Food and the Mind - HH Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamigal

Once upon a time, there was an ashram and a sage came to this ashram to perform dhyana. Daily as he started to meditate he would begin to think what's happening in the world today, the politics etc., He wondered about this as he was not a worldly sort of person at all. Such a person being amidst the ashram surroundings, meditating, performing namasankeerthanam to get this thought. When meditating however there are two kinds of enemies - one is the enemy from outside, one from the inside - the vasanas that surface within us. If you see a thing and desire it, thats the enemy coming from the outside. When there is nothing, nothing outside but something springs up from inside and thats the internal enemy our vasanas. So when this worldly thinking distrubed the sage no end every day, he went to meet an elder there and described this problem. The elder told him to go and find out who is preparing his food daily and what his activities are. The cook who prepared his food daily would read the newspaper as he was cooking and stirring the pot. The cook had a lot of interest in reading all newspapers in the morning. So when a person like this prepares food the person consuming also will get the same, all this may sound as fun but this is true. Such gunas will come to stay in our mind. Food and body are connected, Food and mind are connected. How the mind operates so the heart acts. Sometimes when our hinduism is mentioned they would jokingly call this as a kitchen religion. Radhe Radhe