Eating for Enlightenment

I am working on it...

both on the article and on enlightenment... lol!

Raising Your Vibration

Many dream of attaining enlightenment yet few succeed. In essence attaining enlightenment is quite straight forward: all you need to do is to raise your vibration sufficiently and enlightenment will ensue as surely as day follows night! However, raising your vibration to a level which enables you to attain enlightenment is no mean feat. Contrary to popular belief a bit of meditation or a few Yoga stretches alone aren't going to do the trick.

Every force has a counteracting force. If you jump in the air gravity will soon bring you back to earth. The counteracting force in the case of enlightenment is anything of low vibration that pulls you down spiritually. Therefore, while Yoga and meditation do indeed raise your vibration, your efforts are doomed to fail unless they are intense, persistent and prolonged. In addition you must also get rid of any counter productive low vibration forces in your life to successfully raise your vibration and attain enlightenment or illumination.

So now we know that raising your vibration is the key to enlightenment. Question is, how to go about it. To successfully and permanently raise your vibration all aspects of your life and all your activities must be infused with spirituality. As salt permeates the sea so your spirituality must permeate your whole being and your whole life. You must only take in high vibration energies physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Everything you do, say, think, the clothes you wear, the colours and things you surround yourself with, the people you regularly interact with and even the food you eat has to be of the highest vibration.

A Battle of Energy

Achieving enlightenment is in essence a battle of energy. When the uplifting forces are greater than the down-pulling ones you will make spiritual progress and ultimately be successful in reaching your goal: the glorious, indescribably blissful state of oneness, of super-consciousness that men call enlightenment or liberation. Isn't such a glorious, lofty goal worth a little sacrifice? I truly believe it is worth any reasonable sacrifice (meaning giving up the lower for the higher). After all, this is what you came here for, in this incarnation. It isn't easy to get a human birth and now that you have it, do not waste it away in base materialism and trivial pursuits when an eternity of bliss beckons! The goal and apex of human existence is the attaining of enlightenment. Your purpose here is to become greater, to go beyond the human state -- which is but a stepping stone to higher realms -- and become a siddha, a perfected being.

The Science of Yoga

The ancient Yogis who strove for enlightenment had perfected a system to transform themselves, a system which is known as the Science of Yoga. The Yoga Vidya was originally given to mankind by Lord Shiva who is himself the greatest Yogi, and to Him alone belongs all credit. Yoga is a mystical science, yet it is very practical, because it is based on an understanding of natural law, natural energy. Everything is energy, everything is consciousness. Yoga harnesses this knowledge to transform the human mind and make it one with the cosmic mind, or God-consciousness. At this stage all knowledge is revealed to the spiritual seeker and by continuous practice he eventually becomes a siddha, a perfected being.

Unfortunately in the West many people still believe Yoga to be a mere exercise system, a relaxing way to cope with the stress of modern living, when it is in fact an ancient spiritual science to transform a human being into a super-human, a being of light! With beliefs like this we are giving up the higher spiritual purpose for the lower material. Others believe Yoga to be a "religion". But Yoga, the mystical path of the ancient Vedas, is not dogma but spiritual science, its validity confirmed by the direct experiences of many thousands of Yogis who have walked this path since the beginning of time and attained enlightenment through application of its principles. Though certain practices of the ancient Yogis may seem bizarre to the unenlightened Western mind they all have their purpose, which in essence is to bring about an energetic change, or to raise vibration for the ultimate goal of enlightenment.

Food and the Mind

As to raising your vibration, food is probably the most important external factor -- though it does not replace spiritual practices nor the cultivation of ethics and a positive mental state. The ancient Yogis who were versed in Yoga Vidya, the Science of Yoga knew about the vital importance of diet in their quest for enlightenment. They perfectly understood the two-way relationship between food and mind and used this knowledge to their advantage and for spiritual evolution. There are many references to diet for spiritual progress and purification of mind in the Vedic scriptures. Sage Uddalaka, for example instructs his son Svetaketu as follows:

"Food when consumed becomes threefold, the gross particles become excreta, the middling ones flesh and the fine ones the mind."

In this modern age many people are very well aware that the food they eat is directly related to the state of their body and their health. This is scientifically proven and hence many people adhere to a healthy diet in order to keep their bodies healthy. But the Science of Yoga goes a step further by claiming a healthy mind and high spiritual state also depend -- at least in part -- on the consumption of the right food. Have you ever experienced how dull and lazy the mind gets after overeating? Or the scattered, nervous state of mind when skipping meals and experiencing low blood sugar? Or the dull depressed state the day after excessive alcohol consumption? These are all practical examples to show you very clearly that your dietary intake directly influences your mental state. But the Yogis again went a step further. In their flawless understanding of reality they saw three modes of nature operating in all things and all beings. These are called the three Gunas, and understanding them will enable you to transform your life and yourself.