I wanted to post about Ayurveda for a long time, so I decided that since the topic is so large, I'll post it in series. I always thought that Ayurveda was about alternate medicine and healing. But to my surprise, Ayurveda is a way of life. Allopathic medicine provides cure for diseases, while Ayurveda tell us how not to get those diseases in the first place. And food is categorised in three catagories, Satvic, Rajsic and Tamsic. I stumbled across this piece on the net and thought that it aptly described the 'Three gunas'.The Elephant, The Tiger, and The Jackal
"You are what you eat." Ancient Indian texts explain Aahara, or diet, by using the example of the elephant, the tiger, and the jackal. The elephant is a vegetarian. This animal represents the sattvic mind. With Sattva, we can think clearly, and act appropriately, according to the laws of nature. The elephant is strong, gentle and intelligent. The tiger is carnivorous. He represents the rajassic mind, which is action-oriented. He kills and eats animals, which makes him fierce and aggressive. The tiger is restless, always on the prowl. The jackal represents the tamasic mind. Tamas is destructive, but this is not necessarily negative. We need to finish something, complete it, before we can move on to the next. The jackal survives by eating food left uneaten by other animals. He is fearful, cunning, and lazy. Our goal is to acquire the saatvic qualities of the elephant. One way we can do that is to favor a vegetarian diet, and eating fresh foods, beans, and almonds to to increase calmness, clarity and creativity.
*source- CoffeyTalk.com
And you can see the effect of these foods on you body and mind. So judging by the predominant activity you do, its good to eat the corresponding 'Aahara', just even the knowledge of these aspects helps us be more conscious of what we are putting into our body. And its also good to observe which of the 'Three guns' are predominant in us, and you will be surprised that its exactly the kind of food we eat, though not always, that in fact also depends on our individual 'Prakruti' and 'Dosha'. I'll save that for the next post.
4 Annotations:
Wow....
Good to see such post...
Now a days I eat dosas most of the time :(....
hey....I somehow did not see how being the elephant is more inviting a proposition or better than being a tiger in this post. The jackal yes was clear but the other two weren't. I didn't feel there was a right or wrong one...or a better or worse one. Not enough to make changes in my life...
The elephant is the strongest animal, although its a vegetarian, and inspite of its strenght, it is the most gentle animal on earth. Often strong people are very aggressive, the combination of strong and gentle (not meek) is very rare. As I said, Ayurveda is a very deep science. These qualities are more experiential rather than logical.
Go veg for a whole week and see the difference.
And you're right, there is no right and wrong, just that a satvic mind is more creative, calm, aware, stress free. And this we achieve through proper food habits, lifestyle and spiritual practices like yoga and meditation.
In this world filled with violence and turmoil, characters of Tamsic and Rajsic tendencies, Sattva is the need of the hour
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