via Babeeta Chhabra
As I sit all the way down to consume the khichdi I made (a mild rice and lentil porridge), packed withpleasant greens, topped with melted ghee and floor pepper, I watch the steam rise from my plate in sheer contentment… it’s far a chilly mid-November day. I glazed down on the plate feeling the warmth of the foodin my tummy. usually when i’m certainly famished, i will absolutely devour the contents of my plate,hardly ever taking time to breathe. however today changed into exceptional. i used to be feeling the fullness simply within the giant array of colours, the comforting odor and the sight of the drooling ghee at the plate. I wished at that moment that everybody would really like khichdi the way I do and now notsimply companion it with something you handiest consume when you are unwell and weak.
Khichdi is my favourite savoury meals…I accept as true with that what makes it tasty is when a uniqueelement is introduced…love.
For me, the artwork of loving meals and the awareness of the love that has gone into making it, is the “Yoga of eating”. additionally, the awareness of making use of the yoga yamas even as making readyand consuming food.
it seems that within the race of the twenty first century, the Yoga of ingesting is subsiding as we generally tend to devour food on the run, nuke it inside the microwave, eat whilst on the iPhone. So the days of sitting at a family desk, saying a prayer and taking time to chunk, has emerge as an photograph of thepast. but while we look at the various cultures and traditions around the sector, sitting and eatingtogether is a commonplace thread that weaves the social cloth of a society.
Ashrams, church buildings, temples, mosques, synagogues embrace this concept of eating together. So the query is how can we combine this value returned into our busy lives? consistent with Johanna Baig, an artist and suggest for wholesome consuming from the U.S., “Society is turning into more isolated with the net, facebook, Twitter and all of us is simply too busy searching at their iPhones. So there may be alower in interaction and regarding every different… tradition is turning into greater isolated. We want to make a dedication to sitting together with own family and friends and also having get togethers withthemes like consuming ingredients from various ethnic backgrounds in order that you will study one-of-a-kind cultures thru meals and reconnect”.
through the understanding of the Yamas of Yoga, or codes of behavior, you possibly can grasp the costof connecting with oneself and the network via consuming.
Bringing yoga principle of ahimsa
Swami Maya (Maya Tiwari), famend writer in Ayurveda, defines the Yoga foremost of Ahimsa or non-violence as a “commitment to shielding nature by selecting healthful foods” and that via residing Ahimsa, one is reclaiming the spirit of harmony and non-violence within you which brings joy and abundance to the familyand community.
For me, this belief of Ahimsa is so obvious once I consume from my moms hands. Even now, eatingnutritious vegetarian food from my mother’s fingertips creates the sort of feeling of contentment inside. Inreality, the ancient lifestyle of consuming food with the hands is an ahimsa exercise derived from the mudras. that is to mention, whilst we deliver the fingertips together to collect food, it stimulates the 5factors and invitations agni or the digestive fireplace to activate digestion. in order every finger is an extension of one of the 5 elements, it serves to transform the meals earlier than even being internally digested… isn’t that incredible?
Yoga’s degree: cupped palms
The fingers have additionally been termed because the “measuring cup” for all our wishes. Even the distance among the joints of each finger is a unit of measure (angula), cosmically designed to degreespices, herbs. In Ayurveda, the time period anjali refers to the quantity that may be held with the aid ofyour arms cupped together. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar regularly states that when you cup your palms togetherthis is the right amount of food intake one need to ought to hold a healthful stability.
Yoga principles of asteya & aparigraha
meals has a connection to all the Yamas of Yoga, like we stated Ahimsa, so too for the concepts of Asteya (non-stealing) and Aparigraha (non-greediness). by using ingesting junk food, non-vegetarian meals or hoarding food, it may be viewed as “stealing” one’s own health from the body. in addition while one is not grasping, i.e. eating the proper quantity, sort of meals at an excellent tempo, you’ll be able to have interaction in the international with a lightness of thoughts and frame, being higher able to assume,pass and act with more readability and awareness. So, it appears the Yoga of eating spans past justconsuming whilst you are hungry for sustenance, however hinges upon the codes of ethics that govern ahealthy, balanced mind, frame and spirit. For me, it’s miles definitely an act of love, and in love, wecannot assist but nourish the Self. Khichdi each person?
(currently primarily based in Canada, Babeeta Chhabra teaches The art of residing‘s art of dwelling Yoga and & Sri SriNatya programs. unnecessary to say, she’s a lover of meals!)
