Why do we avoid specific food items in specific months during Chaturmasa?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna.
Question, why do we abstain from specific foods during the four months of Chaturmasya? Answer, because of medical, medical or biological and spiritual reasons. Chaturmasya is a period of austerity and austerity involves not only giving up enjoyable items, but also giving up those food items that may either trigger the enjoying mentality within us or may impede our service to Krishna by being physically detrimental to us. So during Chaturmasya, in the first month, we abstain from green leafy vegetables.
That’s because when the rains fall initially and the first lot of green leafy vegetables grow, at that time, because there is a lot of dirt in the atmosphere and in the ground, with the fresh oncoming of rains and the first green leafy vegetables that come, they are often quite dirty because slit and mud is also there and also the first batch is like that. That’s what Ayurveda says and that dirt can be biologically harmful. And along with being biologically harmful, medically harmful for us, it also actually causes the green leafy vegetables, especially in that season.
In Ayurveda, actually what we are supposed to do is also in terms of seasons. So the Chaturmasya is considered the season of Tyaga. And what comes after that is the season of Bhoga, the next four months.
The next four months are considered the season of Yoga. So here that is actually Pitta will be induced too much and that affects the body negatively. And then actually the animals also, for example, the cows drink, eat that grass, eat those green leafy things and then the milk they produce, that milk is also contaminated.
And milk is such an item. On one side, we hear that milk is very good. It nourishes brain substance.
But on the other side, when devotees wanted to drink a lot of milk, Srila Prabhupada said that that is a Rajasikha. So the milk can increase goodness. But on the other hand, the milk, if it is taken excessively or if it is taken when it is not in a good condition and that is what happens when the milk is made by the cow after eating grass and green leafy things that are not in the initial good condition.
So the first batch that comes up is not good. And that’s why actually the milk from the health point of view is not good. And in that season, according to Ayurveda, milk and subsequently in the next month curd, they are known to stimulate sexual desire.
They are not normally aphrodisiacs, but in that particular season, they have an aphrodisiac effect. Aphrodisiac means that they stimulate sexual desire. And the same applies all the more for urad dal.
Among all kinds of dals, according to Ayurveda, urad dal is the greatest stimulant of sexual desire. And in those particular seasons, of course, urad dal is very heavy and that is not recommended, according to Ayurveda, to eat it. And the same applies to curd also.
So from the point of view of rendering the body susceptible to diseases, to pitta and vata imbalances because of those particular items in those particular months. And also because of the materially stimulating and agitating properties of these particular food items in those particular months. Actually, according to Ayurveda, the food has different properties at different times.
That’s why it is recommended that we eat seasonal vegetables. So when we get vegetables from other seasons, by artificial preservation, into some other season, then the same nutritional effect is not there. So according to Ayurveda, these particular seasons, these particular food items have that effect of agitating the mind and troubling the body.
And that’s why they are to be avoided. So first month, we avoid green leafy vegetables because that’s the first growth is coming in the rainy season. Then the second month, we avoid the milk because the cows have eaten that milk.
And then we avoid the curd. And then last season, we avoid urad dal because that stimulates desires. Thank you.