We are what we eat – how to understand this in terms of the three-level model of the self?

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Hare Krishna. But also in terms of our disposition, that means let’s say at a simple level if I take, if people take alcohol now alcohol doesn’t just, it affects the way they think they go into a alternative reality, an imaginary reality so the physical and the mental are connected what is the connection between the two? That our the emotions that we experience the thoughts that we have, they are shaped by what stimuli we get physically so when we drink, the soul is spiritual, soul is not affected by that directly but the soul’s consciousness is currently channeled through the mind, through the body so when we take in alcohol at that time the chemical composition and the chemical functioning of the brain changes that means the tool which the soul and the mind are using for functioning in this body that tool gets affected and that way our performance we may speak irrationally we may act foolishly just as on a negative level we can say that alcohol, which is like a food item not exactly food but it’s a item that we are taking into our body that affects our not just our health but also our behavior similarly in general food affects our behavior now how does this happen? At one level it shapes the tool that we are using and the Bhagavad Gita talks about three modes of material nature so goodness, passion, ignorance and it talks about food also in the three modes so certain food is in goodness that means so it says that there are certain kinds of food which not only enhance our life but they also bring joyfulness so there are other kinds of food which are that means which increase disease, which increase agitation, which increase misery so how does this happen? At one level it just shapes the tool which we are using but when we talk about sanctified food, when we take prasad so this looks like food but this is food which is offered to God and by that offering to God that offering is done with a devotional intention then we become that food becomes spiritualized so when this is spiritualized it is not just a physical stimulus, it is not just a physical object there is there is spiritual potency also associated with it so that’s why when we take this food it not only nourishes our body but it activates our spirituality and with respect to the mind see the mind is in between matter and spirit. Mind is also material so we could say that mind is between the physical and the spiritual so it can be influenced in both ways that means say in a simple way if I say that if I look at some sight which agitates me then the physical is affecting the mental now if I stop looking at it, they say out of sight is out of the mind so if I stop looking at it the level of agitation that I get, that can decrease it may not go away completely but the physical also affects the mental and on the other hand say if I see something which has agitated me then I I stop looking at it and instead say I take darshan of Krishna, I look at a beautiful picture of Krishna, I have given myself a spiritual stimulus, it also calms me down, calms me down.
So the mental can be affected in both ways, through the physical and through the spiritual so when we take prasad because the prasad itself is food which is healthy, nutritious sattvic food from a down up we are affecting the mind and because the prasad has been offered to Krishna it has spiritual potency associated with it, so from bottom also it affects and that’s how the food shapes us and over a period of time if we take spiritualized food if we take prasad, we find that our thinking is becoming more refined, more deeper, it’s becoming purer, that’s how it affects Thank you. Hare Krishna Next question