Gita 17.09 Food in passion is is sensually stimulating but eventually distressing and disease-inducing.mp3

Transcript

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thank you Dukkha Shoka Maya Pradaha here Krishna is continuing the description of the food in the three modes this verse describes food in the mode of passion the previous verse described food in the mode of goodness and the 10th verse will describe food in the mode of ignorance Katva, Amla, Lavana, Tyoshna so here the sensations that are produced with the food they are too intense food has various tastes some is bitter some is astringent some is sweet some is spicy now if any food is excessive in that Atyushna, if it is extremely hot burning, pungent extremely dry whatever it causes burning Dukkha Shoka Maya Pradaha so basically we discussed how food is meant for nutrition and satisfaction satisfaction or if we use the word pleasure which is more appropriate in this context can be of different kinds just like when a person is tickled also they feel some pleasure but that is just sensations it comes and it goes, it doesn’t last for long so sometimes people want too much sensations just hungry for sensations loud noisy music there the tune and skill is not as important as the audio impact of the loudness of the noise so either way the point remains that it is not easy to resist the urges especially when one is habituated to them so when one bombards the ears with loud sound as a means to stimulation then the ears often in some time start getting deadened to softer sounds and they start getting even weakened the hearing capacity goes down because one is being exposed to hearing again and again so similarly if we strive to bombard our senses with respect to the tongue in this context with too much sensation with food that is extremely stimulating in terms of the taste then the tongue is not meant for that purpose so the result is Dukha Shokamaya Pradaha Dukha is distress Shoka is lamentation Amaya is disease this is actually the opposite of the result of the food in the mood of goodness Aayu Sattvala Aarogya Aarogya and Amaya these two are opposite Aarogya is health, Amaya is disease Sukha Preeti Vivardhanaha here is Dukha Shokamaya Pradaha Pradaha that is what they give some food that is extremely stimulating that creates excessive craving also so Shoka sometimes when people eat food they go through various emotional turbulences highs and lows emotional roller coasters at one level when the urge hits for the food then they are craving, craving, craving I want this and because it is driven by sensations and the more we subject ourselves to certain sensations the more those sensations start demanding from us and then the more difficult it is to say no to them the more difficult it is to move on in spite of those sensations so we start craving for them then we start slaving for them and then after we indulge in them then there is lamentation the lamentation can be if our intelligence and our determination are mostly deadened then we will lament why the pleasure got over if our intelligence is a little active then also our lower side may turn us around and make us beat ourselves why were you so foolish as to indulge in that so either way the intelligence makes us so either way there also we suffer why did you eat so much, why did you eat so much the resolve not to eat is to some extent being upset with ourselves if we have done something wrong is good but staying in the past beating ourselves up for what we have done is not healthy we need to move on with life many times the food we eat is the cause of many of our diseases to an extent that many people poison themselves with their own spoons and forks at their kitchen tables disease can happen because of various causes sometimes the environment itself may be filled with some infectants, sometimes the body itself may have some weaknesses which makes it vulnerable to those external influences or in general to disease but apart from these environmental and physical causes biological causes we could say that there is also a volitional cause the way we eat and the way we conduct ourselves is often a cause of great diseases so one obvious example is of course obesity wherein we are driven by our lower urges to eat more than necessary and then we end up obese which too subjects us to a wide variety of distresses or it makes us vulnerable to many more pains and problems so if we have to deal with this if we understand that the food that we are eating is defeating the purpose that it is neither providing satisfaction it provides some stimulation or titillation but stimulation or titillation doesn’t bring satisfaction, it only brings increased agitation for further stimulation or it gives agitation at the stimulation itself so agitation for the stimulation means that we crave for it more and more agitation at the stimulation can mean that we become irritated with ourselves for having got that craving we have some intelligence by which we understand that it is not good for us and so we want to say no to it but we find that the craving is way too strong and saying no is impossible and thus we end up agitated at the craving so thus we all are subject to various kinds of illusions and especially with respect to food these illusions can become difficult to manage because if we consider various pleasures that people consider enjoyable say smoking, drinking taking drugs those are not biological necessities in fact they are biological hazards with respect to food it is a physical necessity which can also become a physical hazard so we cannot deal with food through rejection we have to deal with it through regulation and that regulation requires keeping the purpose in mind it is like somebody if they have met with some driving accidents while driving a car then they say I will just not drive at all now it may be possible that they can always ask somebody else to drive them or hire a cab but that is not an option they themselves have to drive so when rejection is not possible you cannot avoid driving then regulation is called for they have to make sure that they drive and they drive along the proper road without letting themselves get diverted into some other lane or onto the curve so now that regulation requires not just attention to stay in the right lane it also requires purpose to the extent the purpose is clear ok I have to go to this place to that extent they can choose wisely and they can get to the right destination if that kind of regulation does not work then that is primarily because there is no attention to the path or to the destination similarly if we see eating in terms of its purpose we want we want health, we want nutrition we want of course satisfaction also we don’t want to deliberately eat unpalatable foods the food can be pleasing, that’s great but if we can keep the purpose in mind then we move onwards towards that purpose by intelligently choosing what to eat and how much to eat so passion is often characterized by a distortion of perspective and that’s why at least if not in the heat of eating at other times if we have calmly contemplated what our ideal weight is what hour, how much diet we need to take and how we can deal with situations when we are externally prompted or internally tempted to eat more then that contemplation in the good of goodness is like planning when we are driving, what to do when certain terms come or other situations come when we are off course if we are well planned then we will be able to deal with those situations and move on towards the desired destination similarly by using some contemplation in the mood of goodness to plan our food we can choose it in such a way that it promotes arogya not amaya, it promotes health