A question arose in my mind and I wanted to revive this topic.
in some other topic, Arjun wrote:Someone said: I am selling vegetables. Onions also cause harm (in the path of knowledge). So, I sell onions as well, Baba?
Baba (Virendra Dev Dixit) said: Do you consume onion (pyaaz) yourselves? You don't eat garlic (lehsun) and radish (mooli) yourself, do you? Then it is all right ... You sell onions. Those who want to buy, buy. Go on explaining knowledge to them.
Moolis ... radish ... I never knew that was against Shrimat/the Maryadas.
Is there a definitive list?
I am sure we all know the basics everyone is told, e.g.
in theory BK eat lacto-vegetarian food,
cooked by self or other BKs only and "offered"
no onions and garlic, including spring onions
no tobacco, drugs and alcohol
But I notice many variations.
• No moolis ... is that ALL radishes? Why?
• I remember from Vaishnavite Bhakti (some) Indians did not eat mushrooms but Western BKs did. I understood the mushroom thing to be that mushrooms grew in animal droppings, grew at night, therefore "dark" energy (and could add from a Macrobiotic point of view, that they were very Yin to an already very Yin diet).
• I saw some Western BKs eat leeks and others not. Leeks are of the onion family.
• More and more, even in Abu, "machine made" non-BK food is being introduced and said to be acceptable.
• Most to all Western BKs would give their food long (or was that longing) dhritsi before eating it to "purify it", some, would eat non-BK cooked food, e.g. worldly family or work produced and do similarly.
Is there a single definitive instruction? I offer some observations to date;
Of course, a healthy body was never much of a concern, despite it appearing in the Murlis. Fat is par for the course. Sweets and diary can be over eaten. The Indian BK's curry was too hot despite the "No curry, no worry" ditty many of the loved. In the 80s there were lot of tensions, undercurrent and Indian prejudices to resolve before Westerners could get half-way healthy food. (The Food Bahkti Wars, I call it).
It seemed crazy and hurtful ... I ask now whether it was 'designed to be hurtful and damaging' to one's lokik relationships to cut off their food supply. In retrospect, it looks crazy that one could not eat the food from one's loving and celibate grandmother or parents BUT one was encouraged to eat the food off a demented, arrogant senior or center-in-charge who was about to leave Gyan anyway ...
It was encouraged to eat food from entirely uneducated or unintelligent BKWSU centric individuals (the BK servant caste) whilst to avoid it from seriously intelligent, compassionate or holy non-BKs ... because they were still more impure.
The Royal Family (the SS) appear to have their own private cooks/food thing going on and, I have seen with my own eyes, wont eat food of "lower" BKs.
Women had all sorts of extra rules regarding menstruation.
Centers had all sort of extra rules regarding cleanliness, toileting and clothes changing and "purity" of individuals allowed into the kitchen.
The BKWSU uses vegetarian food cooking classes as one way of pulling folk into their circle of influence in its usually deceptive manner and, in some cases, laces it with stuff that is frankly racist and bananas, e.g. Mexicans and North Indians being more violent because they eat onions and garlic.
There are all sorts of issues or yukti about when exactly to tell your new BK student what they have to stop eating in order to be accepted. It should be noted that a minority of Western BKs are actually vegetarian before Gyan. Is it the same for Indians now, or do the BKs mostly attract Bhakti types that are already vegetarian?
It was common or OK to overeat to compensate for other aspects of one's going wrong, like sexual impulses, depression, low self-esteem, unhappiness at the center etc.
Now, a lot of this obviously comes from the Hindu influences, e.g. the pretty, expensive cloths, dishes and rituals of offering. Some of it is BKWSU's own Bhakti.
The original BKs were NOT high caste nor Brahmins and so it could be seen as aping or aspiring up to higher caste Hindi lifestyles. Some of them, and many Indian BKs, do come from a background where they would have cooks ... are those cooks unemployed or do they employ lower caste BKs to cook for them? (Note some "landlord type" male BK center owners).
OK, in additional to the simple mooli/radish question, what is the bottomline on onions and garlic? I heard that
a) it is not "Royal" to smell and they make your skin and breath smell (this is true)
b) some chemicals in them were meant to interfere with brain functions and this was why meditators did not eat them (which sounds like desperate Western BKs scrabbling around to find some pseudo-scientific reason to impress themselves and non-BKs.
What is the bottomline to BK food? Does the BKWSU produce a "bottomline" guidance or is it all hidden and open to interpretation?
Oh, and how can the BKs offer food to God if they don't know who or where God is ... why are they offering food to Avyakt Brahma/pictures of Brahma?
16 Aug 2007
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