“The observance of celibacy becomes comparatively easy if one acquires mastery over the palate.”—Gandhi
Chapter Eleven: The Need For A Proper Diet
Almost everyone could live healthily for a century if he just followed a life of plain living and high thinking. For many reasons, however, people live unhealthy lives and die prematurely.
People poison their digestive tract with meat, alcohol, and various chemicals used in junk-food coloring and preservation.
They also poison their bodies with licit and illicit drugs, pain relievers, sleeping pills, etc. Really, it’s wonder that the average lifespan is as long as it is.
It is essential to eat a balanced and sufficient diet. If the diet is not balanced, there will be trouble. If we don’t eat enough, we grow weak and unable to maintain celibacy or even chant the mantra-prayer properly.
If we eat more than the body needs, there will be sexual agitation, obesity, and lethargy.
“There is no possibility of one’s becoming a yogi if one eats too much, or eats too little, sleeps too much, or does not sleep enough.“-Bhagavad Gita.
Especially in the East, almost all religious orders insist on celibacy and vegetarianism as requisites to spiritual advancement. There is great wisdom in this. Celibacy not only increases the span of life but its quality as well.
Furthermore, a vegetarian diet helps maintain celibacy. Because we are what we eat, we should be very particular about what we put into our bodies.
It is well known that nutrition dramatically influences the mind and senses, and the reproductive system in particular.
Rich nutrition increases reproductive activity,and minimal nutrition diminishes it. This is no new discovery.
Throughout history, people have avoided meat and reftiled their diet in order to calm the senses. In all religious calendars there are fast days.
Fasting is practiced among Christians, Jews: Muslims. Hindus and Buddhists. In fact, fasting, vegetarianism and celibacy were common among the Orphics of Greece, the Pythagoreans, Gnostics, Essenes; neo-Platonists, and Manichaens. Pythagoras noted a direct link between the semen and the brain. He anticipated modern scientific views by teaching that unnecessary loss of semen deprives the brain of vital nutrients.
The pineal and pituitary glands are the higher brain centers identified with spirituality. They are richer than any other part of the body in lecithin. It is very difficult for the body to make the vital lecithin lost in seminal discharge.
The conservation of semen through celibacy automatically leads to better brain nutrition and thus to improve intellectual and spiritual perception Vegetarianism diminishes the sex drive and thereby acts to conserve lecithin for better brain nutrition.
NOTE: This was reproduced without the permission of the author His Divine Grace Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada and that of the publisher, Central Books Limited.
but we reproduced strictly to share knowledge and information contained therein, to assist in the development of the body, mind and soul of all who would read through this our humble effort.—
© Bishop of The Sinners Assembly.
Little wonder Gluttons are usually sexual rascals.