The yogic diet
(by Swami Sivananda)


A Sadhaka should observe perfect discipline. He must be civil, polite, courteous, gentle, noble and gracious in his behaviour. He must have perseverance, adamantine will, asinine patience and leech-like tenacity in Sadhana. He must be perfectly self-controlled, pure and devoted to the Guru.
A glutton or one who is a slave of his senses with several bad habits, is unfit for the spiritual path.
 “Without observing moderation of diet, if one takes to the Yogic practices, he cannot obtain any benefit but gets various diseases” (Gheranda. Samhita. V-16).

Food plays a prominent place in Yoga-Sadhana. An aspirant should be very careful in the selection of articles of Sattvic nature especially in the beginning of his Sadhana period. Later on when Siddhi is attained, drastic dietetic restrictions can be removed.
Purity of food leads to purity of mind. Sattvic food helps meditation. The discipline of food is very very necessary for Yogic Sadhana. If the tongue is controlled, all the other Indriyas are controlled.
By the purity of food follows the purification of the inner nature, by the purification of the nature, memory becomes firm and on strengthening the memory, follows the loosening of all ties and the wise get Moksha thereby.”

Sattvic articles

I will give you a list of Sattvic articles for a Sadhaka:
Milk, red rice, barley, wheat, Havishannam, Charu, cream, cheese, butter, green dal (Moong dal), Badam (almonds), Misri (sugar-candy), Kismis (raisins), Kichidi, Pancha Shakha vegetables (Seendil, Chakravarty, Ponnan-gani, Chirukeerai and Vellaicharnai), Lowki vegetable, plantain-stem, Parwal, Bhindi (lady’s finger), pomegranates, sweet oranges, grapes, apples, bananas, mangoes, dates, honey, dried ginger, black pepper, etc., are the Sattvic articles of diet prescribed for the Yoga Abhyasis.
Charu: Boil half a seer of milk along with some boiled rice, ghee and sugar. This is an excellent food for Yogins. This is for the day-time. For the night, half a seer of milk will do.
Milk should not be too much boiled. It should be removed from the fire as soon as the boiling point is reached. Too much boiling destroys the nutritious principles and vitamins and renders it quite useless. This is an ideal food for Sadhakas. Milk is a perfect food by itself.
A fruit diet exercises a benign influence on the constitution. This is a natural form of diet. Fruits are very great energy-producers. Fruits and milk diet help concentration and easy mental focussing. Barley, wheat, milk and ghee promote longevity and increase power and strength. Fruit-juice and the water wherein sugar-candy is dissolved, are very good beverages. Butter mixed with sugar-candy, and almonds soaked in water can be taken. These will cool the system.

Forbidden class

Sour, hot, pungent and bitter preparations, salt, mustard, asafoetida, chillies, tamarind, sour curd, chutnee, meat, eggs, fish, garlic, onions, alcoholic liquors, acidic things, stale food, overripe or unripe fruits, and other articles that disagree with your system should be avoided entirely.
Rajasic food distracts the mind. It excites passion. Give up salt. It excites passion and emotion. Giving up of salt helps in controlling the tongue and thereby the mind and in developing will-power also. Snake-bite and scorpion-stings will have no influence on a man who has given up salt. Onions and garlic are worse than meat.
Live a natural life. Take simple food that is agreeable. You should have your own menu to suit your constitution. You are yourself the best judge to select a Sattvic diet.                                    

 The proficient in Yoga should abandon articles of food detrimental to the practice of Yoga. During intense Sadhana, milk (and ghee also) is ordained.
I have given above several articles of Sattvic nature. That does not mean that you should take all. You will have to select a few things that are easily available and suitable to you. Milk is the best food for Yogins. But even a small quantity of milk is harmful for some and may not agree with all constitutions. If one form of diet is not suitable or if you feel constipated, change the diet and try some other Sattvic articles. This is Yukti.
In the matter of food and drinks you should be a master. You should not have the least craving or sense-hankering for any particular food. You must not become a slave to any particular object.

Mitahara

Heavy food leads to Tamasic state and induces sleep only. There is a general misapprehension that a large quantity of food is necessary for health and strength. Much depends upon the power of assimilation and absorption. Generally, in the vast majority of cases, most of the food passes away undigested along with faeces. Take half stomachful of wholesome food. Fill a quarter with pure water. Leave the rest free. This is Mitahara. Mitahara plays a vital part in keeping up perfect health. Almost all diseases are due to irregularity of meals, overeating and unwholesome food. Eating all things at all times like a monkey is highly dangerous. Such a man can become a Rogi (sick man) easily; but he can never become a Yogi. Hear the emphatic declaration of Lord Krishna: “Success in Yoga is not for him who eats too much or too little; nor for him who sleeps too much or too little (Gita VI-16). Again in the Sloka 18 of the same chapter, He says: “To him who is temperate in eating and in sleep and wakefulness, Yoga becomes a destroyer of misery.”
A glutton cannot at the very outset have diet regulations and observe Mitahara. He must gradually practice this. First let him take less quantity twice as usual. Then instead of the usual heavy night meals, let him take fruits and milk alone for some days. In due course of time he can completely avoid the night meals and try to take fruits and milk in the daytime. Those who do intense Sadhana must take milk alone. It is a perfect food by itself. If necessary they can take some easily digestible fruits. A glutton, if he all on a sudden takes to fruit or milk diet, will desire at every moment to eat something or other. That is bad. Once again I reiterate, gradual practice is necessary.
Do not fast much. It will produce weakness in you. Occasional fasting once a month or when passion troubles you much, will suffice. During fasting you should not even think of the various articles of food. Constant thinking of the food when you fast cannot bring you the desired result. During fasting, avoid company. Live alone. Utilise your time in Yogic Sadhana. After a fast do not take any heavy food. Milk or some fruit-juice is beneficial.
Do not make much fuss about your diet. You need not advertise to everyone if you are able to pull on with a particular form of diet. The observance of such Niyamas is for your advancement in the spiritual path and you will not be spiritually benefited by giving publicity to your Sadhana. There are many nowadays who make it a profession to earn money and their livelihood by performing some Asana, Pranayama or by having some diet regulation such as eating only raw articles or leaves or roots. They cannot have any spiritual growth. The goal of life is Self-realisation. Sadhakas should keep the goal always in view and do intense Sadhana with the prescribed methods.


Yogic diet according to various yoga Scriptures:

Hatha Yoga Pradipika

"Moderate diet" is defined to mean agreeable and sweet food, leaving one-fourth of the
stomach free, eaten [as an offering] to please Shiva.

Foods injurious to a Yogî
The following things are said to be not salutary [for Yogins]: things that are bitter, sour,
pungent, salty, heating, green vegetables [other than those ordained], sour gruel, [sesame or
mustard] oil, sesamum, mustard, alcohol, fish, flesh including that of the goat, curds,
buttermilk, horse-gram, the fruit of the jujube, oil cakes, asafoetida and garlic.
Diets of the following nature should be avoided as unhealthy: food that [having been
once cooked has grown cold and] is heated again; which is dry [i.e. devoid of fat] or has an
excess of salt or sourness; that is bad, or has too much of vegetables [mixed with it].

Foods benefitial to a Yogî
The following things are suitable to be taken by the Yogin: wheat, rice, barley, the grain
called Sastika and purified food, milk, ghee, brown sugar, butter, sugar-candy, honey, dry
ginger, the vegetable called pataloka, and the five pot-herbs [called in Sanskrit Jivanti,
Vastumulya, Aksi, Meghanada and Punarnava] green gram and pure water.
The Yogin should take nourishing and sweet food mixed with ghee and milk, etc.; it
should nourish the Dhatu’s, and be pleasing and suitable.

In the early stages of practice, food mixed with milk and ghee is prescribed [as the best
diet]. But when practice has advanced, such restrictions need not be observed.

Bhagvad Gita
Foods which increase life, purity, strength, health, joy and cheerfulness, which are oleaginous and savoury, substantial and agreeable, are dear to the Sattvic people.
The foods that are bitter, sour, saline, excessively hot, dry, pungent and burning, are liked by the Rajasic and are productive of pain, grief and disease.
That which is stale, tasteless, putrid, rotten and impure refuse, is the food liked by the Tamasic.

Yoga Tattva Upanishad
The proficient in Yoga should abandon the food detrimental to the practice of Yoga. He should give up salt, mustard; things sour, hot, pungent, or bitter vegetables; asafoetida, etc., worship of fire, women, walking, bathing at sunrise, emaciation of the body by fasts, etc. During the early stages of practice, food of milk and ghee is ordained; also food consisting of wheat, green pulse and red rice are said to favor the progress. Then he will be able to retain his breath as long as he likes.
A practitioner should collect a large quantity of provisions, (for) if he takes a small quantity of food, the fire (within) will consume his body in a moment.

Yoga Kundalini Upanishad
Listen, O Gautama. One should take a sweet and nutritious food, leaving a fourth (of his stomach) unfilled, in order to please Shiva (the patron of Yogins). This is called moderate food.

Vasistha Samhita
An ascetic is suggested to take eight mouthfuls, forest dwelling persons to take sixteen mouthfuls, thirty two mouthfuls for a householders and needful for a Brahmacari or the students, the rest are supposed to take a little less than their capacity. This is called Mitahara (moderate diet).

Gheranda Samhitha
One who practices yoga should eat food made from rice, barley or wheat flour and pulses like mudga (green beans), māṣa (black gram), caṇaka (chick peas), etc. which are clean and without husks.

A yogi can eat pointed gourd (trichosanthes dioica), jackfruit, root vegetables, berries, bitter gourd, cucumber, figs, plantain, plantain stem and roots, eggplants, radish and medicinal roots and fruits. Five green vegetables bālaśāka, kālaśāka, poṭalapatra, vāstūka and himalocika are recommended for a yogi. –
Eating pure, sweet and cool foods (cooked with ghee or butter); drinking good juices with pleasure and keeping half of the stomach empty is called moderation in diet by the wise.
Half of the stomach should be filled with food; the third quarter (of it) with water and turīyāmśa (the last part or fourth quarter) should be reserved for vāyucāraṇa (the movement of air).

Forbidden Foods:
While doing yogic practice for the first time, one should give up bitter, sour, salty, astringent and roasted food items, curd, buttermilk, heavy vegetables, wine, palm nuts and over-ripe jack fruits.
One should avoid horse gram, lentils, pāṇḍu (a kind of fruit), pumpkin, vegetable stems, gourds, kaṇṭabilba (feronia elephantum) and palāśaka (butea frondosa).
Also he should avoid fruit like berries, limes, garlic and onions, asafoetida, śālmalī and kemuka. -25. A yogi can eat pointed gourd (trichosanthes dioica), jackfruit, root vegetables, berries, bitter gourd, cucumber, figs, plantain, plantain stem and roots, eggplants, radish and medicinal roots and fruits.
Five green vegetables bālaśāka, kālaśāka, poṭalapatra, vāstūka and himalocika are recommended for a yogi.

Siva Samhita
The great yogi should always observe the following rules: He should use 1) butter, 2) milk, 3) sweet foods, 4) betel without lime, 5) camphor; 6) pleasing words, 7) a beautiful cell with a small hole (window); he should: 8) hear discourses on spiritual truth, 9) perform his/ her household duties with vairāgya (without attachment); 10) chant the name of Viṣṇu, and 11) hear the supreme nāda (spontaneous inner sound); he should practice: 12) tolerance, 13) forgiveness, 14) austerity, 15) purity, 16) modesty, 17) devotion and 18) service to his guru. –

The yogi should always take his food when the air enters into the sun (when the breath flows through piṅgalā – the right nostril). When the air enters into the moon (when the breath flows through iḍā –the left nostril), it is the best time for the practitioner to go to bed.
The wise yogi should not practice (prāṇāyāma) right after eating or when he is hungry. During the practice, first he should take some milk and butter.
When he is established in his practice, then he need not observe these rules. The practitioner should eat small amounts of food several times a day; and he should practice kumbhaka (the retention of the breath) everyday at the specified times.

Charaka Samhita (mayor ayurveda text)
“Include these in your daily diet,” says Acharya Charaka, the great Ayurvedist who compiled the work. These are: (1)grain, (2) green gram, (3) salt, (4) the Amla fruit, (5) barley, (6) rain water, (7) milk, (8) butter and (9) honey.
(*salt should be used only moderately)

Swami Sivananda:
The comprehensive food-list includes various kinds of vegetables, grain, pulses, milk and honey. Their effects on the body are also mentioned in detail. Milk and its products are
given special attention. Milk preserves youth and protects the body from many a disease. Its vitalising qualities are highly praised. Milk of the goat, horse, camel, mule, donkey and
even the elephant is described.
Of fruits, Amla gets the top rank. It is said tp contain all tastes except salt. If taken properly, it will give everlasting youth. Besides recommending for the daily menu, it is included in many Ayurvedic medicinal preparations. The Nutrition Research Laboratories at Coonoor discovered that Amla is the world’s richest fruit in Vitamin C.


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  • Krishna Darshan is a direct disciple of Swami Vishnudevananda and has been a yoga and meditation teacher for over 35 years. He serves as the main Hatha Yoga instructor in many Sivananda Yoga Teachers Training Courses (TTC), advanced yoga teachers training courses (ATTC), Sadhana Intensive Courses and advanced sadhana retreats at various of the Sivananda Ashrams worldwide.
    He is the director of the Sadhana kutir - El Silencio, a retreat center in Uruguay. He is also a certified professional vedic astrologer and teacher.


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