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Part 1: The Science of Food and the Art of Living We had a program explaining what yoga means and yoga in daily life—how to integrate it with our family life, social life, and spiritual life. After that, you had a beautiful program with our Sādhvī Swāmī Omapurī, and I think you enjoyed it. Many would like to have that book which was explained today by her, which introduced those exercises for the joints: ankle joints, knees, hip joints, spine, shoulders, etc. In Yoga and Life, there is a beautiful book, and I hope one day it will be translated from German to English. Most of my work is in the German language. After that, the Yoga Nidrā, and you shall get that CD about the explanation of the Yoga Nidrā—how the Yoga Nidrā came by Mahāprabhujī, explained in 1942 or ’43, or before; only Gurujī knows. That, in the form of the bhajan, are the techniques. The book was printed before I came to Gurujī, and Gurujī explained it to me afterward. A very important part of our life is eating. If the eating is good, everything is good. And if eating is not good, everything is not good. Even if we fly for only two hours from here to Sydney or somewhere, and if they don’t give us something to eat or drink, we are all upset. Only two hours we can’t wait, so our weak point is eating. Well, why not? Eating is our life. But it is said that we are not living for eating; we are eating for living. And you will be surprised: more than 80% of the population cannot cook. They don’t know how to cook. Everything is ready-made. Bring it from the market and put it in the microwave or in the oven and eat it. Maximum, put salt on it or vinegar. Salt and sour, that’s all. That’s not eating, that’s not food, that’s not cooking. Cooking is a science. Cooking is a philosophy, like many philosophies. So there is, it’s called Pakśāstra, like Yoga Vedānta, Advaita Vāda, Dvaita Vāda, Mīmāṃsā, etc.—all these six philosophies of India. Among them is one called the Pakṣaśāstra. Pakṣāstra philosophy is ordered in the Āyurveda chapter. Āyurveda is mostly for nourishment according to the quality and nature of the person: Vāta, Pītha, and Kapha, which connect to the three qualities: Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. And Vākśāstra, the Pakśāstra, speaks about the quality, not the quantity. Quantity makes us ill according to the food. And quality makes us happy, healthy, and gives us a long life. The best cook, according to Āyurveda: you bring the beans made out of iron, iron, metal. And that cook, half a kilo of iron beans, will cook for you, and you will enjoy them like different other beans—soft and eatable. Who is that someone who can make the iron so soft and eatable? That’s the science of cooking. That person knows what to cook and how to cook. So we need not go so far, but at least we should know what it means to cook. Just boil or fry it, and put some salt, lemon, and maybe a little chili—that is not the cooking. Also, many sweets, many cakes, different kinds of cakes. Maybe Australia has no tradition of cakes. I don’t see any shops here where you have nice, different things. So, there is no cake culture. Come to Europe, oh my God, on every street corner, big shops are open with so many different kinds of cake and sweets. Life is sweet, but not healthy. Go to India, and you will see how many varieties of sweets there are. How many varieties of sweets are there in India? So, now after the cakes, new sweet varieties came, like chocolates. And the chocolate has taken over. This is modern science. So, since chocolate appeared, our mothers lost the knowledge of making sweets. Homemade sweets, grandmother’s recipes, you should take from grandmothers. How sweet it was, how nice it was, how healthy, tasty, everything—and organic, handmade, all ingredients are inside, very visible. In other words, we don’t know what is inside. So cooking is not only boiling the rice and vegetables and putting something inside the area. Or buy the meat, and I don’t know how they cook the meat; I never see the meat. If someone cooks the meat, I go up five houses away. For me, the horror of life is when I am sitting in an aeroplane and beside me someone is served chicken or fish. Then I close my eyes and try to meditate. Mahāprabhujī has done some miracles for me. Almost always, some vegetarian is sitting beside me. And the second, I can’t smell anything. It doesn’t matter how terrible his smile is—smell, sorry. I can’t smell anything, bad or good. Because Mahāprabhujī knew that I had to travel around the whole world. Otherwise, I will not do it. So, cooking. And in the cooking, there is a science of the Āyurveda, and that is you come to the whole anatomy of our body and all the glands of the body, and our kidneys, our heart, our liver, and all glands. Glands are responsible for the hormones, and it is that hormone in our body which is very, very important. In our Yoga and Daily Life book, every exercise that is written is good for what, how to do it, and which glands, joints, or organs in the body are influenced. Spices we call masala. Spices are not too much, just a little. Like salt in soup, not soup in the salt. So we know the soup is two liters, and we put in just one teaspoon of salt. So it is a little, but it is enough. Similarly, spices, only a few seeds, but that’s more than enough for a particular gland. And for which glands, which kind of spices should be used? That’s very important. You cannot mix salt in the milk. You mix honey or sugar. That must be known, thanks to God. So today we spoke about the science of cooking the spices. There are so many spices, and every spice is written for which food and for which purpose or health we should take it. Very soon, we will have a three-year course, a three-to-five-year diploma course for cooking—vegetarian cooking, organic—and you have to work in our field to grow the organic grains and vegetables. And the spices, to know in which season they grow, how they look, and everything. And then, how to cook, how to mix. Spices should always be whole, not powdered. As soon as you grind the spices into powder, you must use it within one week. Otherwise, the essence, the aroma, is gone. And we buy the packed spices; we don’t know how many days the powder was lying in some storeroom, and how many mouths were running over it. Nobody knows. We know that they are keeping everything very clean and hygienic, but who knows. And those spices are dried; after grinding, they are lost. So we are eating for living, and here living means healthy and long life. Sorry, somebody is cooking with the chili. Long life. So if we can’t cook, all our science and knowledge is zero. We are working for our stomach. If God had not given us hunger and thirst, nobody would work. All will be hanging here near the Brisbane River, sitting there. Why should we go to work? Sitting under the tree, you don’t need to eat and drink. But God has given this system to keep everyone active. Besides this, food has an effect on our body, including all the glands, hormones, and so on. Then our senses, the feelings, then comes the emotion, which then influences our mind and our way of thinking. And mind, way of thinking, and intellect. So the intellect is influenced by the mind, though the mind should be influenced by the intellect, but it became the opposite. The king became the slave, and the slave begins to dominate and govern the king. So intellect is a king, and mind is only a secretary, but that secretary is so strong that intellect has nothing to say. Mind, because this secretary, or minister of the president, has strong advisors and supporters, and those are the senses, the ten senses: five senses of knowledge and five senses of action, the test. They cooked today’s food nicely, and just as they brought it outside, someone said, "Oh, it smells good." Before serving, our mouth was already wetting, and we were swallowing nothing, but still swallowing. Nice food, oh. That is a magic aroma of the spices. Today you got a dal, moong dal, green soya. And you know how many spices were inside, and how nicely balanced the spices were, and this dal is five times more protein and nutrition than meat. All kinds of beans and soy have more protein and nutrition than meat. Unfortunately, our doctors do not study this, and many doctors do not have knowledge about nutrition. They must have some other who study about food and nutrition, and they are also influenced more: meat, meat, meat. And we see how the people look and what their health is now. So, this is taste. Our tongue, oh, ice cream, everyone, it’s nice. Then comes some nice juice, lemon juice, oh, nice, beautiful cherries, hard cherries, and one bites and eats, and others also have water in the mouth. This is the effect of the senses on the visions. Eyes are also the jñāna indriya, the knowledge. The eyes see, and then the tongue becomes active; all the glands become active. But not only here, in the stomach, begins functioning. Everything, something is coming, you make place. That’s it, the whole body, the ears, the touch, the skin. Our touch is also a sense of knowledge. So the mind is governing the senses. There are ten senses, and the eleventh one is known as the mind, because the mind is the boss of the other senses. So these ten senses of action and ten senses of knowledge are governed by their president, that is, the mind. And the poor intellect has no chance. If the intellect uses its power, then they will boycott him. They will say, "Suspend the intellect, send him to the mental hospital, give him some tablets." So the intellect is sleeping. So poor intellect is here and there, drawn from one thing to another. The mind is governing. The cream of the intellect is called viveka, our intelligence. That intelligence, very nicely, what we call the diplomatic, but in a positive way, treats the mind and senses. That person will be successful; the other one will fail. So our food is influencing all these senses. And when there is no proper food, then our senses are like wild horses. They are not under control. So, the body, glands, organs, blood circulation, muscles, joints, everything. Then the second part is the mind. The mind is connecting feelings in the body and the nervous system. And after that is intellect. And then there is our viveka and knowledge of the self, the ātmā. Food is not just for enjoying and filling our stomach, but food is to feel happy, relaxed, healthy, and to have a long, long life. So food is a science, a beautiful science, and we don’t pay attention. Food is the basis of our life, but we don’t think about it. We just try to fill our stomach, and that’s all. So cooking from the mother or father, that food is for the family, for the children, healthy. When we cook the food, we must give love inside. All different spices are inside, but one most important spice is missing, and that’s called love. When the mother is cooking for the child, preparing even a bottle of milk, there is a mother’s love. Similarly, our mothers, our wives, our daughters, and our sisters. So, ladies, women have miracles in their hands. It does not matter which woman cooks more tastily, finely, or sufficiently than a man. That man who is cooking has learned a cooking course, then it’s okay. But then it learned, not naturally; it learned by the mother’s hands. So the woman has the touch of the mother to the child. There are five best qualities which women have that men do not have. And man said, "We are happy that we don’t have this." We can sit and read the newspaper or watch television. The ladies will do. That’s very important. So these spices, the top best spices, are love and respect. When your best friend comes, our guest, you cook with love, you serve with love. And during the cooking, we always advise in India, our mothers, they are chanting, singing mantras. That mother knows that she is cooking for the family, and in them is God. So she is cooking for God. First food offering: in the old times, when we were cooking on the fire, my mother would first take the chepanch flower and put a little in the fire and say one mantra, Agni Dev. This mantra, Annapūrṇā, the Anna is the grain, all kinds of food; when we talk about food, it is the grains, the seeds. Part 2: The Divine Essence of Food and the Power of Sacred Objects In those grains, in the seed, is the seed. There is oil, there is life, there is soul. Anna, food, is a divine mother, a divine goddess. She is supplying food to all. Even you will see that Swayambhu Śiva, the creator of all, goes to the door of Annapūrṇā and asks for food, Mother Annapūrṇā. We have in the Himalayas, a beautiful part of the Himalayas, a big hill, a mountain that is called the Annapūrṇa temple, a mountain. It is very nice. Beside Everest, one side is Everest, the other side is Mount Kailash, and between them is Annapūrṇa. It is beautiful. You can see the darśan of Annapūrṇā from Nepal. Very nice. In Nepal, there is one city called Pokhara, and from there, if you have clear weather, you see the Annapūrṇa. Beautiful, beautiful. So his mother, she supplies food to all. Who are we that we can give someone eating? Who gave the pig will give the food. If God has given a mouth to the pig, why did He give it? So we said, if you gave the pig, then give it something to eat. He is a God who is supplying, and that God is Annapūrṇā Mother. Annapūrṇe, where you have the anna, eating enough, Sadāpūrṇe, always, always you will be complete, full. Annapūrṇe Sadāpūrṇe, Jñāna Vairāgya Siddhārtham, Bhikṣāṃ Dehi Ca Pārvatī. For my spiritual sādhanā, perfection and self-realization, jñāna is knowledge, vairāgya is detachment. Jñāna vairāgya siddhārtham, siddha, perfection for perfection. Vikṣam Deityā Pārvatī Mātā, Annapūrṇā is second, her name is Pārvatī, and Pārvatī is Lord Śiva’s partner. Anāpūrṇe Sadāpūrṇe Śaṅkara Prāṇa Vallabhe. That is the prāṇa, the life of Śaṅkara, Prāṇa Vallabhe. Jñāna Vairāgya Siddhārtham Bhikṣāṃ Dehi Pārvatī. O Pārvatī, please give bhikṣā, Jñāna Vairāgya Siddhārtham Bhikṣāṃ Dehi Pārvatī. Mātā ca Pārvatī Devī. That Pārvatī Devī is the mother, the universal mother, Pitā Devo Maheśvara, and that Śiva is the father. Bandhava Śiva Bhaktāñca, and my relatives, my friends, my brothers, etc., are Śiva’s Bhaktas. And my city, my village is all three worlds, that is the world of Śiva. Śubhaṁ karoti kalyāṇam. And through this food, through this blessing of Pārvatī, Annapūrṇā, Śaṅkara, Maheśvara, there is siddhi. Śubhaṃ karoti kalyāṇam. Please bless me with good luck, happiness, and liberation. Śubhaṁ karoti kalyāṇaṁ ārogyaṁ dhana-saṁpada. And bless me with good health, ārogya, dhāna, prosperity, ārogyaṁ dhāna saṁpada, and harmony in my life. Through this nourishment, what I eat should give me happiness, contentment, and harmony. Deep Jyotir Namaḥtute, I bow down to the light of the deep, the universal light, Mahāprabhujī’s light. Mahāprabhujī’s name is Deep. "Śubhaṁ karoti kalyāṇam, ārogyam dhana-saṁpadaḥ, śatru-buddhi-vināśāya, dīpa-jyotir namo ’stu te." And all my negative thoughts should be destroyed or go away. And the thoughts of the enemies should also be neutralized. That enemy goes away, and we become good friends. Deep Jyotir Namastute. I bow down to that divine light. Then we realize within us that God, Brahma, Brahma Arpaṇam. Then every action of mine, my eating and drinking is karma, cooking is karma, everything is karma. So Brahmārpaṇam, I offer to the Brahman. Brahmāgni, in the fire of the Brahman, the fire is the Brahman. Which fire? Jatharāgni, the digestive fire. Brahmārpaṇaṃ Brahma Haviḥ, and that in the fire of the Brahman, Brahma Havi. Brahmaiva tena gantavyam, and this is what I give, I offer to Brahman. Who is offering is also Brahman, who is eating is Brahman, and who gives is also Brahman. All comes from one, one in all, all in one. And this, my offering, should lead me to samādhi, divine consciousness. Then we realize the purāṇa, like the full moon. Purāṇa means complete. Purāṇa means complete. And when is every coming complete? That is also complete. A beautiful, colorful peacock bird has a beautiful egg, and we need not inject the color in the egg. That egg from that peacock bird will automatically be the colorful baby. So similarly, Purāṇa is always Purāṇa. It will never be empty. Empty. What we take from the Purāṇa is coming from the Purāṇa. And if we give further, it will not become half. It will be Purāṇa. And what will remain is also Purāṇa. Therefore, we are also complete Purāṇa. We are the light of God. It doesn’t matter if it is a 1000 or 5000 volt bulb or just a 5 volt bulb. Light is light. So, maybe we are one world, but still we are this one world of God that will not go off; it will ever be with us on this earth and everywhere. So, after this, the mother will chant the mantras, and that mantra is the special spice in the food. If your wife or your husband is angry, and he or she is cooking, then tell them, "Please don’t cook today." I don’t want to eat your anger. So, where anger is, there is no love. You will feel how the food tastes. That is not the taste which every day has. Therefore, be careful before your husband or wife begins to cook. You should be nice to that. Can I help you? Can I bring this? Can I do this? Don’t get nervous. Don’t become a nervous wreck. That’s it. Or put the Vāmdāīs, Kīrtan, Bhajan in your kitchen. During the eating, you are cooking for God. That becomes a prasāda, holy food. Stirring your vegetables or anything with a spoon. Don’t test. And in case, if you want to test, then test with a spoon and wash it, and then put it in. Many people, this only the best cook will not do. Many are still saying, "Good, good," always cutting potatoes, carrots. This is not allowed in the kitchen of God, no testing. A good cook knows, touching a vegetable, if the salt is enough or not, if the sweet is enough or not, and looking only, you can tell the salt is missing. That is the best cook. So, between no test and then put on the plate and offer to God. Brahmārpaṇaṁ Brahmāve Brahmāgno Brahmanautaṁ Brahmaevate Nagantavyaṁ Brahma Karma Samādhinām. Namaḥ Pārvati Pate Har Har Mahādeva. And then you eat. That food becomes holy food for you, tasteful for your children. That will make your intellect, your brain, brilliant, the best one. Make an experiment. Then, of course, you enjoy your food. And this prayer, in every religion, there is a prayer before eating. Be thankful to God for giving us this nourishment. After this, beautiful spices, which we call love, then there is the divine offering. That is the cream on your beautiful chocolate or the cake. Yes? A cream or the cream. Viveka is the cream of the mind and intellect. And so the top is that knowledge, the wisdom. So eating is very important. If you go to a restaurant, that food is not cooked with that love. That is the difference. So why did we say homemade? Even the homemade is not so; hands were not clean, maybe. But machine-made, that human hands have not touched, but still the machine. So, homemade cookies, homemade sweets, and homemade food have more meaning, strength, and health. Then our whole body and our ātmā, our soul, is happy. Take food for your lunch. Yes. Don’t eat junk food. Better not to eat. Eat a nice breakfast in the morning, which is prepared by yourself, your partner, your mother, or your father. Then, in the evening, eat what your mother has prepared, or prepare healthy food yourself. So today, it was the lesson about spices, and you may prepare yourself for a three-year course. It will be a distance course. There will be examinations, and for two months you have to be in India during the time of the crops. You will learn how we grow the crops, how to take care of them, how the seeds come, and how they are tested. So it will be a three-year, or more than three-year, cooking diploma course in Jadān Āśram. You are all most welcome, and I wish you success, that you become that Divine Mother or Divine Father to bring the prāṇa, the new life, to the world, that you cook the vegetarian, the best food. That’s all for today. I wish you a very good evening and look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Oh, tomorrow is something special, no? Or is tomorrow finished? So, yes, when you cook, keep this Rudrākṣa mālā in your neck or in your hand. Because Śaṅkara Prana Valave, this Rudrākṣa is representative of Śiva. Where Śiva is, there is the goddess as well, and even the devils are afraid. The goddesses are sitting disciplined, and the Asuras, Asurīśakti, are also disciplined, because Śiva is the president. So there is a lower house, an upper house, and then the president or prime minister. So, Śiva is the upper house. If it is possible, when you go to the bathroom under the shower, let your Rudrākṣa mālā be on your neck or one with a Rudrākṣa seed, and you take the shower, you will see that you get the benefit of the abhiṣeka on the Śiva Liṅga. You are bathing with Shiva. Okay? But do not rub your rudrākṣa with chemical soap. Yeah? Only with the organic or the neem or something nice. Where Rudrākṣa is on your neck or in your hand, be sure the electric current from the lightning from clouds will not hit you. Make an experiment. Yes, yes, it will not, it will not hit you. And if you are afraid of the ghost and go there, in which part of the forest or somewhere, people think there is a ghost. Have a rudrākṣa in your neck, a rudrākṣa mālā, and go there alone in the night. Yes? How should we know? Otherwise, if you want to see heaven, you have to die. Without dying, you cannot see heaven. And if you don’t see the heaven, it’s your karma. You will not come back and say, "Swāmījī, I didn’t see the heaven." So, anyhow, if you are afraid of something, take the Rudrākṣa and go. If there is a ghost or a spirit, it will come. Yes, it will come and will want to see the Rudrākṣa in a different form, and then it will go away. That spirit or that ghost that Saul is liberated by this Śiva Darśan. And because you are wearing this, they will not do anything to you. They will be thankful and adore you, and they will be liberated from the ancestors’ worlds, the pitṛ-lokas. Power of the Rudrākṣa. You can take your Rudrākṣa mālā and put it on your head, and put your shower over it and let the water run for two or three minutes. Oṃ Tryambakaṃ Yajāmahe Sugandhiṃ Puṣṭi Vardhanam, Urvārukam Iva Bandhanāt, Mṛtyor Mukṣīya Māmṛtāt. The name of Śiva is that Mahāmṛtyu, also Tryambakaṃ. These are the names of Śiva, the power of the Rudrākṣa Mālā. And then, when you make a Śakti Pūjā, Divine Mother, then you must have a crystal. When doing the Shakti Pūjā, the Navarātri, the nine nights of Śiva, are for Mother Śakti, or this, then you must have Rudrākṣa, crystal clear. This is that energy bomb, you can’t imagine, but positive, transparent, clear, Śakti, see? Śakti is woman, and they don’t like any impurities, only pure and pure and pure. Crystal clear heart, thoughts, and everything, that is a Śakti. Those who do not have purity in thinking and this and that, then that is not Śakti. So, crystal, you should have on your body a little piece of crystal all the time. So someone told me that I should have a crystal, so I said, "Which crystal?" There are also named girls, you know, Crystal, the Christine. So somebody brought and hung so many crystals here. So my mala, this mala is of course very, very special. Abhishek and pūjā and ceremonies and many, many things are done. It belongs to this, my paramparā, our spiritual lineage. This should be given to the successor, and to the successor, and successor. This and Divine Mother’s, this is called a yantra. So, Rudrākṣa and crystal. Rudrākṣa is Śiva, and crystal is Śakti. Thus, what do we need more? But the crystal should be pure crystal, not glass. That crystal which grows in the Śivaliṅga, like a stone. This is a stone, this is not made of glass. Good? That’s it. So tomorrow, if there is a program tomorrow, Śivyotī, or is tomorrow finished? 10 a.m. All right. And now it’s 10 p.m., so it’s too late. Oṃ Tryambakaṃ Yajāmahe Sugandhiṃ Puṣṭivardhanam Urvārukamiva Bandhanān Mṛtyormukṣīya Mā’mṛtāt Oṃ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ... Yā Devī Sarva Bhūteṣu Lakṣmī Rūpeṇa Saṃsthitā, Namastase, Namastase... Namo Namaḥ. Yā Devī Sarva Bhūteṣu Buddhi Rūpeṇa Saṃsthitā, Namastase, Namastase... Namo Namaḥ. Om Śānti Śānti...