Should we eat as less as possible or eat to stay healthy for serving Krishna?
From Sushant P:
Answer Podcast:
Transcript
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your question.
Hare Krishna. Question from Sushant Kulkarni Prabhu. Should we eat as less as possible or should we eat to stay healthy for serving Krishna? Answer, Krishna says, Yukta Ahar Viharasya, 6.7. So, Yukta is regulated as appropriate.
In fact, he also says explicitly, One who eats too much or eats too little cannot become a Yogi. Now, we have to understand that if we look at the example of the Goswamis who eat very little, it is not that they were consciously striving, consciously starving themselves as a principle of austerity. They were so absorbed in Krishna that they did not feel the needs of the body.
So, we cannot adopt the lifestyle of the Goswami ourselves. We have to look at the devotees around us and we have to look at our devotee guides and learn from them. Vishwa Prabhupada told clearly that we should take care of our bodily health because otherwise we cannot serve Krishna.
The Bhagavatam itself states that the body is like a vruksha and if the vruksha dies, then the phala of the vruksha, moksha will not come. So, we need the body healthy for serving Krishna and for attaining the ultimate goal of returning back to Krishna. So, now eating as less as possible, that is not the goal of life.
That is not the central limb of yoga. It is Yukta. So, now you regulate it will be as much as is necessary.
Now, it is not that we have to or the attitude towards the body should be of utilization. So, Bhakti culture also focuses on cooking and serving delicious food and we don’t have to necessarily neglect that but we don’t have to use that as justification for gratifying our senses. The point is that we don’t focus too much on rejection nor do we get caught in gratification.
We focus on service to Krishna and whatever is appropriate for our service to Krishna, we do that. So, we take food in a regulated way. Whatever is necessary for our health.
So, we take. Generally, two criteria can be followed if you want to regulate our food. One is to avoid untimeliness and to avoid excessive opulent food.
So, the body has hunger and the hunger should be satisfied so that we can take the body and use the body in serving Krishna. So, we should eat whatever is required for keeping the body healthy, for serving Krishna and when we are eating that, we should see eating not just as an activity of gratifying the body but we should see eating as a way of taking care of the tool that Krishna has given us and we can also see food as a means by which we can reciprocate affection with devotees and by this, we won’t have the negative vision of food but we can integrate food within the ambit of our bhakti. Thank you.
Hare Krishna.