Can sick devotees adopt a diet of only raw foods if it improves their health?

Hare Krishna question, can devotees take totally uncooked food as a diet for health improvement if they are very sick now I have tried this diet and it has helped me enormously but then those who advocate raw food they also strongly criticise cooked food and especially opulently cooked food and often that is the kind of cooking that happens in devotional service so when these people are so critical of devotional food, can we adopt their method, their therapy if it is if it helps our health and other methods don't work for improving the health answer there are two different issues sets of issues you shouldn't confuse one is knowledge about the material world and knowledge about the spiritual world second is knowledge for individual application and knowledge for public recommendation so let me explain this, first is that when we talk about scriptural knowledge the essential message of scripture is transcendental it talks about how we as souls can develop love for Krishna and how that is to be done that is the primary message of scripture now secondarily the scripture may talk also about a particular culture, particular food habits, particular dress, particular language particular set of things which may in certain situations be considered ideal but are they mandatory for the growth of bhakti, for example scriptures may talk about say the Bengali food, the Vraja foods but say somebody is living in America, can that person chant Hare Krishna and eat American food offered to Krishna of course and develop love for Krishna yes surely they can so similarly for example scripture mostly talks in either for Gaudiya Vaishnava it's in Bengali or overall in English it is Sanskrit so now can someone who knows neither of these languages somebody who is say born in South Africa, in South America and he knows only the local languages, can such a person develop love of God yes that person understands the philosophy practices devotional service, even without knowing the language one can develop love of God so Prabhupada himself was quite clear that one doesn't need to learn Sanskrit to develop love of God, of course if somebody has intellectual capacity they can learn, so the point here is that there is a clear difference between material and spiritual and the material is not essential for the spiritual although certain material things may be favorable Sanskrit language itself is Deva Bhasha so learning it is favorable in many ways similarly the traditional Vedic food, the traditional dress the traditional way of living may be favorable but it is not essential for everyone to develop love for Krishna so when scripture gives us certain material injunctions or material knowledge that can be adjusted according to time, place, circumstance whether we apply it or not, for example one of the Vedangas is Ayurveda so now is it that if somebody becomes a devotee that person has to give up allopathy and only take medicine from Ayurveda and practice Ayurveda no the time, place, circumstance is different today and Ayurveda works very good for people who are overall living a sattvic life or are ready to live a sattvic life but for those who are not that may not work and there may not be very qualified Ayurvedic practitioners also right now so there are people who took allopathic treatment got cured and there are many allopathic doctors also who are serious devotees so just as Ayurveda may be preferred, Prabhupada was pragmatic Prabhupada took Ayurvedic treatment in general but when there were emergencies he at one time did a surgery which was allopathic surgery so he did it in a hospital in London so Prabhupada was pragmatic ok this body is material, it has to be used in Krishna's service so fix it up in whatever way is possible so we don't have to reject the material side of scripture but we don't have to insist on it either also we have to be pragmatic, pragmatic is practical about that side so similarly with respect to food so now the traditional foods from India may not be just digestible or suitable for people who are from other parts of the world and they may just offer the food that they traditionally eat to Krishna and take that and still they can make future advancements so just as there can be variety of diet based on the geographical location and geographical background of the practitioners similarly it can vary based on one's individual nature one's individual nature means I am talking about physical constitution so if some devotees have a sickly body and they find that a simple food especially raw food in particular is what nourishes them and if it works then that's fine that devotee needn't think that I am not following scripture by eating this kind of food no there is always room at least at the material level for improvisation and adjustment according to time, place, circumstance so there is no need to feel insecure or worried if we find that a particular kind of diet say as a raw food it works for us now certainly actually raw food is far more Vedic than say pizzas or chowmins or many of these foods, there is no mention of them at all in the Vedic scriptures but raw food was a standard food for yogis who would live in the forest they would eat kandamon, they would just take some leaves and some roots and some fruits so they were eating all raw so that is actually a serious yogi's diet and in that sense there is nothing to feel uncomfortable about taking that, of course if it truly improves our health and if it can sustain it then wonderful, go ahead with that now there has to be some precaution of course, one shouldn't become proud thinking that oh I am leading a austere life and others are eating so opulently, they are all sense gratifiers because we shouldn't think like that because pride is the enemy of bhakti and what is important in bhakti is not what we eat primarily, it is what our overall disposition is what we eat does contribute to our overall disposition but it's our austerity is not the barometer of our advancement, our dedication to Krishna our commitment to Krishna is the barometer of our advancement, so now moving forward with respect to criticism which such systems may do of cooked food, actually every system of thought in this world has these different parameters, sides to it one is it promotes itself and in order to promote itself it will criticize competing schools of thought now we don't have to take that criticism very seriously so everything that we do especially in the material world we do it with the attitude of looking for the best that look for even gold in filth certainly lifestyle of simple living, high thinking is not filth but the point is anything that is not in harmony with scripture we have to be cautious about it so if we find something good in it if something works for us well and good so for example allopathy is also accompanied with a reductionistic world view now as devotees we don't accept that reductionistic world view that biology can be explained in terms of physics and chemistry that life arises eventually from chemicals but we don't accept that but we take whatever practical benefits that are offered by allopathy which is based on biology and we neglect the other part so similarly we can neglect the other part where there is criticism of the traditional forms of cooking now the thing is that in some cases some cooking might be opulent too opulent also it's possible this brings me to the second part of the answer what is the individual suited and what is to be socially recommended different people are of different natures Chetan Charita Amrit has a wide variety where Raghunath Das Goswami would take just a little bit of buttermilk once in 2-3 days and he is glorified and similarly he is glorified not just for his renunciation but for the devotion to Krishna that kept him so satisfied that he did not feel any need for food and even this much food was enough for him because of that and similarly there are descriptions in the Chetan Charita Amrit especially in the Chetanapur stay in Puri and even in Mayapur that where devotees would feed each other and devotees would decide whether they ate up to their neck and this was not considered as gratification this was considered as devotees expressing their love for each other and out of their love they are eating and they are feeding each other so that is also there in the devotional culture now which model one wants to follow that is up to a particular individual if others want to follow the other model that's not wrong if devotees want to eat opulent food does that mean that they are not serious devotees that they are not qualified for practicing devotional service not at all everyone is qualified now we need to recognize that Bhakti scriptures have given certain standards and they are what are recommended for people in general but for certain devotees with certain physical issues if certain diet helps they can take that but they don't have to go on a campaign to recommend that as the standard diet and we don't have to go on a campaign for for changing the Bhakti culture per se Bhakti culture does involve cooking as a integral part of it cooking delicious food offering delicious food and there is also the point that we should offer that to Krishna and in a prayerful mood frame of mind we take that if we take it prayerfully then naturally we will not eat excessively so because we will be remembering Krishna we will be relishing Krishna and therefore we will not feel the need for more and more food than what is necessary for the body so there is a whole process within the Bhakti culture itself to purify devotees of the tendency to overeat and that involves the progressive purification that comes by connecting with Krishna through Prasad so we let that process work for devotees gradually and the Bhakti culture is a does also have the concern for bodily health but that is not the exclusive concern as happens in many health systems so there is a higher life beyond the body and we want to live in this world in a way that we will be developing the love for Krishna through practicing Bhakti and going back to that so Bhakti culture is geared towards that purpose and we need to recognize that purpose and realize that purpose is important and then we will be able to harmonize whatever we need to practice individually at the material level with what is taught in the scripture at a social or a broad public level so there is no need to create any conflict either in our minds or in the devotee community whatever works for us materially we can do it and we benefit from it if somebody specifically asks us and somebody is facing similar health problems we can talk about it but it is not that within the devotional culture we have to become campaigners for a particular kind of dietary system nor do we have to just reject that dietary system because that is not talked about in the devotional culture even if that rejection makes us, keeps us sick and doesn't allow us to improve health so do whatever is required for the body and focus on serving Krishna. Thank you.