Food For Thought

HOW DOES FOOD AFFECT OUR THOUGHTS
--Food for Thought

If we consider the antiquity of our Upanishads and the date during which our Upanishadic seers lived in India, we will be surprised to find that they could have to their credit such an amount of psychological reflections. Those seers were foremost in philosophic reflections in general and in psychological reflections in particular. Though we cannot expect a full-fledged empirical investigation in psychology, their knowledge on certain of the sciences was amazing. For example, their knowledge in mental science, particularly in respect of the mind, its constitution and working is remarkable. The Chandogya Upanishad bears enough testimony to this statement.

Among the several Upanishads, the Chandogya Upanishad [wherein occurs the famous Mahavakya [TAT TVAM ASI] occupies a high place among the extant Upanishads. Its language is simple and easy to understand and it contains several stories from our scriptures, like the one of Sage Uddalaka and his son Shwetaketu, to illustrate the Upanishadic subtle truth in understandable terms. This Upanishad was often quoted by Acharya Shankara in his commentaries to establish his philosophy pf Advaita Vedanta. In fact, there is hardly any issue in Vedantic studies which is not covered by the Chandogya. It is a complete manual on Vedanta.

When Uddalaka, a Vedic Rishi, found that his son Shwetaketu had not begun the study of the Vedas even at the age of twelve, he decided to send him to the house of a teacher. After studying there for 12 years and learning the Vedas and other scriptural texts, Shwetaketu returned home. Uddalaka was, however, shocked to find out that his son was puffed with his arrogance of learning. Uddalaka just asked his son “Did you ask your teacher about that instruction through which the unheard of is heard, the unthought of is thought and the unknown becomes known?”. Shwetaketu was surprised to discover that such knowledge ever existed, the Knowledge of the Self or Atma Vidya. Then, his father explained to him in brief what Atma Vidya was. It was then that Shwetaketu realized how ignorant he was and how his knowledge was incomplete. He then requested his father to teach him Atma Vidya. Shwetaketu was happy to find out that his son was now all humility, an essential pre-requisite for a student. How Uddalaka taught the subtle principles of Atma Vidya to his son in simple and understandable language is explained in the Chandogya Upanishad.

Explaining what constitutes the mind and how it works, Uddalaka says “Food, after being consumed by the individual, splits itself into three parts and the subtlest aspect of the food gives rise to the mind”. Shwetaketu could not understand how food could become mind, the source of all our thoughts. Uddalaka decided to clarify the subtle point by practical demonstration. He asked Shwetaketu to avoid eating any food for fifteen days and subsist only on water. Shwetaketu survived this test, as the water he was drinking during these fifteen days ensured that the Prana [Vital breath] did not leave the body. But during this period, Shwetaketu lost his memory and he could not recall any of the Vedic mantras which he had earlier committed to memory. In the absence of food, his thoughts had vanished. Shwetaketu started taking food again and his memory was revived. He then understood how the mind is made of food.
Our Upanishadic philosophers believed that the mind for its formation was dependent on alimentation. The mind was supposed to be manufactured out of the food we take, as is evident by the Upanishadic statement “Annamayam Manah” vide Chandogya 6-5-4. The Upanishad goes further and explains:

“The food that we eat is transformed in three different ways: the heaviest part becomes the excrement, that of medium density is transformed into flesh and the finest part goes to form the mind”
Chandogya Upanishad [ 6-5-1]

When we eat, the food nourishes the body in different ways. First, the grossest part of the food is rejected as excreta. The slightly finer ones become our flesh and the finest part becomes mind. According to Vedanta, the mind is material. How does this food get transformed into mind? Acharya Shankara says that the finest part of the food becomes blood and enters into the heart. From there it goes through the veins and nerves, nourishing the mind. The term ‘mind’ here refers to the phenomenon of our thinking, feeling, willing etc plus the aggregate of our sense organs—our seeing, hearing and so forth. The subtle point is made clearer by a further example:

“Just as in the churning of curds, the subtlest part rises up and is transformed into butter, so when food is eaten, the subtlest part rises up and is transformed into mind”

Chandogya Upanishad [6-6- 1&2]

The butter was already in the curd. In fact, it was the finest part of the curd. Only the churning was needed to make it rise to the top.

Later, even in the days of the Bhagavadgitha, we find that the three different mental temperaments [Gunas] –the Satvika, the Rajasika and the Tamasika –are due to the different kinds of food that we eat vide Shlokas 7, 8, 9, and 10 of Chapter 18. The constitution of a man’s mind is determined by the kind of food that he eats. His faith corresponds to his mental constitution. If his diet is pure, his mind too is pure. And purity of thoughts and feelings, of faith and other qualities or even so of any of his actions depends on purity of thoughts. Thus, a man can as well be judged by the nature of his diet. It is for this reason that the Lord declares food to be of three kinds.

When once it was believed that the quality of food consumed determined the quality of mind of the consumer, it was natural to insist on a kind of catharsis in alimentation. The Chandogya Upanishad says:

“When the food is pure, the whole nature becomes pure; when the nature becomes pure, memory becomes firm; and when a man is in possession of firm memory, all the bonds which tie a man down to the world become unloose. It was because he [Narada] had his impurity destroyed, that the venerable Sanatkumara pointed out to him the way beyond darkness”
Chandogya Upanishad 7-26-2

The way which leads us beyond darkness, therefore, must be sought for in purity of alimentation, which involves in its train the purity of mind.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in several of his talks used to emphasize the role and importance of vegetarian diet in the context of leading a spiritual life. He emphasized that the digestive track be kept free from irritation. For this, food was to be regulated both in quantity and quality. That he recommended a Satvic diet is evident in several of his talks. The following talk held on 31st January 1935 with Mrs. M.A. Piggot, a European lady is just an illustration. Mrs.Piggot was the first Western lady devotee to come to the Sri Ramanashram at Tiruvannamalai. She was an English lady. During the course of a talk with the Bhagavan, she asks the Maharshi some questions regarding diet:

Mrs. Piggot: What diet is prescribed for one who is engaged in spiritual practice?

Maharshi: Satvic food in limited quantity

Mrs. Piggot: What is Satvic food?

Maharshi: Bread, fruits, vegetables, milk etc


B.M.N.Murthy


ARTICLE NO 517--How Does Food Affect Our Thoughts
Created: Friday, August 21, 2009 9:33 PM