How to eat

In this post I will tell people how to eat, i.e. rules of eating. Now on reading this there is nothing to feel bad. Everybody knows but a few follow. This post is a refresher.

I know of person in Department of Pharmacology, GMC, Mumbai, who claims to have fantastic ideas, & who finds ways to educate people on how to remove diseases from the root. He holds two views & both the views are like two sides of a sword. But no one can eliminate diseases from the roots just by ideas, lecturing  or rather just writing something on a blog. But I have read something interesting in a book called AYURVEDA ---- LIFE, HEALTH & LONGEVITY, by ROBERT E. SVOBODA.

Students have a craze to become doctors & that too only Allopathy, because there is a craze about the 4 letters, MBBS but people fail to realize that every person, atleast in India, practicises Ayurveda. One does not have to become an Ayurvedic doctor for that & nowadays it is difficult to find a good Ayurvedic Vaidya.

Charaka writes, "Even food, which is the life of living creatures, if taken in an improper manner destroyes life, while poison which by nature is destructive of life, if taken in the proper manner acts as an elixir."

Here are some points which I read in the above mentioned book, which are charaka's fundamentals for eating.

• Eat heated food to stimulate digestion.
• Eat unctuous food, which excites the digestive fire & nourishes the body.
• Eat properly combined food in due measure after digestion of the previous meal, so that there is free passage of all substances.
• Eat in a congenial, quiet place with all necessary 'accessories' (clean tablecloth, flowers etc), either alone or with affectionate people so that the mind is not depressed (eating, excreting, sex & meditation should always be performed in private).
• Eat neither hurriedly nor leisurely, so you may appreciate the good or the bad qualities of the food you are eating, & so that the gait of the food as it moves through the digestive tract will be proper.
• Eat without laughing or talking, with concentration, considering your constitution & what is good or not good for you as you eat it.
• Do not eat when you are not hungry, & do not fail to eat when you are hungry. Do not eat when you are angry, depressed, or otherwise emotionally distraught, or immediately after exertion.
• Keep as large a gap as possible between meals.
• Sit to eat, whenever possible facing the east.
• When possible, ensure that your right nostril is functioning.
• Pray, thanking the Creator for the food you are offering into your digestive fire. Reverence for everything in the universe is healthiest of all attributes to life, & food is the universe sacrificing itself to you.
• Never cook for yourself alone, the gift of food is the best gift of all. In India it was once & still common to make a five fold offering of food before eating: to the home fire, a cow, a crow, a dog & a stranger.
• Feed all five senses: look at the food & appreciate its appearance & aroma before you begin; listen to the sounds it makes, especially while cooking; eat with your hands so that you can enjoy its texture; chew each morsel repeatedly, to thoroughly extract its flavor. Feel reverence & love for it, because it is   soon to become a part of you, & the emotional charge that you apply to it will be carried by it deep into your tissues.
• Stroll about a hundred steps after a meal, to assist the digestive process, but do not exercise, enjoy sex, study or sleep within an hour of eating. You may, however, relax, lying on your left side to encourage the functioning of the right nostril, which will encourage good digestion.
• Do not heavy or kapha - producing food like yogurt & sesame after sunset, & nothing at night within two hours of going to bed.
• Never waste food.  

Hence, for a healthy life follow the above rules & be natural naturally.