How do people who eat onion-garlic still seem to be in goodness?
From: Panca pandava das
many saints while performing devotional service they avoid onion garlic to free from passion and ignorance like anger, etc. But I have seen such person also they are eating and they are like in goodness and even doctor recommend.pls light on this point.
Transcript
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Question from Pancha Panda Prapu Many saints while performing devotional service avoid onion and garlic to be free from passion exuberance. But I have seen that even those people who eat onion and garlic still act as if they are in goodness. And even doctors recommend this for good health.
So please throw light on this point. First answer, the influence of the modes is complex. And it is not that one particular element will totally determine a particular mode in a person.
So the food items like onion and garlic do themselves lead us towards exuberance and to passion. But we also have to see what other activities is a person doing. If the remaining activities of a person are in the mode of goodness or somewhere near the mode of goodness, then those remaining activities may minimize the influence of this.
So onion and garlic are tamasic. They drive us towards the mode of ignorance. But the complex combination of various factors and various lifestyle elements that each one of us has determines what kind of mode we will be in.
So yes, some people may even eat meat and seem to be in goodness. That is because their remaining lifestyle might be more regulated. And maybe because in past life they have been in goodness, so that influence of goodness might continue now.
So when we are choosing a particular lifestyle and dietary choices, we may or may not see the changes immediately. Just like a person may start adopting the lifestyle of goodness and may still feel the influence of passion because of the past momentum of a passionate lifestyle. Similarly, some people may have been in goodness in the past and despite doing passionate activities now, the past momentum of goodness may continue for some time.
So the effect of the guna is subtle and we may not perceive it immediately. But even if it is subtle, it is not escapable. So the effect will be there.
And those people who are in goodness, even after eating onion and garlic, they would have been in much more goodness if they had not eaten onion and garlic. And as devotees, we focus on avoiding those factors which would push us towards the lower mode and make life more difficult for us. So therefore we avoid even the slight influences of mode of passion, ignorance and what to speak of onion and garlic, which involve a substantial dose of ignorance for us.
Now as far as medicine is concerned, yes. Onion and garlic are recommended by doctors. But generally Ayurvedic doctors, they tell us that there are always substitutes for onion and garlic.
In Ayurveda, there are certain diseases which may even require medical films that involve meat. But Charaka, Sushruta and other Ayurvedic physicians, while recommending these medicines, also give vegetarian alternatives. And they tell that those people who would prefer vegetarian, they should take the vegetarian medicine and the doctor should recommend them those medicines.
So doctors may recommend particular specific items for medical purposes, but the purpose of life is not just to stay medically healthy. It is to become spiritually healthy. And we should not be so enamored by the claimed medical benefits of onion and garlic that we neglect the spiritual harms that it may cause to us.
And if doctors recommend it to us, we can always inquire from proper Ayurvedic doctors for alternatives for onion and garlic and take those alternatives. Thank you.