TV Channel

After the manomaya kośa, the annamaya kośa is not so easy to purify. The manomaya kośa will be more difficult, but the manomaya kośa, vijñānamaya kośa, ānandamaya kośa, and prāṇamaya kośa all depend very much on the annamaya kośa—on how our physical sheath is. In order to purify the annamaya kośa in yoga, the yogīs created a separate branch called Haṭha Yoga. Haṭha yoga is mainly for the purification of the annamaya kośa. Why is it called Haṭha? "Haṭha" means you need extra attention and extra willpower, which is to say you need discipline. Atha yogānuśāsanam—yoga begins with discipline. Unfortunately, it is very easy to break discipline. Why? Because of tamo guṇa and rajo guṇa. Rajas guṇa and tamo guṇa dominate due to the quality of our food. Ayurveda also concentrates very much on diet. Haṭha yoga has six purification kriyās, and Ayurveda has five purification kriyās. That is called pañca karma; in yoga, it is called ṣaṭ karma. The ṣaṭ kriyās are: netī, dhautī, bastī, naulī, tratāk, and kapālabhātī. These six kriyās are only for the purification of the body. In this body, there are many vikāras. Vikāra refers to that kind of hormones and dead cells in the body which cause or create illness. There is a physical vikāra, a mental vikāra, and a prāṇic vikāra. You may call vikāra "disturbances." If we develop discipline, we purify the vikāras. Haṭha yoga and pañca karma are to remove the vikāras. If you do these six kriyās of haṭha yoga and are not concentrating on diet, then it has no sense. In Ayurveda, they say you should eat sweet first. In the modern Western system, they say, "No, eat sweets after." What is the difference? The Vedic Ayurvedic doctor says that sweet things—like halwā, lapsī, or sweet chocolate puddings—are very solid and rich foods which need more energy to digest. They need more insulin to digest. If you eat sweet afterwards, it will turn into acid. If you eat sweet before, it will be digested. Those who always eat sweets after the meal will have acidity problems and digestive problems. Those who eat sweet first, and then other things... The thinking of the modern Western theory is this: if you eat something sweet first, then you have no more appetite to eat anything else, especially for children. But this is wrong. Eating sweets should be limited. If children eat more sweets like halwā or lapsī—with ghee and sugar, fat and sweet—it is okay. They are growing. Their brain needs sweet and fat, the ghee. If they can limit it, it is very good, because they also need vitamins, and vitamins are mostly in vegetables and fruits. Children who do not eat vegetables and fruits have a lack of vitamins. Those who lack vitamins and have poor health—if you see their eyes, the pupil is down and it is white. Those who have good nutrition, it will be red. Just by looking, you can say, "This child is not healthy; this child doesn't eat vegetables and fruits." According to the ancient kitchen—what we call the kitchen of the grandmother—and the kitchen of modern times, there is a big difference. In modern times, they boil the vegetables. They cook so much that the whole vegetable becomes just like a cream. If the vegetable is overcooked or boiled too much, the vitamins are finished. Therefore, it is said that a little salad and fruits are very important. For Indians, a little bit is enough because Indians have enough sun. It is the sun which supplies us vitamins also. Indians don't need that much. Indian fruit has more energy and vitamins than the vegetable which is grown in a glasshouse or in a European country. If it is exposed directly to the sunlight and moonlight... God Kṛṣṇa said, "Through the moon, I enter into the vegetation as a nectar." To ripen the fruits, to develop the vitamins, it is specially the sunlight. Also, we need a lot of protein. In the sweet, there is little protein. In the ghee, I think there is little protein. Therefore, we need chapātī, rotī, grain. In the soybeans—meaning moong dāl, urad dāl, mat dāl, arhar kī dāl, thoda bosh chana, and the brown soybean, chole—in this, there is a lot of protein. In the moong, there is more protein than what these people, the meat-eaters, think they have in meat and eggs. That is completely wrong. It is proven by scientists and specialists, those who specialize in nourishment. They said that soybeans have three times more protein than meat itself. And the proteins which are in the egg are not healthy. This has all been proven, and our grandmothers knew how to cook and what to cook. Children who do not eat roti and do not eat fruits have no concentration. Children who do not eat fresh fruit and do not drink milk are always tired. After reading a little bit, they are tired. That's it. Because they have no concentration, they have no energy. So children should eat properly, and other people should eat properly. Our life is based on nourishment. Our health depends on nourishment. Our illnesses depend on nourishment. After all this, Āyurveda gave one system, introduced one system, and explained something that is called kāya kalpa. Kāya kalpa. If you are fasting one day, it is becoming kāya kalpa. If you become phalahārī, you are doing kāya kalpa. It means you are getting younger. Again, you are regenerating all the systems in the body, and your immune system becomes stronger and stronger. It is said that those who are doing long kāya kalpa for 12 years become 12 years younger, plus the 12 years which they are doing. Very good, 24 years. But, again, discipline. You have a special diet for kāya kalpa, and someone comes with samosā and kachorī and jalebī. "Okay, today, a little piece I can take." That means the discipline is finished. Kāya kalpa, finished. My God, discipline is a key to success—self-discipline. Now, in Āyurveda, as well as in the Western diet system, white flour is not healthy. You should have the whole wheat flour. Polished rice, polished wheat, polished corn—just white flour—is harmful to the liver, Āyurveda says. It creates a lot of diseases, and it has no strength inside. Safed āṭā, maida. Maida, śaktiśālī hai? Mr. Principal, is white flour healthy? No. Nobody hears if you say it. If you say it a little louder, then everybody... because otherwise they say, "Swamiji is putting his own theory." It is correct that it is very healthy... so white flour... and unfortunately, all these pesticides which we are taking... so try to eat as healthy as you can. Spices—oh, spices are a blessing for the body. The spices mean not only chili, but all other spices, including the chili. Ati sarvatra varjayet—too much is everywhere prohibited. But a little bit, that's called the essence. Cardamom, cloves, turmeric, ginger, garlic. Though garlic is rājasik, it becomes tāmasik. If you fry the garlic, it becomes tāmasik. If you cook with it, it becomes rājasik. But if you put fresh garlic on your eating, it becomes sāttvic. When you fry in the oil, garlic changes chemically. It destroys all the substances inside, and it becomes tāmasik. If you boil with it or cook it, it becomes rājasik. But if you take a little bit in salad or on your food, that is counted as sāttvik. It is healthy. If the garlic is healthy, then uncooked, that is like a medicine. And what is a good thing? That our grandmothers—your grandmothers of Europeans, your grandmothers of the Indians—there are still many grandmothers in Europe who don't know how to sign, yet they are still living. It's okay. Why not? But they are so excellent and so great in cooking. My God! Even the doctor who studies special nourishment doesn't know this. Did you see? The knowledge of food of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers is not available in the textbooks of today. And even the doctors who studied so much today don't know. Who said the ghee is bad for the body? Why are people nowadays so weak and like this? Because they don't eat ghee, and they don't eat sweet. Yes, ghee and sweet—to digest, you need work. Unlimited, of course. If you eat every day one quarter kilo ghee and one quarter kilo gud, and then the whole day you have to cut wood, then it is okay. Or you have to do three hours of bodybuilding. So it needs to be digested in the body; it has to be burnt in the body. That is healthy; it transfers into the brain. Otherwise, you eat ten grams of ghee, and for three days, and one week you are in the hospital because you do not utilize that ghee properly. Healthy nourishment—the full corn nourishment, the organic vegetables and fruits, organic milk, organic soya, organic everything—that's very important for the kāya kalpa, because humans have very much weakness in that svādindriya. Can somebody tell me what is svādindriya? Yes, the sense of taste. That is very weak, and therefore the yogī said, "Fasting at least twice a week." And that's very good then. So when you will not eat for one day, then your body will digest everything. The next day, you are ready to eat again. Fasting. But people do not want to fast. Then what the yogis did, they put fasting as a spiritual practice. Then they said, "Yes, it is for Hanumānjī. For God Hanumāna, this Tuesday." "Oh yes, Hanumanjī, please help me to pass my examination. I will fast every Tuesday, Hanumanjī." But Hanumanjī said, "My child, if you will keep on fasting as a student, you can't be like me, strong. So student should not fast. Fasting is for them who are above 25 years. For children, no fasting." Haṭha Yoga, Āyurveda is speaking first. Pahala sukha nirogī kāya. The first wealth is good health. First, happiness is good health. And one Austrian scientist said, "Health is not everything." He said health is not everything, but then he put "but." Everything is nothing without health. That's it. Who is a very happy man in this world? Who is healthy? Swami Vivekānanda jī said, "Lying in the hospital is not a life anymore." Life is healthy, and health comes from the food and environment. The prāṇamaya kośa, manomaya kośa, vijñānamaya kośa, and ānandamaya kośa—these all four other kośas, which we will be speaking about after, depend on the annamaya kośa. So in yoga, purification is very important. Let's begin tomorrow with something on purification, okay? Yes? Only three said yes. You don't know what I will say. We can do two kinds of purification: either Śaṅkha Prākṣālana here, or we go to Pali, eat, and come back. When you are working with your haṭha yoga, four times a year you should have a saṅgha prakṣālana. Someone said six times a year. Every second month, at the end of the second month, there is a change in the body, in your tissues, in your blood. Do saṅgha prakṣālana. But if you do the saṅgha prakṣālana and after the second day you go to eat a big kē pichā or big bajrī chapātī and dāl bātī churmā, then your saṅgha prakṣālana will have a negative reaction on the body. Also, don't eat white flour and sugar and these soft things. Your teeth need exercise. When these temples and these muscles of your jaw do not have good exercise, then you constantly have tamo guṇa in the mind—anger and sleepiness. Now, okay, we put our jaw muscles and temple muscles very strong. Let's take chewing gum. No, no, that is very unhealthy. If you eat too much chewing gum, then you will get an ulcer in the stomach, because when you put anything in the mouth, the mouth creates the hormone and gives the signal to the intestine that something nice is coming. The digestive fire awakens, but nothing is coming, so that begins to harm your intestines. You will have holes in the intestines. Eat something solid and healthy. Eat a good apple. Eat a good lemon. Eat good coconut. Eat good nuts. Bite something hard: chapatis and hard fruits, vegetables. You need to chew something. Gurujī said in Hindi, Gurujī said the work of the teeth and jaw—don't give to your stomach. They have other duties, and the stomach has other duties. Therefore, your whole gland system remains healthy and functions properly if you have proper, good eating. Otherwise, your jāṭharāgni will be very weak. You will not be angry or hungry. And if someone asks, "Do you want it?" "No, still not." "Are you hungry?" "No, I am not very hungry," because your jāṭharāgni is very little. When there is no oil in the lamp, the flame becomes smaller and smaller and smaller. Therefore, children have a very strong jāṭharāgni. And those children eat at a time and very much; they become strong, healthy, and have good concentration. And those children say, "I don't want to eat this, I want to eat only chocolate, I want to eat ice cream. Chapati, no. Daliyā, no." These children are like a soul, very weak. They are not Hanumanjī. Did you see Hanumānjī eating chocolate? Did you see Hanumānjī eating pudding? Did you see Hanumanjī eating ice cream? Hanumanjī was eating very healthy food, so we all have to become healthy. Annamaya Kośa needs proper care. Annamaya Kośa needs a proper diet. Annamaya Kośa needs the proper diet, proper food. And food, the nourishment. Society is a nourishment. Environment is nourishment, speaking is nourishment, no speaking is nourishment. Eating is nourishment, and no eating is nourishment. To know how and when. Never delay your eating time. Eat fresh cooked. Never let your food wait, which will turn into the tamas guṇa and rajas guṇa. Therefore, in old times, ancient times—now maybe also, but mostly thanks to the ladies, you know—the man was healthy. She is cooking, and he's sitting near and eating. Chapati coming from the chapati pan to his plate and from his plate to his mouth, and from the mouth to the stomach—fresh cooked chapati, fresh cooked food. Now husband and wife say, "Let's go to a restaurant." You don't know how old the food was. Again, re-warmed. Therefore, fresh cooked food. Try to eat as soon as possible when food is prepared. Then, within one hour, it should be consumed. Otherwise, it turns into the tāmasika guṇa. Never miss your eating time. Never miss your sādhanā time, and never miss your prayer time. You can miss anything, but not these three things: prayer, sādhanā, and eating. So I wish you all a very good eating tomorrow, because you have already had dinner, and those who did not have dinner, and those who are... invited only, they should go to have dinner. So anna-maya kośa jaisā khāyegā, an vaisā rahegā man—as the food sheath eats, so will the mind be. What the great saints and great men said, it is true. So let's begin from tomorrow onward with our purification of the body. You are the luckiest ones, that you have very fresh, very, very fresh organic neem leaves here. Don't miss. Every hour, one neem leaf, not much. Every hour, one leaf. Let's become the neem. You are chewing them for a while, eat it, swallow it, or put it in the tea, or a little bit when you are eating your dinner or lunch or breakfast—take two leaves and break them and put them in your eating. It's very good. This is also to overcome certain desires. Then your mouth will say, "Which kind of chocolate is this?" And you will say, "It's a bitter chocolate." Oh, very good. It's 85% chocolate. So neem, neem Nārāyaṇa. Nārāyaṇa is God Viṣṇu. So this neem is like God Viṣṇu himself. So, annamaya kośa—purification through the water, air, and nourishment. Tomorrow we will continue. This evening, I wish you a very good evening. You will sing bhajan, and I will enjoy listening to bhajan while bhajan. Deep Nārāyaṇa Bhagavānakī. From today onwards, we all will call our eating the soup a very pure Sanskrit name: rasam. But even Indians said, "Can I have soup?" You said, "I don't understand. Do you want rasam?" "I don't understand." Okay, yeah, I had a... Rasam is such a beautiful name. Rasāyana, Āyurveda, Sanskrit: rasam means the essence, the sense, the best of the best. Oh, when you say rasam, if you understand the word, all glands awake, harmony comes. Oh, urja-śakti, ābhā-maṇḍal, all glands become active, and chakras too. When I call rasam, I feel till here. Rasam is the essence of everything. Rasāyan in Āyurveda, you know. Jaḍībūtī rasāyans. So, no soup. What do you call? Rasāyan. Mahāprabhujī soup. That we have to call Mahāprabhujī soup, because otherwise Mahāprabhujī will not be so happy with me. Kaddī ko kaitā Mahāprabhujī kā rasāyans. So, rasāyan? No, rasam. And don't say "chapati" now, but say "roti." Kitnī rotī chāhiye? Pāñch rotī. Okay, so learn "roti." So everybody, pronounce it once: "Roti." Very good. I am proud of you. Say once more, roti. Not roti. Ti. Say roti. Very good. Thank you. Deep Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān kī. Deveśvar Mahādev kī. Madhav Krishna, Bhagavān kī Sanātana Dharma kī.