3. THE REAL PROBLEM OF FOOD—ATTACHMENT AND GREED

    It is the attachment to food, the greed and eagerness for it, making it an unduly important thing in the life, that is contrary to the spirit of Yoga. To be aware that something is pleasant to the palate is not wrong; only one must have no desire nor hankering for it, no exultation in getting it, no displeasure or regret at not getting it. One must be calm and equal, not getting upset or dissatisfied when the food is not tasty or not in abundance—eating the fixed amount that is necessary, not less or more. There should be neither eagerness nor repugnance.

    To be always thinking about food and troubling the mind is quite the wrong way of getting rid of the food-desire, Put the food element in the right place in the life, in a small corner, and don't concentrate on it but on other things.

***

    It is no part of this Yoga to suppress taste, rasa, altogether. What is to be got rid of is vital desire and attachment, the greed of food, being overjoyed at, getting the food you like, sorry and discontented when you do not have it, giving an undue importance to it. Equality1 is here the test as in so many other matters.

***

    ¹ Sri Aurobindo says : "Equality means a quiet and unmoved mind and vital, it means not to be touched or disturbed by things that happen or things said or done to you...to have an equal view of men and their nature and acts and the forces that move them; it helps one to see the Truth about them..."

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    Neither neglect this turn of the nature (food-desire) nor make too much of it; it has to be dealt with, purified and mastered but without giving it too much importance. There are two ways of conquering it—one of detachment, learning to regard food as only a physical necessity and the vital satisfaction of the stomach and the palate as a thing of no importance. the other is to be able to take without insistence or seeking any food given and to find in it (whether pronounced good or bad by others) the equal rasa, not of the food for its own sake, but of the universal Ananda.

***

    It is a mistake to neglect the body and let it waste away; the body is the means of the sadhana and should be maintained in good order. There should be no attachment to it, but no contempt or neglect either of the material part of our nature.

    In this yoga the aim is not only the union with the higher consciousness but the transformation (by its power) of the lower including the physical nature.

    It is not necessary to have desire. or greed of food in order to eat. The yogi eats not out of desire, but to maintain the body.

    Too much eating makes the body material and heavy, eating too little makes it weak and nervous—one has to find the true harmony and balance between the body's need and the food taken.