149 - Spiritual Meaning of Food | Swami Tattwamayananda

Our temperaments are determined by a combination of the three gunas – sattva guna, rajo guna and tamo guna. Sattva guna is the highest and most sublime. It manifests itself as wisdom and serenity. Rajo guna manifests itself as dynamism and ambition. Tamo guna manifests itself as laziness and delusion.<br /><br />7th verse: “The food that we eat is linked to the three gunas. The way we practice rituals, austerity and charity is also linked to the three gunas.”<br /><br />The Chandogya Upanishad contains the first important discussion on the effect of what we eat and the true meaning of food. Shankaracharya has also written commentaries on the broader meaning of food. Food is not just hat we eat with mouth – our mind also eats food. It is all the ideas and associations that we imbibe and that impact our emotions and feelings. The five senses of perception and the sense objects – they all bring food to the mind.<br /><br />The verse in Chandogya Upanishad is:<br />आहार शुद्धौ सत्त्व शुद्धिः सत्त्व शुद्धौ स्मृतिः ध्रुवा स्मृति लम्भे सर्व ग्रन्थीनां विप्र मोक्षः || [7.26.2] <br />It means: “From purity of food comes purity of mind. From purity of mind comes constant remembrance of higher spiritual ideas. From constant remembrance of higher spiritual ideas comes liberation from bondage.”<br /><br />We remember what we are interested in. What are we are interested in depends on the structure of the mind. Whatever the mind has in its system, it wants more of it. If the mind is pure, it remembers and imbibes higher spiritual ideas.<br /><br />In a broader sense, mind refers to Antahkarana, which is made up of four compartments (mind, intellect, memory system, ego sense). In darkness, we may speculate whether something is a pillar or a human – this comes from mind, which is the speculative faculty. When we conclusively determine that it is a pillar, it comes from the intellect which is the determining faculty. We may remember that we had seen a similar pillar elsewhere – that comes from chittam, which is the memory system.