food we eat need not be directly responsible for the state of our mind, unless we have decided to starve ourself or overeat by choice or misinterpret the truth about healthy eating.
Rajasik foods surely satisfy our tastebuds and other senses more than foods which lack the rajo guna but at the end of the day, the main purpose of food is only to nourish the body. We live in an age where food is big business and we associate tastes with pleasure or pain. We have learnt to feed all our mundane desires with a something that can be chewed or swallowed. Yup everytime your mind creates a desire, your jathar agni is fired. If we feed it, those desires will go away for a while only to return back later, if you do not feed them, they die.
Nowhere does the Bhagwat Geeta mention that we must avoid rajasik food and eat only specific foods inorder to remain sane or healthy. Infact the entire Bhagwat Geeta is spoken in a very factual language without any judgements. The judgements come from the translators or consumers of information.
Rajas is as important as Sattva and Tamas. The key is to acknowledge and accept the truth. It is not Rajasik foods that are the direct cause of our sorrows and miseries. And the remorse and dissapointment talked about here are the natural outcomes of more rajas than one requires (if that is an appropriate way to describe the verse).
So here is another recipe of that what I call a balanced meal. Pahadi Channa Madra.
This Channa madra is prepared in a very simple way without using onion garlic and ginger as I feel there is enough flavor and palatibility without them too.
Its a very simple and easy to put togeather dish with minimal ingredients and yet so hearty and pleasant.
I decided to use sprouted channa but just soaked will work too. Different people, different preferences.
Here's what you need:
1/2 Cup Chickpeas, soaked overnight (sprouted if prefered) and pressure cooked untill soft.
1 Cup Yogurt
1 tsp Pahadi Spice Mix
Sendha namak
3-4 pcs of Star aniseed
2-3 tsp of mustard oil
And heres what you do:
In a bowl, add the yogurt and spice mixture. Mix and set it aside for some time.
Add salt to the pressure cooked chickpeas and allow it to boil for a few minutes.
Meanwhile heat mustard oil in a kadai till it smokes. Switch off the flame and allow it to cool, repeat if required (I do this so the pungent smell of the oil is reduced.
Now heat the oil and add the star aniseed. Mix as it sizzles. Quickly add the yogurt mixture and stir continuously to avoid curdling. When the gravy seems to have come togeather well, switch off the flame of the boiling chickpeas and add it to the curd mixture with the water. Mix again and allow it to cook for some more time covered.
Once the gravy seems to have thickened a little, switch off the flame and cover. The gravy thickens as it rests.
Serve hot!
Now heres why you do what you do:
The same dish can be prepared using ghee instead of mustard oil if one prefers it that way. They say ghee is more sattvik and cooling in potency while mustard oil is Rajasik and heating in potency.
But the attributes of Sattva Rajas and Tamas can not be understood as qualities of specific ingredients. Fresh and healthy ingredients have sattva guna with a little bit of rajas. And as it grows old, the tamasic qualities within it increases. The best way to understand it is that foods that are alive are sattvik while foods that are capable of changing or decaying are rajasik while foods that are dead are tamasik. And we can train our tastebuds to accept what life demands of us or become a slave to the ways of the world and live in ignorance of the science or truth. In that context, consumption of Rajasik foods help us keep our bodies flexible and adaptable to change. A change that can either help us maintain our basic nature and instincts or let go of what is not required. The change can also make us cling too long to what is not required or let go of what we need the most. We are a product of the choices we make for ourselves. The food we choose to eat is only one aspect of the choices we have to make.
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