Cooking with Love

Consciousness In The Kitchen – Cooking With Love

In today’s information age, we are continuously bombarded with details about the physical aspects of what we eat and the effects that different ingredients may or may not have on us, and naturally this is important. But in this heap of information, we tend to overlook one crucial factor: the consciousness (state of mind) of the person cooking and the effect that this will have upon the food, and thus also on those who eat it. A cook prepares food in a physical place, but also in a spiritual or inner space. And just as the physical surroundings are best kept clean and in order, so should be the state of mind of those in the kitchen. A simple and familiar example of this concept at work can be seen in the way that home cooking, especially that of one’s mother, holds a special place in our hearts. The love and care with which it is prepared sometimes gives us more joy than perhaps food eaten in a restaurant setting where food may be prepared with greater technical skills but where stress, arrogance and greed (in the restaurant environment) may flavour the dish of the day.


When the subtle, spiritual aspect of cooking is taken into consideration, the role of the cook extends from simply creating tasty, nourishing meals with fresh ingredients, to including a spiritual connection with those who will be eating that food. The aim will be to touch and fill the heart as well as the palate and stomach. The love of the cook, and his or her motivation to offer sustenance, will nourish as much as the chemical components of each dish. Food cooked by a person who is angry, depressed or full of arrogance or hatred will have a different effect from food cooked with feelings of Iove, peace and the pure desire to serve. In other words, we are what we eat but also the thoughts and attitudes that go into what we are eating. Even in today’s demanding society, when there sometimes seems to be hardly enough time to cook, let alone do so peacefully and caringly, it is therefore definitely beneficial to develop a positive attitude towards cooking. Before undertaking any food preparation, remind yourself that the project at hand can and should be an enjoyable, creative activity, rather than an unpleasant, time-consuming activity. A good practice, then, is to meditate before cooking and then to let preparing the meal itself be a creative, meditative experience which yields a balanced, health-promoting diet for the body as a temple for the soul. Food always tastes better when it has been flavoured with love and happiness.

~ Jeevan Sanjeevani
http://jeevansanjeevani.com/

Food For Thought

My 2nd favourite topic is "Food". After money comes the food.
(I must admit that sometime back, I used to eat the same things I am about to criticize here )
"AA Khushee se Khud Khushee kar le"
I came to mumbai when I was in 4th standard.
I had a deadly migraine in few years after I came to mumbai.
This lasted for a number of years. It was so bad that I used to keep anacin in my pocket.
Years passed by and it never went away. I tried ayurvedic medicine, it stopped for sometime. As soon as I stopped medicines, it came back again. I tried homeopathy, it never worked.
I stopped taking any pain killers and decided to suffer the migraine. Everytime, I would vomit the food and couple of hours later I was fine.
I tried to diagonize myself and found the root cause - food and food habits.
My food habits made me suffer from this deadly headache for more then 15 years (and ofcourse my tongue enjoyed only for the time I ate food, right). I feel ridiculous when I think about it.
I changed my food and food habits. Stopped eating spicy food, stopped eating fermented food at night, dinner before 7:30pm max (as early as 6:30 on weekends). And guess what? I have not had this migraine for almost over 1 year now.
No doctor could determine this simple root cause? So doctors cannot treat you, only you can treat yourself ;)
Our World of Perceptions -
I hate to think of mistakes I have made when it comes to food. I had these "perceptions" -
-My stomach can digest anything
-Spicy food is the only tasty food.
- Eating bad food makes your stomach stronger because now it can digest anything, wow!
Ofcourse all of the above are plain wrong.
Think about it, your tongue enjoys but your stomach, it suffers. Its a no brainer.

Mass Hypnosis
Please refer the word Meme, it accurately describes the phenomemenon - Meme
Its like a mass hypnosis whereby nobody is bothered of what he is eating?
Food is the only source of energy you need to survive and you don't even think twice before you eat anything? Its absurd.
Good food is difficult but bad food is easy to get -
Try this - Go on a walk for few 100 meters and look around, you will easily find vada-pav, pizzas, chips, burgers round
the corner. But show me one shop in that few hundred meters selling chaas, lassi, fresh fruit salad, coconut water.
Why? Because those have become more sellable. we all are responsible for it.
Take cold drinks and icecreams for example, I am sure everyone enjoys icecream. Now think about this, you are sleeping and someone puts cold water on you, how will you react? You are doing the exact same thing to your internal body without realizing the same when you drink cold drink or eat ice cream.
This is one part of the story. second part is which ice-cream you are eating? More then 90% of the icecreams are adulterated.
Next comes the packed food and foreign drinks. Chips and colas are eaten like guru prasad, they are good for nothing.
India is nation where milk, chaas and lassis used to flow, what have we made of it? I see no one prefering a coconut water to colas, chaas to colas so on and so forth.

Impressions on our children -
We have defined the word "majja" as chips, pizzas, chocolate, ice-cream, pre-packed juices. Why didn't we define the word "majja" as chaas, Lassi, Fruits, Fruit juice, Halwasan, Mohan thal? We have no right to complain as parents when child is asking for chocolate as an appreciation and not fruit juice. And even if we as parent try to do this, social environment around you will invariable not let it happen (again search for word "meme", its a phenomenon). Everyone who comes home to meet us brings chocolates, it becomes a default gift. Why? Do we as adults do not know that chocolates are bad? why not bring some good quality fruits for a change?
Everytime I enter a kirana shop, I see a parent buying thier child chips or chocolates. For god's sake, if your kids grow up on colas and chips, what will they become?
we will easily create another a smaller US in India in time to come. (It hurts).
Another thing which I face is "sometimes it is ok to eat these things". Think about it, young minds are like sponge, if you allow them sometimes, you will not know when it becomes a part of them. And as I said before junk food is easy to get and hence will easily attract them.
Chocolates, Ice-Creams and cold drinks are your children's worst enemies, keep them away from these things. You are not depriving them of any good thing.

Last but not the least - Adulteration
Believe it or not - Everything you buy from the market from milk to vegetables to fruits is adulterated. So be careful when you buy things from the market. Try to get things from authentic source (unbranded preferred).

I would end with a famous gujarati quote -
"Ann banave Mann" (It means your qualities come from your food).