3 July 2026
Friday
True penance is to shun evil thoughts, actions, and habits, cultivate harmony of thoughts, words and deeds, and have purity of mind. For this, one has to improve one’s food habits. The unnatural and artificial food that we eat today causes unsteadiness in meditation and affects our spiritual practice. So, the purity of food is very necessary for a spiritual seeker. If you wish to prepare idli and sambar, you should have fresh vegetables, clean lentils, tamarind, and spices. The vessel for the preparation of food should also be clean. If the vessel for the preparation of food is not tinned, the food may become poisonous. The person who prepares the food should not only be an expert in the art of cooking, but they should have positive thoughts. The human body is like the temple of God, which encases the divine Atma. The body can stay in one position for a long time but if one wants to run, one has to exert quite a lot. On the other hand, the mind moves very fast; one needs a lot of effort to make it steady and quiet. The spiritual seeker needs to develop equipoise between the body and the mind. Therefore, it is necessary to make the mind stable and strengthen the body through physical activity.
From Swami’s discourse of 16 April 1996
True penance is to shun evil thoughts, actions, and habits, cultivate harmony of thoughts, words and deeds, and have purity of mind. For this, one has to improve one’s food habits. The unnatural and artificial food that we eat today causes unsteadiness in meditation and affects our spiritual practice. So, the purity of food is very necessary for a spiritual seeker. If you wish to prepare idli and sambar, you should have fresh vegetables, clean lentils, tamarind, and spices. The vessel for the preparation of food should also be clean. If the vessel for the preparation of food is not tinned, the food may become poisonous. The person who prepares the food should not only be an expert in the art of cooking, but they should have positive thoughts. The human body is like the temple of God, which encases the divine Atma. The body can stay in one position for a long time but if one wants to run, one has to exert quite a lot. On the other hand, the mind moves very fast; one needs a lot of effort to make it steady and quiet. The spiritual seeker needs to develop equipoise between the body and the mind. Therefore, it is necessary to make the mind stable and strengthen the body through physical activity.